She said she knew you. Mentioned in passing, like it was no big deal. But it was a big deal. It was to me. It had been four years. Exactly. You'd driven me to polls for my first election and now another one was coming up. You'd had a girlfriend and I'd had a boyfriend and your relationship had dissolved and mine was quickly dissolving. The pieces coming apart and bubbles rising to the surface like an alkaseltzer tablet in water. What little was holding me to him had become water soluble and now I was just waiting for it to end. She said she knew you. That you were staying at their house. I was quiet, cagey, anxious. Unsure of how to react, unsure of how much she knew. And time went on. She put the pieces together and urged on both sides for us to meet. Four years, that's a long time for people to change. She kept saying how you had a fawx-hawk now and I had these terrible visions of my handsome artist lover with his pen and paper turning into a keg-stand-doing frat boy. She kept saying, "What's the worst that could happen?" and I knew that it'd be falling for you again. Finally getting the love I hadn't felt like I deserved. The kisses, the sweet text messages, the "I love you's", listening to me talk, encouraging me to share everything of myself with you, my plans for vet school, my dark memories that I couldn't share with anyone else for fear of being judged, but you didn't judge me, you'd sit in silence, listening, actually listening to me without some vicious comment on the mistakes I'd made, cooking dinner together, sitting in the car, chain smoking and talking at length about our inspirations, what we want to create, little things. That time you'd brought flowers to my mother because my brother had been arrested. When you stopped at the 7-11 to buy me a tooth brush because you'd picked me up to give me somewhere to stay and I'd forgotten to grab mine. When you paid the toll to make sure I got to work on time, to avoid "cross town traffic". Yeah, the threat of being treated right kept me away from you for so long and it only took the persistence of our mutual friend, a bottle of wine on my part, and a couple bowls on your part, to get us to finally meet again. I watched you walk up her driveway, trying to make out your personality in the streetlight, waiting to read you to see how to greet you. And when you were only a foot away, the only thing that seemed right was a hug. Immediately that awkwardness went away. As I held your body against mine, I finally forgave myself.
First Meeting by E Board

