The Day We Met

In honor of LOVE week, I thought I'd try to recall some of the favorite memories I have with my Dust.  Get ready for some total cheesiness! 

Dust and I met during the summer before 7th grade. I had a fresh new "Rachel" from the tv show "Friends" haircut in preparation for Junior High and Dust was sporting a skinny little 7th grader body and a gap between his two front teeth.

I hadn't really ever hung out with boys before - not since I had been bitten by the "boy crazy" bug anyway.

One of my elementary school girlfriend's had a darling friend who had a cousin that was a boy and he had lots of cute friends. We had an "in" to get to hang out with some boys - "Eeek!"

I can remember walking down Jennings Lane with butterflies in my stomach. Squealing with excitement, I had to keep taking deep breaths to remind myself to BE COOL.

About half-way down the street we could make out that there were three boys, sitting on a picnic table. My girlfriends and I began to grab at each other's hands excitedly and squeal under our breath. BE COOL, we reminded ourselves.

One boy jumped up and started showing off by joking around with the other two.

They awkwardly pretended not to notice us as we crossed the road, stepped up onto the curb and walked across the grass.

And there he was. Sitting on top of the picnic table with his knees bent, feet flat on the bench. I still remember the way he was leaned forward, his forearms draped across his knees so casually.

He was looking down at something in the grass, trying to act like it was no big deal that three girls just walked up.

"Dust!" his cousin forced him to break his concentration. "This is Kellie and Ashley."

BE COOL! BE COOL!

He sat up and leaned back onto his hands as he moved his gaze from his cousin to Kellie and said hi.

My heart fluttered when our eyes met for only a second before he shyly looked away.

And God smiled.