and I Believe. Jodie Richard-Bohman

was by far the best date I’ve ever been on.”

      “Me too,” I said shyly.

      “Well, I better get going. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

      “Okay. See you then.”

      Seconds of an awkward silence passed before he leaned over and gently kissed me on the cheek. My heart did a flip-flop.

      “Thanks for a great night,” he softly whispered.

      “No, thank-you for the greatest night of my life,” I said as I watched him drive away.

      The next day Aaron introduced me to his family, and they were absolutely fantastic. I clicked with all of them. Even though he said he wanted to be single so he could enjoy his senior year, he and I began dating each other seriously after that. Let’s just say that my sophomore year of high school was the best year of my life and consisted of nothing but Aaron. We were inseparable and did absolutely everything together. Life was wonderful, but as the school year ended and summer turned to fall, it was time for him to leave for college.

      “I know Ohio Northern is only two hours away, but it’s not going to be the same when you’re gone,” I cried as he and I were lying on the blanket by the gazebo.

      “It’s going to be hard, but we’ll get through this. I will come home as often as I can, and on the weekends I can’t, you can drive up to see me.”

      “I’m going to miss you so much,” I said as the tears came harder.

      “Hey, come here,” he said, pulling me to him. “I love you and we’re going to be with each other for the rest of our lives. Before you know it, I’ll be an attorney and you’ll be an art teacher and we’re going to have six, seven, ten kids and live happily ever after.”

      His words still didn’t make me feel better.

      “Kate, please don’t cry. You’re going to make me cry,” he said, bringing me even closer to him.

      Being that near to him and dreading him leaving, I began kissing him as passionately as a sixteen-year-old could kiss. His kisses got more intense too, and before I knew it, we were undressing each other. I had to have him, and I had to have him now!

      “Aaron, I want to be with you. I need you.”

      His kisses abruptly stopped.

      “Kate, no, we can’t do this.”

      Devastated by his words, I sat straight up. “Why? Don’t you love me? Don’t you want to be with me anymore?”

      “No, it’s not that. I love you so much, but you’re only sixteen years old, and when we do make love for the first time, I want it to be when we are both ready.”

      I looked the other way. I’m not too young! I thought to myself.

      “Kate, please don’t be mad at me.” He pleaded with me, but I still wouldn’t look at him.

      “I’m not mad at you. It’s just that I love you so much and I don’t want to you to leave.”

      “I don’t want to leave either,” he said, bringing me back down to him on the blanket.

      I nestled closer to him and squeezed my eyes shut, tears streaming out of them one by one. Eventually, I stopped pouting, even though I was still upset. So our last night together was spent in a tight embrace under the dark starry night filled with the pain of him leaving, the dread of not seeing him every day and the bleeding of my broken heart.

      The first week after he had left for college was absolutely awful, to say the least. I didn’t know it was possible to cry so many tears, but it was and I did.

      “Kate, I know your heart is broken, but he’s just two hours away at college, and you’ll see him in a couple of days.”

      Aaron left on Sunday and it was only the Wednesday after when my dad finally sat me down to have a good talking with.

      “You don’t understand Dad!” Burying my face into my hands, I began to cry again.

      “Kathleen Marie!”

       Uh oh!

      When Dad used my full first name AND middle name that meant I crossed the line.

      Looking up, I knew by the irritated look in his eyes that he had it with my over-dramatization, so I wiped my eyes and decided to quit my sniffling around like a baby.

      “Why don’t you go wash your face and I’ll take the whole family out to eat.”

      “Okay,” I said, getting up from the kitchen table.

      As I was walking out of the kitchen, I overheard Dad tell Mom, “I’ll never understand girls. Kellie has been at college for two weeks now, and she hasn’t said one word about missing her.”

      Mom’s laughter ran throughout the entire house.

      “Aaron!”

      Wednesday turned into Thursday, and Thursday FINALLY turned into Friday. I had been sitting on our front porch ever since I had gotten home from school waiting on my Knight in Shining Armor to come and rescue me. When I noticed the white Ford Taurus driving down our street, I jumped up from the front porch and began running towards it. Aaron barely had the car parked and I already had his door opened. He seemed more excited than I was to finally be together again.

      “Oh my God, I missed you!” he said as he tightened his embrace around me and whirled me around in a circle.

      “I missed you too!” I said.

      “I love you so much!” he said in between the nonstop kisses.

      “I love you so much too!”

      Our weekend together was wonderful, and when he left on Sunday to go back to college, it wasn’t as painful as the weekend before because I knew I would see him soon. Since I was only a junior in high school, Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me spend the weekend at Ohio Northern by myself. The weekends Aaron didn’t come home, Kellie would take me up there to see him. She and I stayed with one of her high school friends, who also went to school there. We would hang out with Aaron and his friends the entire weekend, which was wonderful!

      While most kids our age were having sex, Aaron and I were not. Other than the one night when I almost caved into the desperation of him leaving for college, we decided to wait for when we were both completely ready to give ourselves to each other. We kissed a lot, and many times that got pretty heated, but he would always stop before we went too far. Most of my girlfriends were surprised we hadn’t had sex yet, but I didn’t care or let it influence our decision to wait. We knew we would marry one day and be with each other for the rest of our lives, so we felt there was no need to rush into anything.

      Soon, before we knew it, the weeks turned into months and the months turned into years and I graduated from high school and was ready to embark on my own college adventure.

      It was June 1st and my eighteenth birthday. The weekend was busy with all of my friends’ graduation parties, and Aaron and I had just left Liz’s house.

      “I have a surprise for you,” he said with a grin when we were in his car on our way home.

      “What is it?” I asked intrigued.

      “You’ll see.”

      A few minutes later, we were pulling onto his grandparents’ street. My curiosity was getting the best of me as we parked the car and tiptoed to the backyard. We rounded the corner and in front of me was our blanket laid out neatly on the grass with a dozen candles circling it.

      “When? How?” I asked, wondering when he would have found the time to come do this considering we were with each other the entire evening.

      “I left Liz’s party about ten minutes before I knew we were going to leave to come and set this up.”

      “What about Grandma and Grandpa?”