I quickly replied to the text without hesitation and told him I missed talking to him as well. We went from there and caught up a bit but our conversation was nothing like I had expected it to be. It was pathetic chatter between acquaintances instead of close friends. He told me he was always at camp and rarely had time to talk. Though he didn't ask I filled him in on my job at the daycare and how everyone was doing in San Angelo. After a few more texts were exchanged he told me he had to be up early the next day and that it had been good talking to me. It seemed forced but I was just happy he was talking to me again. Over the next month we exchanged a few more texts and a Facebook message before he finally returned to school for the fall semester. I knew he would be back in time for Rambunctious weekend but wasn't sure what day or time so I was constantly on the look out. I know I sound like a stalker (chick be cray) but I desperately wanted my friend back. I wanted to apologize and I wanted his life group guys to surround him again before he fell away completely. I was scared of losing him altogether.

I was serving sno cones at the organizational fair when I spotted him talking to some people from Chi Alpha. This was it! My friend was back! But he wasn't really back. Our conversation even in person was bleak and nothing like it use to be. I asked him if he would be at the first XA service of the semester in which he replied probably not. I knew it. He was slipping away. He was retreating back to this party boy demeanor and there was no saving him. He did his thing for the first 2 weeks of school and I left him alone. In the middle of my music class one day I got a text message from my boss saying that our AC was out at the daycare so I didn't have to come to work. I never got a day off during the week so I decided to text my friend Nate and see if he wanted to hang out. He had also been trying to stay in touch with Kaleb that summer and had invited him to his life group. Come to find out Nate had plans with Kaleb. I wiggled my way into those plans and Kaleb fell back a bit. Once he found out I would be hanging out with them he told Nate he could only hang out for an hour. PERFECT! An hour was all I needed to show him that I wasn't going to be the worst friend ever again. In my heart I knew Kaleb had every right to act the way he did. I was awful towards the end of the last semester. I wasn't the friend I should have been when he needed me to be so I had a lot of proving to do. I was right. An hour was all it took to get us back to at least a decent friendship.

We were inseparable again.



We picked up where we left off almost instantly. I did laundry for free at his dorm and he considered my apartment and roommates his second home. The constant flirting was ridiculous, too.  I mean really how often do you need to brush arms with the guy you like before they finally hold your hand?? Geez. On a camping trip we went on with Chi Alpha Kaleb confessed his love for me. Yep. Again, we were "just friends" and he told me he loved me for the first time. I didn't say it back for lots of reasons and I even tried to make him take it back but he wouldn't. He was honest. He was in love with his best friend and I cared deeply for him as well. It was official after that; we were an item. It was a while later before my feelings caught up with his but I did in the end find myself loving him as well. Kaleb never wavered with his feelings towards me. I didn't feel the same at the exact same time as him but he never took back those words. He simply waited for me to feel the same and that's part of the reason I loved him so much. Our relationship wasn't cookie cutter. It didn't go the way I thought it would. It fell into place at the oddest times but looking back on it all now I can see the beauty in all of the timing.



And the rest is history. A proposal 4 months later, a wedding 7 months after that, and a baby one year after that...we move fast, y'all. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

So to you, my forever Valentine, I say thank you for always going against the normal and moving at your own pace. Loving you is so easy and beating the odds with you is even easier. A few years is only a scratch on the surface of what our life together is going to be. I love you.