A Love Story: Piece by Piece Part 4

I would say that hitting high school and realizing how badly I wanted a boyfriend is when I started praying about boys. I know that sounds so silly to some people and some may not understand it, but I was coming from a place in which I had built a bullet proof wall around my heart in order to keep from being hurt, but at the same time, I longed to be liked. It wasn't even that I desired to have my first kiss or go on a date, I just wanted a nice boy to sit down in front of me, tell me how much he liked me, and ask me to be his girlfriend. But that was so difficult in my position, considering that I couldn't even look a boy in the eyes out of shyness and fear, meaning that no boy would even have a clue that I liked him, so why would any boy give me a chance?

Back to my story....

That was the first time I had ever laid eyes on Hunter Lamb. I remember stuttering in my own mind. "How....... how have I .............. never seen him before...... in here??????"
There he was in all his skater boy cuteness. Short dark hair, big brown eyes. Baggy plaid shirt over a skateboard company shirt and the biggest, torn skate shoes you've ever seen all glued back together. I think this was the first time I really felt butterflies.

The sad thing is that he doesn't even remember me in wellness. But... Who DID remember me from high school? ANYWAYS.

My friend went on to talk about how everybody called him a goody goody because he didn't do the party thing and had never had his first kiss.

"Really? THAT boy... right there..... hasn't had his first kiss?"

"Yeah, but all the girls talk about how they're going to be his first kiss. He has a twin brother, but they're nothing alike. Hayden's popular..... Hunter isn't really....."

I loved him already.

It was funny because before I ever knew about Hunter, I never heard about him. Then, suddenly, I did start to pick up on girls' conversations (who were popular, of course) in which they planned, almost dreamed, about 'stealing' his first kiss. I knew I had no chance. But I still went along with admiring him from a distance with my best friend. We would sit on the bleachers watching him play basketball in wellness. He would walk past us and so smoothly smile and say "Ladies......" causing us to turn red and then talk for days about how he acknowledged us.

I never did have a conversation with Hunter that year. Then the school year ended and the concept "out of sight, out of mind" kicked in.

The summer flew by and consisted of my BFF flying in from Lousiana, visiting my family in Alabama and late summer nights with my friend down the street.

15 years old, sophomore year was quite the transition. I decided I would participate in a school sport, but definitely not one in which students would actually come out and support. What better sport than cross country? Who comes out to watch the 5k's? I mean, I was just so shy. I also had a big falling out with my best friend from down the street. She started dating a guy who wasn't exactly the best influence. The more different we became morally, the more we were driven a part. She finally told me that we couldn't be friends anymore and blamed it on my cross country schedule. It absolutely broke my heart, but lead to being introduced to a girl in my world history class. She was crazy, silly, so not shy and everything I wasn't. We became inseparable.

I don't remember much about the first semester of sophomore year. There were boys that I thought were cute, but none worth dreaming over, ha ha. All I remember is walking into my new directed studies class second semester and having to catch my breath because, well, what do you know, there was Hunter Lamb.