I see him dancing on the dance floor. He has dark hair, honey colored eyes, and dark skin. He has a pretty smile; I know that because he’s smiling at me now. He walks across the floor and asks me to dance. In a silly way, I can barely say “yes.” My foolish feet stumble, his hands stop me from falling. I blush like I never have before. He looks me in the eyes and in that moment, I fall in love with him. We are 16 years old.

Next morning, I wake up to realize last night was not a dream, it was better than a dream; I’m in love. I knew it was love because now, reality is better than dreams. At breakfast, I can’t stop talking about him to my sister. At lunch, I find myself talking about him with my friends. He is like a dream come true. Then I realize I don’t even know his name. This is when he becomes only part of my dreams for months.

After four months, I finally meet him again. It is his cousin’s party. I didn’t even know that I was going to his cousin’s party because I didn’t know his name at that point. He asks me to dance again, just like the first time we met. This time I say “yes” a little bit more confidently. I still blush, like a big red apple. We dance all night. We talk all night. Finally, he tells me his name; his name is Gale.

Now we are friends, best friends. Except I have to keep the secret that I’m in love with him. We hang out on Fridays. We go out to parties and dance all night. We talk all day long in text messages. He calls me every night and we talk for two hours. Our friends become jealous that we are always together. My girlfriends are mad because I just talk about him all day long. I’m starting to suspect that he is the love of my life.

We are at the wellspring one evening and he is looking into my eyes when we have our first kiss. It was magical. Neither of us hesitated; it was just the perfect kiss. I bet no one has had such a perfect kiss like that one, that night. There are fireflies all over the sky, like it has been decorated with Christmas lights. We could admire a view of the city from the spot we were in. Not only was the kiss magical, but the place where the kiss took place was magical too. He takes my face between his hands, and like the words were never easier for him to say, he says, “I love you.” My heart stops, I’m overwhelmed, I was not expecting that. But even still, it made that moment more memorable and more perfect than it already was.

We are now officially girlfriend and boyfriend. Everything seems to be going perfectly during the first month. It is still like a dream.

However, after that month, the relationship started to become more and more boring. We continued to see each other each week, but each time we saw each other for less and less time. We began fighting every single day for different reasons. We were jealous of eachother’s friends. We even started to prohibit each other from talking to other people because of the jealousy. We are both stubborn and proud, so we did not get along.

Being in a relationship with Gale is not like what I’d imagined it would be. After six months, we couldn’t stand each other anymore, so we broke up.

I spend the whole night crying. I wonder if I made a mistake. I wonder if I will ever have fun with my friends again. I miss his arms around me. I come up with some words in my head that I wish I could say to him. The words are, “ I love you.” I also want to tell him, “I never knew perfection until I heard him speak, and now it kills me just to hear him say the simple things. Now sleeping is impossible and waking up is hard to do, and everything reminds me of you, Gale!”