When You Never See It Coming

I went away for University. Not far, but away.

I'd been accepted to a few places, good places, but I decided to go to the school that was holding a spot in residence for me. UVic.

My first time away from home for real, not just summer camp an hour's drive away, or a camping trip for the weekend, but a whole ferry trip away from parental influence and curfews and someone watching to make sure I was being safe and good and oh the freedom!

I don't remember the exact moment or way I first met Jeff; he was the friend of a guy from another building that one of my friend's friends were dating. You know how it works, six degrees of separation but all one big hormonally driven group. Everyone knows everyone but no one's really sure how.

Jeff was this strange mixture of dark and brooding but hopeful and shy. I remember when we first started hanging out, he'd lean against me but with barely half of his weight. It was like he didn't want to impose himself on me even when he wanted to be close.

He was quiet, but sweet, and for whatever reasons I was drawn to him. Moth to flame-like.

I actually hooked up with his friend first, in a beer fuelled evening that still boggles my mind because we both really disliked each other. Maybe there is some truth to that whole love/hate sexual attraction thing. I don't think Jeff was around that night, and I certainly never mentioned it to him, but making out with his friend made it clear I had to be a little more bold with Jeff if I wanted him to know I liked him.

So, I kissed him.

As I said in that post : It was back in first year university and I'd had a crush on this guy {who we now know is Jeff} for a while. One night, a few weeks into our attempts at flirting (or whatever it is you do when you're young and ignorant / innocent) we were all heading back to our residences and were hanging outside my building. Someone started talking about finding the right person and this guy mentioned how he'd heard people say you had to kiss a lot of frogs before you found your prince.

I looked over at him and he was sitting on top of a garbage can and something about the light, he just looked so vulnerable and like he figured he wasn't anybody's prince, more like an ugly frog. And I leaned over and mumbled something about how he looked like a prince to me and I kissed him. It was really sweet.

And that was our first kiss.

First time I'd ever done that, kissed the guy first.

Guess I should have done it sooner, because before you knew it, we were an "us".




To be continued. . .