Preface:
Heaven was entertaining. She was funny, flirty, and intelligent; three things I prefer a woman to be. We were never close friends before we dated but we knew a good amount about each other. Since we had around three classes together, we eventually became used to each other. By eighth grade we were good friends who flirted and joked around during class. Around March of eighth grade, Heaven was starting to grow on me and a part of me wanted to be closer to her. It took a lot to pick up the phone and ask her out to dinner, but it was definitely worth it. Our first date was the dictionary definition of a good date. Everything about it seemed to be going in the right direction: leaning, nudging, hand holding, hugging, and kissing. For a good three years, my love life with Heaven was going well. There was nothing to complain about and we never fought.
Heaven and I also had a good friend in common whom we loved to criticize and talk about behind his back. Terrence was an interesting fellow, he was a good friend to hang out with but definitely not a trustworthy person. He cheated regularly, spilled secrets, and judged people quickly. We would invite him to some of our dates, but what made part of our dates fun was talking about Terrence. We always knew he was a horrible person, but the perfect friend if you ever needed to do something bad. Perfect for criminal activity. Just perfect.
Heaven and I didn’t live in the same neighborhood though. We actually lived a good ten minutes away, but it wasn’t really an issue in our relationship because we always saw each other at school. Freshman year of high school, a new girl moved into the house next to mine. I remember my mom and my sister welcoming her family with some brownies, but I didn’t keep track with any other connection to her. We never really had a chance to meet each that first year, but it didn’t bother me because she was homeschooled. If she wasn’t interested in meeting me on her own will, I was perfectly okay with that because she wasn’t really a part of my life. And she really wasn’t for a long time. Yet, to this day, I think I would have really missed out on a lot of great experiences if we had never met.
