Never the Right Time

May had been a good month so far. I graduated, was back together with my boyfriend, and everything was great even though we had college looming over our relationship. It didn’t matter. It would all work out. At least, that’s what I told myself. We both knew it would end in august when I left. So we just enjoyed the time we had.

I also got word that I officially made the university’s cross-country team. They sent out the new roster congratulating all the new incoming first-year students, and like all curious 18-year-olds, we immediately found each other on social media. That’s when we “met.”

Immediately upon friend request acceptance, I stalked all my new teammates. They were all your basic cross-country kids. Fresh-faced and skinny. Mark was the only one who stood out to me. He looked tall from what I could tell; he had shaggy brown hair and a slight tan. I was tall and thin with light brown hair and brown eyes, I was no ugly duckling, but I was good at settling for guys who wouldn’t hurt me. I knew immediately that he was not someone you settle for.

I ignored all of the nerves I was feeling and decided to send him a DM. Where was the harm in an innocent message? I kept telling myself that I was just saying hey and asking a random question.

Me: Hey! I saw you were able to log into your email. Can you tell me how I can access it? I’ve been having trouble finding it.

That's how it started.

For the rest of the summer, we would talk randomly about the upcoming year, what we’ve been doing training-wise or just how our summer is going.