Our Love Story: Part Two

Ninth grade was a big year. I was a high-schooler! I was very involved in sports and had slimmed up, got contacts, had a driver's permit and pretty purple Camaro. I also started dating a guy from my grandparent's church. He was older (20) and my parents hated him. We dated for about 5 or 6 months, and then he dumped me, but not before giving me Mono. For real. The summer after 9th grade sucked.

Rewind a bit to the school year. Chris and I had 2 classes together, I still remember. 1st period English and 3rd period Science. Even though I was dating another guy, the butterflies in my stomach every time I saw Chris didn't go away. I know now I basically had a crush on him all year. But I also thought he was just too immature for me and that dating an older guy had to be better, right? But that didn't stop me from saying hi every chance I got and taking any opportunity to flirt with him. I wanted him to see what he was missing. I guess you could say I was playing "hard to get" but the truth is, if he had asked me to go out with him again, I would have dumped mono-boy in a heartbeat and said yes. I really, really liked Chris. I had decided in the 7th grade I was going to marry him someday, and my heart always remembered that.

After an almost 2 month bout with Mono (and missing out on every basketball camp all summer long), I was better just in time for school to start. 10th grade was going to be an awesome year- I was on  the senior varsity basketball and volleyball teams! That was a really big deal to me! I worked hard in pre-season and my coach had already told me that if I kept up the hard work, I would be a starting sophomore on the basketball team! I was on cloud 9! I also had a couple more classes with Chris, and that made me really happy. I asked him to borrow a pencil during the first week of school and "broke the ice". Then I just so happened to choose a seat right next to him in English class. I also found myself taking just a bit longer with my hair and makeup and carefully selecting what I would wear, knowing he was the first person I would see in 2nd period English (Sports was 1st period). Yup, I was still crushing hard! He was always very friendly, but after a few weeks of flirting, he never made a move,so I decided he just wasn't interested and I needed to get over this crush. (I was not making the first move for the 3rd time!)

One morning during volleyball practice, I went down on my knees for a ball and felt the worst pain of my life in my back and legs. I ended up having a major back injury and required emergency surgery to repair the discs and nerves in my back. My surgeon came in the next day and told me I would never be playing sports again. I was absolutely heartbroken. At 15 years old,  sports was my life. I was discharged home from the hospital the following morning, and as the nurse was pushing (a very sad) me out of the room in a wheelchair, I was met at the door with a florist delivering a dozen beautiful pink roses. The card read,

"Get well soon. Love, Chris"

To be continued...