“Hey Sof!!” I yelled down the hall to my thirteen-year-old niece.
“Yea?” she replied walking into my bedroom.
“What do you think of this dress?”
“Depends, what’s it for?”
“Party.”
“Is it a special party?” she asked probably noticing the neckline went unusually low for my taste.
“You could say that.”
“Oh, is someone special going to be there?” she said in a twinkly little teenage girl voice.
“Yes, there will be.”
“An old boyfriend perhaps?” Her voice continually getting higher.
“A first boyfriend actually.” Which was a lie because had I dated guys before this one, but I had always called him my first because anyone before him didn’t really matter
“Oh!” she squealed, “Well what’s his name?”
“Alex,” I replied, playing along.
“So what happened with Alex?” saying his name in an over-the-top voice.
“Sophie, I really don’t have time for this.”
“Now you do.”
“Fine, whatever,” I relented
“So it was Thursday, June 30th, the summer before I went into 8th grade. I left my poetry class early to drive for an hour, to go see your Uncle Justin and swim in the lake near his house along with my friends Brooke and your Uncle Will. Brooke and I were swimming, when from the cool murky wetness of the lake, I saw him. He was being all tall, blonde and perfect still being modest as ever while being coaxed into climbing up the high dive. But before that could happen, I took hold of the latter that lead out of the lake and hoisted myself out. I couldn’t help but to hug him and whisper, ‘I’m sorry’, in his ear.”
“Wait, what were you sorry for?” Sophie rudely interrupted.
“Well, I had dated him before I went to see him that day, but before anyone told me I was going to see him, your grandma thought I would be a great surprise,” I said sarcastically “So, I was stupid and broke up with him because we never saw each other” I said satisfying her curious 13-year-old self.
“Alright, now back to the story” She said “So as if every word that came out of his mouth was written by Shakespeare, he said, ‘It’s ok’. Then I dove back into the water wondering if he was looking at me or not. This is when I started to regret breaking up with him”
“Aw, Auntie, this is so sweet. How come you never told me this before?”
“You never asked before”
“Still”
“All right, so where were we? Okay so later me, Alex, his two friends Andy and Zack, and Brooke piled into the paddle boat and peddled around Canoe Island in a variety of straight and wavy lines, talking a lot about nothing in particular until we reached the side of the island opposite the little dock. We were about to turn around when my Aunt Michelle, your Uncle Will’s mom came to get Brooke and I off that little boat, she probably thought that bad things would happen like sun burns and flirting if we stayed out for too long . So, thinking I was going to get off there I said “Goodbye” to Andy, Zack, and Alex and while hugging Alex I may have whispered the most cliché thing I could have possibly come up with.’
“What did you say?!” She started getting all hyped up, like my words were sugar cubes.
“I said ‘please take me back’”
She screamed, “WELL DID HE!?”
“I’m not there yet, so calm down or the story stops here.”
In milliseconds you could hear a pin drop.
“OK, so I was just about to let go when my Aunt Micelle said ‘No, no, peddle around to the dock’.”
‘I swear I owe everything to that woman’ I thought to myself.
“Then I silently sighed to myself and didn’t let go as I quietly whispered ‘please, please’ repeatedly, but only the two of us knew what I was pleading for. Then I had a Disney princess moment in short frame of time when he softly answered “yes”. It was one of the few magical moments when the rest of the world melts away and allows me five seconds of perfection.

“So that’s it?” said Sophie
“Yeah.”
“Really, that’s all that happened?” I could tell she wasn’t convinced.
“Well not exactly all that happened” I pointed out
“Tell me, TELL ME, TELL ME!”
“Okay, hold your horses!”

“A slight rocking brought me back to earth, and I saw we were the only two left on the boat and he was looking at me with his deep blue eyes as I stared transfixed at his blonde eyebrows. And I’m not exactly sure how this happened, or what girly, flirty part of my brain had taken over and caused this to happen, but I slowly inched my face toward his in a romantic, overly dramatic, Nicholas Sparks movie sort fashion. When our lips finally met in the middle, fireworks sparked up in my mind and perfection danced across my lips like a flavor of skittle made especially for me. I swear my heart may have stopped and fluttered in my chest and all my blood rushed to my head while my skin got that pins and needly feeling until I finally forced myself to break away.
“Oh my Rowling, OHH MY ROWLING, OHHH MY ROWLING!!!” Sophie yelped as if the idea of her aunt kissing someone was like getting her acceptance letter to Hogwarts “What happened next?”
“Well I got out of the boat and went to put my cover up on.” I said while trying of a variation of earrings
“So is that it?” she wondered aloud
“Sure” I lied
“Did you see him again?”
“Yea, so this dress?”
“No, the purple one. So what happened to you guys?”
“We did what anyone else would had done.”
“Which is?”
“We dated for a while then, eventually, we broke up”
“And…” She said insisting there was more than what I had told her.
“Well every year I see him at the same stupid New Years Eve party.“
“Has anything ever happened at these stupid New Years Eve parties?”
“No, not really. My friend Casey will be here any minute to get me so please help me get ready”. Then as I was fixing my necklace, my doorbell rang.
“Coming Cas!!” I yelled down the hall.
I came out of my room leaving Sophie on my bedroom floor and ran down the hall. I turned the knob and in the doorway stood someone tall, and handsome with blonde eyebrows and a half smile that would make angels sing. I turned to yell down the hall, “Hey Sof, come meet Alex.”