Over the next months, Adam and I became very close. He never judged me, always listened, wasn't ever turned off or annoyed with anything I talked to him about.
He became my best friend.
As those months progressed, I'll be honest. It got harder and harder for me to
want to spend time with my girlfriends. I still loved them, sure, but Adam was everything I needed. In one super-handsome package. He listened to my problems, held me when I cried, was genuinely happy when I succeeded, and was a really good kisser. I just hope I was those same things for him.
Soon, it was time for my junior prom. Nothing too remarkable about this prom other than our (once again) fantastic outfits. My dress was magenta and orange, in a good way :) ...his suit was bright blue. He also wore a zipper tie. And tennis shoes. But (once again), he pulled it off and looked amazing. We posed for all the obligatory pictures for my parents, ate dinner at Piccadilly's in Wichita, and were witnessed walking into the prom by hundreds (that's how my high school did it, they set up bleachers outside the prom so people could come watch everyone walk in). It was an awesome night, and Adam kept his arm tightly around me the whole time, which was even awesomer.
Adam graduated from high school.
We spent that summer together, as much as possible. Unfortunately we still lived in separate towns, so seeing each other wasn't as convenient as running down the block, and I always had that pesky curfew to abide by.
My parents were awesomely cool and invited him to come with us to Colorado on summer vacation that year. That was a big deal for us...we got to spend 16 hours in the car together, he saw me with a towel on my head after a shower (he should've ran away then), and we slept in the same hotel room! Separate beds, of course...and my parents were also in the same room too. :) We even got to kiss on the top of Pike's Peak. Sweet.
I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm writing our love story with the help of the photo albums I kept throughout our dating years. Three and a half albums filled with photos of us. We were good about taking photos back then. Now...not so much.
The next "big" event I came across in the photo albums was the day Adam and I went muddin'. You think I'm being sarcastic, but this was the funnest thing ever. I wouldn't consider myself a "city girl," because let's face it, my hometown wasn't even a city really. But Adam was definitely a country boy. As mentioned in an earlier installment, he had a four-wheeler. I'd never been muddin' before, so I wasn't aware of how this worked. Adam patiently explained that I'd
probably want to borrow some of his old clothes for the adventure.
It had just rained, so the dirt roads around Adam's house were a mess. We took off from his house, and he drove directly through a field. Didn't bother with a road. Adam, the professional ATV driver, and me, holding on tight to him for dear life. We found some big mud puddles (which I soon discovered was the goal of the whole thing), and Adam headed straight for them.
You can guess what happened next.
Mud went flying everywhere. In my eyes, my hair, my ears, my mouth. But it was so much fun! We kept going and found more mud, almost getting stuck a million times. After half an hour, we headed back to his house, both completely covered in mud. This was when we took the photos I'm now looking at. Adam's arms and legs were completely black, and he has this mischevious look on his face. He knew what came next.
I didn't.
Out came the hose.
Hose water is always FREEZING.
We hosed each other off as best we could, and then headed inside for real showers. I think I was still finding mud on myself a week later.
A few awesome things happened then. Adam moved out of his parents house, across their driveway, and into a little rental house they owned. He was "on his own." He started pursuing his education degree at WSU, and he finished that mural at his old high school that began our story. We also celebrated our first anniversary.
Let's back up. I must first mention just how cool it was to have a
college boyfriend. I was a senior in high school and had this older man to talk to all my friends about. He did the sweetest things. He would drive all the way to my school while I was in class, find my car in the massive parking lot, and leave me cards, notes, flowers. He even brought me lunch, clear from Chili's in Wichita (where he was now employed as the cutest waiter ever) a couple times. On those occasions, I could basically only run out to his car, give him a kiss and a thanks, and take the food before I had to get back. He did all that, just to see me for a few minutes.
Since he lived in his own house now, we got to watch movies in his living room, cook dinner together, and just be alone. Adam's specialty dinner became the now-infamous "bowl of meat," which was basically ground beef cooked in sauces like A-1, and a side of instant mashed potatoes. We ate a lot of that in those days.
As our anniversary came around, I didn't know what to expect. Before Adam, I'd never been in a relationship longer than a month and so I didn't know the protocol for "big" anniversaries. Plus, even though I knew how sweet Adam was, I didn't know just how big of a deal he made out of special occasions yet.
He picked me up late in the afternoon on November 23rd, 2002. We drove out to the country near Newton...I had no idea where we were going, and I was wearing nice clothes. Hopefully this wasn't another muddin' adventure.
We stopped at the tiny little Newton Airport.
There was a plane.
It was a small plane, a 6-seater, I believe. Adam's dad had a friend who was a pilot and owned this plane. Adam had arranged for him to take us on a flight to celebrate our first year together. I was a senior in high school...this doesn't happen to people like me. But it was really happening. Wow.
Adam and I got in the seats behind the pilot and his wife, and we put our headphones on so we could talk to each other. We held hands. It was surreal.
Adam asked the pilot to fly over his house. So he did. We got to see all their land, their house, Adam's little house, the infamous silo. So cool.
We flew in to the Hutchinson Airport. There's a steakhouse there, and we had an awesome dinner with the pilot and his wife. I think Adam paid him for his plane with the steak dinner. A fair trade, I'd say. :)
After dinner, we flew back to Newton and Adam drove me out to his house. We walked into his house, and one of his friends was there, setting up a drum set in his living room.
To preface this, I used to be obsessed with the drums. I had drumsticks from the Hard Rock Cafe that I tapped randomly all the time. But I didn't have any drums, I'd never had any drums, and I most definitely didn't have any rhythm. It was just a pipe dream. But it was a dream I'd definitely shared with Adam.
So we got to his house, and there was this drum set in his living room. He'd asked his friend Isaac to set it up while we were away. Isaac stuck around long enough to show me how to play one measure of whatever (see? I don't even know the terminology), and then he left us be. I spent the next hour on the drums. Poor Adam. He had a turn too though.
And that...was our first year. There's nothing I would change. Adam was the best boyfriend I'd ever had, the best boyfriend I'd ever heard of anyone having. I was so in love. I know he was too.
But I still didn't get why he loved me.
He was the amazing one, I was just ordinary.
To be continued...
