The Story of Us, Part Two

First was dinner for the Honorees and their dates. We sat at a table with a few of my friends and ate while they showed a slideshow of pictures from the Honorees' lives. I could tell Asa felt uncomfortable, but he made the best of it. He kept me smiling and was luckily not embarrassed when my baby pictures flashed on the screen.Next we headed into the ballroom to line up for our walk across the stage. Looking at everyone waiting in line near us, I was so glad to be there with Asa. He wasn't joking around or yelling to his buddies. He was there to be with me, and he was. We walked across the stage without tripping or anything!

After everyone had come across the stage, all of my friends gathered for a group picture. I somehow lost track of Asa at this point. I guess he didn't think he was invited in the picture, but he would have been if I could find him. Just as we were finishing up our picture, they started playing the first song. Where was Asa? I looked everywhere for him, trying to figure out why he wasn't there to dance with me.

And then I found him. Dancing with his ex girlfriend on the very first dance of the night. This is the same ex girlfriend that tried to convince me he didn't like me, flirted with Asa all the time, and later tried to break us up. I was pretty pissed, but I played it off when he saw me watching them. I mean, I really was starting to like him at this point and now a sting of jealousy was running through me. I found one of my best friends Alex and partied with he and Beyonce for a while.

Lucky for Asa, the next song was a another slow one. He left his ex and came to find me. Still jealous, I played hard-to-get and acted like I didn't want to dance with him. But I did. He apologized and made it up to me by dancing with me for almost all of the slow songs for the rest of the night. And he was a great sport when I wanted to dance to the faster songs. I knew he didn't want to, so I danced with my friends. And I'll admit it, I wanted to make him jealous too. I probably danced with a few more guys than I should have, but hey, he deserved it!When we were done dancing for the night, we started to walk down the hallway to pick up my shoes and jacket. As we left the ballroom, our hands met and we walked hand-in-hand to the closet. I didn't care who saw us, and I even got a few looks from my friends as we walked. But it felt right and comfortable. I put my shoes on and we walked back holding hands again. I remember Asa and I smiling at each other, like we were both thinking the same thing.

Asa's mom lives pretty far out of town, so he was staying on our couch that night. We got frosties from Wendy's and then drove home. I was exhausted, and I could tell he was too. We spent about an hour talking about the night. He told me it was one of the best nights of his life. He was all of the sudden shy, which was not Asa's personality normally. He later told me that I intimidated him and he liked me so much that he didn't want to give me a reason not to like him. So, I talked and talked and then shut my eyes. Asa sat there watching me for a few minutes, thinking I was asleep. Then he gently kissed me on the forehead, turned off the light, and went to the couch for the night.

That kiss on the forehead sealed the deal for me. He wasn't the guy I had thought he was, and it meant that he might actually want a real relationship with me. I ended that night a different person. I had learned to stop judging Asa based on what he looked like or what other people thought about him and to do what makes me happy regardless of what my friends would think. It still took a couple of weeks for us to officially start dating. I was a little scared of my feelings for him right away.

We spent the next two weeks hugging in the hallway and talking on the phone all night. It was at Regionals that year that we really started to act like a couple. He sat by me at dinner, held my hand on the bus, and hugged me when I was cold. To my surprise, no one seemed to care that we were together. I thought there would be a huge uproar from my friends, but there wasn't.

The Monday after Regionals was February 13th, 2006. We had a little swim practice, but got out early. Asa and I decided we wanted to watch Boondock Saints together. We drove all over town trying to find someone with a copy, and then headed home to watch it. I had a class at the college that night, so we had to stop the movie early and I took Asa to his dad's house and headed to class. On the way there, I decided I really didn't want to go. So, I turned around and went back to pick up Asa and skipped class! (Sorry, Mom...) Asa said he had the perfect plan. He gave me directions and we drove about 10 miles out of town, down a little road. Honestly, I had no idea where were going. It turns out, he wanted to show me the house he grew up in! Asa loves this house, and still talks about it today. That house is where all of his memories are it meant a lot to me that he wanted me to see it. We walked around the house (no one lived there) and looked in the windows that were open. He told me story after story about his fam`ily and things he remembered doing in that house. There was a huge picnic table where we sat and talked for a while. I remember wondering if he was going to kiss me while we sat there, but he didn't.

Next we drove to his best friend Bradley's house. I had never met him before, but he was another guy that looked like one thing on the outside, but was a totally different person on the inside. We drove back to my house and ate dinner with my family. Asa ended up bargaining with his mom to stay with us again that night since she lived so far out of town.

We finished Boondock Saints and then sat in my bed together talking (don't worry, the door was open!). We talked about everything that night, and stayed up way later than we should have. At about 12:30 on the morning of the 14th, Asa said

"What would you say if I asked you to be my girlfriend?"
"Well are you asking me or just asking me what I would say?"
"I don't know..."
"Well, if you're asking me if I will be your girlfriend, yes I will!"

He was ecstatic! We laughed and hugged, and then had one of those moments like in the movies when you think the two main characters are about kiss. But, Asa got shy. He turned away and changed the subject. It was about 30 minutes later when it finally happened. I was tired of waiting for him to kiss me, even though I thought it was awfully cute that he was so shy about it. So, I kissed him.

Just in case you were keeping score, that's 3 points for me (asking him to Honoree, pretty much doing the asking out, and the first kiss) and half a point for Asa (half way asking me to Honoree in 2005). Don't worry, he eventually did the proposing, so that boosted him up a few points!

On February 14th, we will have been together for 10 years. When I think about how much we have both changed and how wonderful our lives are now, I am in awe. At the time when all of this was happening, I never would have thought that we would be here together 4 years later, with our perfect daughter. It is crazy to think we could start with this simple little story that so many other people have had, two high school students who go a dance together, and today be in the story we are now. We are so lucky and it makes me so thankful that we both did everything we did back then. We have so much ahead of us, so much to look forward to.