Our Story -- Part 5

Ahh, so sorry it's been six whole months since I've updated this!  To be honest, I just ran out of steam and inspiration.  Good thing for y'all it's our seventh anniversary today and celebrating gave me a little bit of extra inspiration. ;)

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4

It was now October, and with October came the annual PKMK retreat for our district, a retreat I'd been attending since seventh grade and a weekend I looked forward to more than anything else all year.  (PKMK stands for Pastors' Kids & Missionaries' Kids.)

Our youth pastor drove us up, but had to be back at church on Sunday, so guess who was asked to come pick me and my siblings up on Sunday?  Yeah, that's right.  Drew.  There weren't many people who could drive that Morrow bus, haha.

Needless to say, the ride home was a long one.  Drew was his typical friendly annoying self, chatting up my siblings and trying to engage me in conversation, as usual.  I rebuffed all attempts, as usual.

My parents were out of town attending a wedding and all my siblings were staying with friends, so when we got back to Williamsburg, Drew went around dropping them all off.  I was "house sitting" for my parents and, as Drew had our van, it made sense to drop me off last.

When we got to my house, he offered to help me bring in my bag and a couple other things that had been left in the van.  But then when he was done, he just casually plopped down on the couch.  Clearly the guy had been invited over for Sunday lunch a few too many times.  I wanted to hint that I was tired, that I had a friend coming over to stay with me, that I wanted him to leave, but I didn't.

Finally, after a few (long and awkward) minutes passed, he spoke.

"Can I tell you something without it being weird?"

Because prefacing it like that definitely won't make it weird...?

"I guess?"  I replied, although it's possible that I only nodded.  I had a strange feeling that I knew what was coming.  Sure enough...

"I, uh... I have feelings for you.  Is that weird?"

Weird?  Nooooo!  (Sarcasm.)  I mean, there was only an almost-eight year age gap.  There was only the fact that I'd been trying to send the message for about three months now that I was not interested even in being friends.  He was only the weirdest guy I knew (not that I knew a lot).

"Yeah.  That's weird."  I shrugged, struggling to remain calm and indifferent on the outside, hoping my face wasn't turning bright red.  Inside, I was freaking out.

Silence fell.  Awkward silence.

Then Drew stood up.  "Well... sorry.  I can go now."

I could tell he wanted me to say something else, but my mind had completely shut down.  Although I'd kind of-sort of been expecting him to say something like this, it still felt completely out of the blue.  I couldn't think, much less talk.  So I didn't.  I just nodded.  And he left.

A few days later, I got an email from him, basically telling me he was sorry and he really didn't want things to be awkward between us.  We were friends, after all, and saw each other a couple times a week at church events.

But it was awkward, I told him.  And I didn't know how to make it not.

For a few months, things were weird.  He would come over for Sunday lunch and I would eat and then go hide in my room.  He started tutoring Destiny in math and I take my homework from the kitchen table to hide in my room.  He'd come over for a movie and -- you guessed it -- I'd hide in my room!

Eventually, the awkwardness started to go away, and we started becoming friends again.  But that's a continuation for another day. ;)

. . . to be continued . . .

Stay tuned!  I promise it won't be another six months before I write again!