When I was little I was quite shy, whenever we would go out in public I would hide behind my mom thinking no one could see me. I wouldn’t talk to anyone unless I had known them my whole life. I didn’t make friends easily because I wouldn’t want to talk to them. School soon started for me this meant no family members to hide behind. I would have to talk to people. Slowly I started to grow out of it and I became less shy. Within a few weeks of school I had made some friends throughout elementary school I had these friends and I thought to myself I would never lose these friends. I'll always be able to trust them.

The bell rings its the first day of jr. high. Some people who were in grade 12 come and talk to us. They tell us to look around, see the people who are friends now and say, “Those people who are your friends now won’t be by the time you graduate.”

Me and my friends look at each other and laugh, “There's no way we’ll ever leave each other we’ll be friends forever even after we graduate.”

Before we knew it, grade 7 was over, and grade 8 was about to start. Grade 8 would hold something very different then what we were used to. My close friends and I were all in the same class for the first time, the start of this year being different. Some boys who were new to the school were also a part of our class. Ellie being the outgoing person she is introduced herself right away, making them her new friends. I didn’t mind her making new friends, but soon after she came and introduced them to me. “Nora this is Lyndon and Darius,” she explains, “they are new here and don’t know anyone, so we are now their friends.”

“I am not okay with this, you know I don’t like people,” I whispered over my shoulder to her. She ignored me and continued on towards her desk.

Later that day at lunch I was eating with Ellie when those boys and a few friends they knew from years before joined us. I was fine with it. I didn’t have to talk to them or anything. Soon I noticed a familiar face… was I just imagining it or was my old friend sitting there, across the table from me. We didn’t say a word to each other.

The next day it happened again. And the day after that. And the day after that. Eventually we were sitting right beside each other. I tried to ignore him. I couldn’t just start talking to him like I’ve known him forever and he never left. No I stayed my shy self and didn’t talk. I never talked. Little did I know someday he would be the only one I could talk to.

Days later I finally got the courage to talk to him not knowing how much he had really changed in the past 6 years. Not knowing how much I had changed. We were completely different people then who we were before. It had been 6 years, we were now teenagers of course we had changed. I wasn’t very good at small talk so I just decided to say, “hi Parker,” he didn’t answer me so I said, “ sorry I just felt like we needed to talk, because we haven't really talked since school started."

We soon became friends, or at least people who talked. We slowly started talking more and more each day, but we still weren't that close. Not as close as we had used to be anyway. As time went on I tried talking more but I couldn't. I'd say something to my mom,"I have some friends who are boys."

"Did you hear that Nora has a boyfriend," she completely changed what I said.

I'd tell my other friends that I liked someone,"hey Ellie I so have a crush on Darius."

"I think you shouldn't date until after college," she ignored the fact that I'm my own person I can make my own decisions, I can decide when I'm ready to date.

I soon decided I wasn't comfortable talking to them if they were going to tell me what I should do, or make fun of what I say. I shut down and keep to myself hope that I don't implode. Until I was able to find someone who I could talk to, I would just keep to myself. At first keeping to myself was hard. I wanted to be an open person, but I didn't have anyone I could talk to. After time it became easy. It was now normal for me.

By hiding my truth I started learning other people's truths. I learned some of them were similar to me. Their problems weren't exactly the same, but they were close enough. It was almost the end of grade 8 when I found myself talking to Parker. I was finally opening up. I felt I could trust him. He didn't tell anyone he didn't make fun of any of it.

I hadn't noticed at first, but Parker had been opening up to me too. He trusted me as I did him. It was like we were meant to be in each other's lives. Like we were meant to find each other. After a fine time opening up to each other I found myself changing. I was becoming the me that was hiding from the world. I was becoming the me I had always dreamed of being. Parker was now the number one person I talked to. I became an open book to someone who wasn't afraid to share how they felt, or to share their ideas. When someone told me a secret, me being the person I was, I would tell Parker because I was an open book now I couldn't keep anything in anymore, and chances are if someone told me a secret they weren't keeping hidden from people. Even before I became such an open book my friends knew I couldn't keep secrets.

Parker and I got pretty close. We could easily talk to each other and we were so similar,so we decided to date. There was no way you could get a stronger relationship, we always agreed on everything we never fought. We were together and we were happy. Trust is hard to find, and people will easily break your trust, but if you find the right person never let them go. The right person could be in front of you for years without you knowing it, but you never know until you put yourself out there and talk. After you learn who you are you shouldn't be afraid to tell others let everyone know your truth.

Long ago, in elementary school, I had my first love, and his name was Parker. It was grade three when he started going to a different school. I thought I’d never see him again. Six years later, I had kind of forgotten about him. We were now going into grade eight and he started coming to the high school. Most times in movies and books two people fall in love get separated then when they are brought back together they fall in love right away. Well for us it was nothing like that. We came back into each other's lives, but to me we weren’t really even friends.

We lived on like this for most of the school year. We never really talked that much, nor did we even hangout very much. I didn’t really mind much. To me Parker was someone in my past that didn’t mean that much to me now. I was happy with only having my other two very good friends Bell and Olivia. Throughout the year I became friends with Josh who just happened to be Parker's best friend, but still things didn't change with us.

Things kept going on like this for a while until one Saturday in June, Parker was on his way to the city, and I was sitting in my bedroom. Both of us had nothing to do so we started texting each other. We texted all day, learning more about each other, learning about what had happened in the years we were apart. I learned a lot that day not knowing that was only the beginning of what I would later know.

After talking for a bit we didn't know what else to say so I asked him,"Is there anything you want to know about me?"

He replied,"If I ask you a question you have to ask me one too. I guess."

Then he asked,"Would you ever date a girl?"

I responded," Probably not," not knowing that later on that answer would change.

It was my turn to ask a question, and I asked the only thing that came to mind, "Would you ever date me? "

He replied, "If you wanted to date me, yeah."

I said "Cool. I'd probably date you too if you wanted," not knowing what I had just said would change my life.

Our conversation went back to a normal conversation for a bit until Parker sent a weird picture of himself, and I commented on it, "What happened here we went from talking about dating each other to a random picture of you."

Then Parker asked " Can I ask you one more question?"

I didn't think much of it and said "Sure."

He asked, "Do ya wanna, date??"

Not knowing he had just asked me out I replied, "Do you? Kind of."

He answered back, "I mean, yeah."

At this point I was kinda confused because I had never been asked out, but someone had asked me, like that, if I wanted to date people other than themselves. Thus saying I asked, "Wait do you mean each other or other people?"

He, probably confused, replied, "Each other."

Knowing I would have said the same thing no matter what he answered, I said, " Ok good."

Parker's response to this was, "Hella sweet."

I, still being kinda confused asked, "So what does this mean?"

He replied again, “Lit means we're dating I guess."

Neither one of us expected this to happen. I had never dated someone before, and he wasn't looking for a girlfriend, but somehow we came together. Right away I told Bell and Olivia, and Parker told Josh. The three of them were shocked. Josh was scared of his two best friends dating, breaking up, and then hating each other. Olivia didn’t like Parker very much, and her and Bell thought people our age shouldn't be dating. Bell and Olivia had known me for so long and didn't think I'd date someone for along time.

The last two weeks of school passed on and summer soon started. I went to spend time with my grandparents, so Parker and I were an hour and a half apart. I thought to myself, there is no way our relationship will even last a week. We were an hour and a half apart and wouldn't be able to see each other until school started again.

I was right. Our relationship didn't last past summer, but it lasted for one month and two weeks. We ended up breaking up because Parker thought we were better off as friends. A week after we broke up we were talking, and it finally hit me that our relationship was over. I cried for hours, but I didn't tell him that.

About two weeks or so, after we broke up, Parker was in a relationship again, but this time with a guy he met online. I didn’t know this until I was in my own relationship with a girl I met online about a month after our break up. I dated this girl for just over a week until she started saying things like how she didn’t know if she wanted to date me. I told her we should take a break until she knew what she wanted. A few days later we were back together, but then she broke up with me getting mad at me and saying it was all my fault. After this I became in a bad place, and Parker helped me out of it only for me to help him with a break up a week later.

Parker was the first love of my life and I'll always love him. After we broke up we became better friends then we had ever been. We now know everything about each other. We can trust each other. When one of us isn't in a good mood the other can cheer them up. Just because you date and break up doesn't mean you can't be the best of friends in the end. If I had the chance to do something like this again, I'd gladly do it if it meant I'd get a friend even half as good as Parker.