Do You Believe in Soulmates

Where it began

This is a love story. there are lots of stories about love. Real or made up, so what's so special about mine? It's not. to someone who doesn't know me personally will not think it's special. However, to me, it's one of the most special things for me. 

Let's start at the beginning. it was my Sophmore year in high school, I had just moved from my hometown to a smaller one I had never heard of. for the first part of the year, nothing special happened. I made some friends, had cool teachers but nothing super memorable. it wasn't until I made the decision to move from the normal Chemistry class to a more advanced one. to this day I believe it was the one decision that changed my life and moved me into a complete path than if I hadn't switched. not because I improved my science skills, if we're being honest I ended up failing that class. It was because I had to switch my P.E. classes and that's when I met him.

The first day I go to my new class I meet up with a friend I had already made, through her, I met some friends but most importantly him. Devin. now Devin and I didn't fall in love at first sight or anything. Actually, for the first couple of weeks, we didn't even talk. it wasn't until the rest of our group decided that they would actually run during class that we were forced to talk. He didn't talk much to me, being the introverted guy he was, I mostly just talked to him. Eventually, he answered back. after that, we talked all the time. 

One of the many things I learned about Devin at the time was that he didn't care too much about physical affection, like hugs and handshakes, so being the very affectionate and teasing person I was, I used it against him. Every time I ran into him I would throw an arm over his shoulder or hug him randomly, it didn't seem to bother him much. What did get him though was when you tried to hold his hand, whether it be a handshake or a high five, he hated it. So I started to try and hold his hand. Devin was stubborn. Every time I tried to reach for his hand he would pull away pretty quick. I was stubborn too, I wasn't gonna give up that easy. He was fast but I was smarter. I would grab his wrist and then go for the hand, he then would make a fist and would not budge. So I held his fist, as weird as that sounds I did until I figured out that could shimmy my hand in the side of his fist. so at this point whenever we walked the track together or were sitting down I would hold the side of his hand. it was like that for a while. at some point, he let his guard down and had relaxed his hand, so I seized my opportunity and interlocked our fingers. Now he wasn't gonna back down that easy, no way. so whenever I interlocked our fingers he would stretch his fingers and make a starfish with his hand essentially. 

After that, it was so routine to hold his hand that we held hands without even thinking. People in the class thought we were dating. But we were just friends I didn't see him as anything more. Right? throughout the rest of the year, it ended up just being me him and another friend but mostly just me and him. when we did our activities when we walked and even outside the class at this point. We became very close, he became one of my best friends. 

Our relationship shifted when I was approached and asked one day by a close friend 

"Do you like Devin?" I immediately wanted to say no, he was my friend. But I couldn't say that. It made me think 'Do I like Devin?' so I told her 

"I don't know" she gave me a knowing look and said right back

"Yes, you do" Did I? were me and Devin more than friends?

after that day I looked at Devin different, I looked at our dynamic different. It was April 16th, 2016 when I walked up to Devin and asked him 

"Do you wanna date?" 

His response was "I don't know" It wasn't till years later I found out that, that's his way of saying yes because of how introverted he was, but at the time I was confused. Was that a yes or a no? so I asked a couple more times in different ways. Every time was the same response, so I just sighed and said

"We're dating now" and he replied

"Ok" 

After that, we dated a year. Your probably wondering, 'If it only lasted a year why talk about it now?' The answer to that? It may only have lasted a year but our story was far from over.