I got to know him because I had been asking him for help in freshman biology class everyday in high school. Sometimes after we talked about bio, we would chat about other random stuff – once we talked on the phone through the entire night until he had to leave to catch the bus at 6:30 in the morning. Another time we had a long bio assignment due the next day and we agreed to take turns sleeping in hour intervals, work on the homework, and then collaborate at the end. However, when it reached the agreed upon time to give him his wake-up call, his dad answered the phone and yelled at me.  (I still am not that partial to his dad even now…)

I still remember the day that he asked me out. It was the end of the school day and we were all walking to our busses. He approached me and suddenly and awkwardly asked, “Will you be my girlfriend?” I wasn’t that surprised because it was obvious that we liked each other, but I had no idea how to react in this situation. I just responded, “yes” with a large, insuppressible smile on my face, and turned immediately without saying goodbye to run to my bus.

I thought that now that we were officially dating, everything would get so much better. But it didn’t. Everything just became really awkward. We look at each other and in my mind I’m thinking, “Are we supposed to be holding hands? How do I act like your girlfriend?”. We never held hands. Okay, maybe once. But I was even more touchy-feely with my other guy friends than I was with my boyfriend.  Then I didn’t know what to say to him and started avoiding him. He would follow me around when I tried to get away. In the end, I couldn’t stand it anymore and turned around and told him, “I don’t think it’s working out”. He told me, “I don’t think I will ever love anyone else”, and proceeded to stop talking to me for a year.

We are now best friends, and we look back at this time and laugh. Aren’t middle school and high school relationships so funny when we think back on them? Share your first boyfriend/girlfriend story!