Forrest.

Lovely boy. I have almost nothing bad to say about him. Any mistakes or misunderstandings in this relationship most likely came from me. There’s a lot of my high school love life that I didn’t tell even my best friends. I guess because I didn’t think they’d want to know. The Jeff situation and perhaps this one, might have been the reasons I kept it a secret. Forrest was the son of my chorus teacher and yeah, he was a little strange. But he was also incredibly intelligent, kind, caring, and funny. No one would catch on to this until maybe a year or so after we called it quits. Officially, we dated for a week. I think I broke up with him because I couldn’t stand the ridicule my friends made me endure during that short period of time. I’m still ashamed I let them get to me. Unofficially, we snuck out of our houses at midnight and ran about town with a couple of friends. We would sometimes just meet up, the two of us, and walk the dikes along the river. I have three fillings because one summer, we decided it would be really cool to eat lemon heads, boston baked beans, and drink mountain dew every day. Then they shut down the convenience store near us and our candy binge ended. For the better, really. My teeth managed to benefit from the ordeal, anyway. When school began again, it was clear that Forrie (nickname) was still upset about the one week romance. We both started doing things to hurt the other’s feelings. He dated a girl he and I -both- hated. Just to make me mad. Because he knew she would tell me everything that happened even if they were just going to walk home together. In the end, I did get really mad. His plan worked and I wanted to have him to myself again. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t break up with her in time and I gave up on him. Thinking that, perhaps, he really did enjoy this swine’s company and I wasn’t doing him any favors by sticking around. When he finally got around to breaking things off with her, he told me what he had been doing. I told him he was too late. He stopped talking to me for about two months. Until his mother and a mutual friend called me up and invited me to his surprise birthday party. I think they worded it like this, "Well I just know he’d really want you there, because you’re like, his best friend. I know you must be really busy because you haven’t been around much lately, but we would really appreciate it if you could make it." So he didn’t tell them. I had no choice but to show up at his awkward surprise birthday party. Surprisingly to me, he was incredibly happy to see me and ignored most of the other people that had been invited. Told you he was a nice guy. The swine was there, as well as another that didn’t like me very much. Things happen. Anyway, from that moment on, he’s stayed on my Top 5 Best Friends of All Time list. We’re pretty certain we’ll get married if we’re both 30 something and alone.

Our candy store. Shut down.

Leigha.