Everyone loves a good love story, right?

My all-time favorite movie is “Dear John” (sorry to all of you Notebook fans). I can’t even explain why that I love the movie as much as I do, but it never gets old. I had always dreamed of having a love like in the movies…what girl doesn’t? But finding that kind of love was actually a lot harder than my soulmate diving off the pier to save my purse from the water (movie reference!).

It took a few years, some heartbreaks, immaturity and terrible relationships before I found “The One”…but if I’m honest, he had found me a long time ago (in 9^th grade-2008 to be exact). He was my best friend and while I did love him, he was unfortunately friend-zoned. Plus, I always had a boyfriend and he was always trying to date my friends.

I don’t remember much about when we met since for me it was just meeting the friend of a friend…but he can tell you exactly what I was wearing and everything. Sometimes I’m jealous of how good his memory is for that kind of stuff. But I do know it was the night of a choir concert and he sort of just instantly became my best friend. He was so funny and cute and his hair was long and flipped up off his shoulders like little wings. I definitely teased him about it but he was always a good sport!

Everyone knew that Chase and I were pretty good friends, so it was no surprise when I dedicated a song I was singing/playing guitar in the talent show…except I had a boyfriend! It was a dare to dedicate it, and of course I couldn’t say no, plus I think I liked the drama? Not sure. But regardless it was pretty funny to see his face turn bright red as he immediately looked over at my fuming boyfriend.

He definitely almost got jumped by the football team (both him and my bf were on it), but my boyfriend, thankfully, was a good sport and just gave him grief about it. Still to this day I’m not sure why I thought it was a good idea but man that’s a fun story to tell!

At the end of the year we went on a choir trip to Silver Dollar City and Chase and I sat together sharing our favorite music and just talking. Once we got to SDC, we split ways and hung out with our friends. We’d meet up every once in a while to hang out but nothing too exciting (I was “taken”, remember?). The bus ride home for me was a little weird though.

He borrowed my phone to text a friend of mine in the other bus that he wanted to date. I never could quite pinpoint why it bothered me so much. I mean he had dated or talked to other friends of mine throughout the year and I never really had a problem with it. I chalked it up to just annoyance that he was using my phone and forgot about it. Chase was a year below me, so we only spent one year together at Southwest Jr. High before I moved on to Har-ber.

We had a couple Facebook conversations here and there but this was the last time I would actually see him until nearly a year later…