The Story of a Small Town Girl: The First Year

Connor

I still remember how we met, how at first he was just a stranger. That cool breezed summer night is the night where it all began. Of course I didn't know that then, but I do now. And that was the summer of 2012..

"Hello?" Keely's voice came on the other line of the phone.

"Hey dude! You should come to the fair with me on Thursday!"

"Okay! I'm still coming over this week, right?"

"Yes! I'll see you in a bit!"

"Okay, bye!"

I was watching my t.v. show in the living room, when I heard the front door open.

"I'm up here!" I called from the couch, not making an effort to get up.

I heard the thumping of feet walking down the stairs, then a minute later the same thumping as someone hurried up the stairs.

"So, question for you." Keely said in that 'it's not really a question' tone as she plopped beside me on the couch.

"Let's hear it."

"So, member that Connor dude? Yeah, okay. So he asked to hangout at the fair. Do you want to hangout with us?" She already knew the answer, so I'm not sure why she bothers asking.

"Sure, man." I turned up the volume on the t.v. signaling that our conversation was over.

Thursday rolled around and before I knew it we were standing in the middle of the fair grounds.

"So when do I get to meet this Connor fella?"

"Well, he wants us to meet him at the front gate in five minutes." Not at all fazed by the fact that she had never hung out with him before.

So, that's what we did. While standing at the gate waiting for him, I kept looking for this Connor dude. It really didn't help that I had no idea what he looked like. Just as my imagination began to create an image of this guy, who my best friend seemed to think was so great, Keely nudged me with her elbow.

"That's him." she said, still not at all showing any sign of being nervous, even as he started walking toward us.

He was attractive, sure, but he wasn't anywhere near the image my imagination had partially created of him. He wasn't obsessively attractive, like those boys girls stare and gossip about. He was average.

As he walked toward us, the cool August breeze blew through his dark brown hair that originally fell over his face, but wasn't so long that it covered his eyes. He wasn't like those guys who didn't take care of their hair. His moved with him, you could tell he took extra good care of his. It was brushed to the side, and had this natural flip to it. 

His eyes weren't anything extraordinary. I saw the disappearing setting sun's rays bounce of his deep, chocolatey eyes, and not a difference was made. They didn't sparkle. They didn't shine. They didn't stand out.

He was extremely tall. Well, he was tall for his age but he wasn't like majorly tall for an average teenage boy. He was just extremely tall compared to my 4'9.

He wasn't a tall skin and bones guy either. By no means was he fat, or overweight. He just had meat and muscle to him. He was wearing basketball shorts and a hoodie. There isn't anything spectacular about him, but there was something about him that made me fight back a smile. I then quickly remembered that this was the guy my best friend was into, and believe it or not, boys were just not a topic I cared to talk about.

As he finally approached us, he flipped his hair, without making it over dramatic, and his hair just magically fell into its original position. None of us realized we were just standing in silence until Keely broke the silence.

"Heeeeeey." Keely dragged the simple word on.

Connor took a step closer to her and wrapped his arms around her as he squeezed. Keely is only a couple inches taller than I was, she was right on the verge to being five foot. Connor had to be about 5'4 or 5'5 as I compared their height while they were embraced in a hug. I do have to say it was really cute. Just the sight of any tall guy hugging a short girl is adorable. The odd thing was, it appeared to be more of a friendly hug than in anyway romantic, which was strange because I read some of their messages. Of course, not like the sneaky, violating privacy way, but the "Oh my gosh, this is adorable. Read it." kind of way. By their messages, they definitely had something.

After a few moments of that friendly embrace, he released her from his hold. I caught him glance at me out of the corner of his eye, as I tried to hide that I caught him look at me.

I gave the 'make this less awkward' look to Keely, and she instantly understood what I meant.

"So Connor, this is Sabrina, Sa..."

I shot her the dirt look I gave everyone who used my full name, "Brina or Bri," then I shot the same look at Connor, "don't EVER use my full name." I warned as he daringly met my eyes.

"Sorry Brina. Anyway this is Connor." Keely rushed into her sentence to avoid any tension.

Now keep in mind; I have never met Connor in my life, but as I studied him closer, I may have seen him at one of those dances at the community place thing. But I've never spoken to him or paid attention to him. Like I said, I wasn't into relationships, and boys.

So to my surprise, he took a step closer and pulled me into that same friendly embrace. As I loosened my grip almost instantly and just about let go, he squeezed tighter. Like I mentioned before, he wasn't skin and bones, and the way he squeezed tighter when I went to let go, was just comforting. It was all the more weird, that it wasn't at all awkward.

The three of us all hung out until the fair began to shut down for the night. He hugged the both of us in that same friendly embrace. As he released me, he made another comment about how short I am in a teasing voice, just as he had done all night long.

That was the night my life changed. I didn't know it yet, but it certainly was...