



Chapter One: The Moment I First Saw Him ( Part 3)
Chapter One
“The Moment I First Saw Him”
Part 3
And then came junior year.
I joined the same sport he once broke the school record in, not because I loved it, but because he did. I trained hard. I studied his old match videos. I asked his brother if he ever came back to help coach. He said, “sometimes.”
So I hoped.
And halfway through the season, he did.
He walked into practice wearing a whistle and a smile. I was doing warm-ups. I nearly fell.
He barely recognized me at first, I had grown up. My body had changed. My hair was longer. But when he did recognize me, he grinned and said:
“Didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Didn’t expect you to be coaching,” I replied.
It felt like the beginning of something.
After that, I saw him at least three times a week.
He helped correct my form. He watched my timing. He clapped when I beat a personal record.
Sometimes, he even drove me home again.
We were friends now.
Not strangers. Not background characters.
We were friends.
And slowly, almost invisibly, I felt us getting closer.
His laughter came quicker. His stories got more personal. He’d ask how I was doing, not just with sports, but in general. He listened. He remembered things.
And me?
I was falling so fast it felt like floating.
It didn’t matter that I had orchestrated every inch of it.
It felt real now.
And maybe… maybe that meant it was.
The night before my 17th birthday, I sat on my bed with my phone in hand, staring at a blank message to him.
I wanted to tell him. Everything.
That I’d known him for years.
That I’d followed him before we ever spoke.
That I built this friendship like a tower, brick by brick, so that I could climb high enough to reach him.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I typed four small words.
“Thanks for the ride.”
He replied five minutes later.
“Anytime :)”
I whispered to myself that night, alone in the dark, hugging a pillow, something I’d never dared say out loud before.
“I’m going to marry you.”
It didn’t matter how long it took.
It didn’t matter what I had to do.
It didn’t matter what I had to pretend.
You will be mine.
And somehow, against all odds, you were.
End of Chapter 1