Everyone who said that seeing the love of my life for the first time was going to be "one of the most romantic moments of my life" was wrong.

I was walking down the hall, hair in my mouth as I stared at my textbook cramming for the upcoming calc test when I completely slammed into a locker. Down I fell, book falling and scattering my notes all over the floor, textbooks in my backpack slamming into my lower back since I refused to use a locker, and my hair being slammed into the back of my throat, making me gag. The gasps I heard all around me followed by a mysterious figure hoisting me up so they could attempt to give me the Heimlich as I choked on my hair was - what I thought would be - the most embarrassing moment of my life. My vision was black as I continued to choke, unable to pull the hair out of my mouth since the figure's arms were in front of my arms instead of under.

Suddenly, I found myself in the nurse's office. To my left was Nurse Feldman - someone I knew a little too well with my accidents - in his infamous rolley chair. On the right, however, was a new face I hadn't seen yet. This brown-eyed blond hair beauty was staring straight at me... a little too focused as he wrote on his notepad.

"Armon, stop staring at the patient. You make them feel uncomfortable that way," Nurse Feldman called as he kept his focus on the computer in front of him.

"Yes, Mr.Feldma-"

"NURSE Feldman, lad. Nurse. Feldman. Otherwise, I feel too old." Armon tried to hide his smile after being chastised by the head nurse, but he couldn't hide it from me. Nurse Feldman turned from his computer, looked at me, and shook his head in disappointment. "Dannie... What are we going to do with you? You keep getting worse and worse." I tried to give him an innocent smile, but he shook his head at me once more. After showing him some semblance of disappointment in myself, he cracked a smile.

"I'm sorry, Mr... Nurse Feldman.. sir, is this a frequent patient?" Nurse Feldman broke his gaze from me and looked at Armon.

"Yes, this is Dannie. She's one of our regulars. Be it bullying, accidents, or strokes of luck, she makes it in here at least once a week." Armon stuck his hand out to me. I slowly extended mine, which he gripped a little too tightly to shake.

"I'm Armon! I'm an intern!"

"Armon, you're a little too excited. You're in a high school nurse's office, you have to be stern." Armon sheepishly pulled his hand from mine, making me realize that the butterflies he made from touching my skin weren't disappearing. He continued to smile.

"Nice to meet you, Armon... I'm Dannie. I'll probably be seeing you often..."

"I hope so! It seems I'll learn a lot from you!"

"Armon! No flirting with the patients!" I could feel my cheeks getting red, but it looked like his were too. We stared at each other, knowing this was going to be a very interesting semester.

Goddammit, that song just played. The song that drifts me back into this lilac and indigo haze. The boy at the pharmacy that made my brain start contemplating that whole falling thing again. I haven't fallen in a long time. The deep thuds within my chest and flush of panic when someone comes near felt so foreign they nearly took me out. I worked at the store now, so I see the boy from the pharmacy often. Boy. I mean, we're both in our twenties so he's a man but all the men I've been with have left some pretty deep scars. Let's put it in the middle - guy.

Said guy sends me into a goddamn panic attack every time I see him. You would think this man was carved by Michelangelo and had the personality of a Funfetti rainbow sundae. Maybe I just have this way of knowing what someone has inside because if I showed this guy to you, you'd probably think I'm boy crazy. He's just an average male with male-smelling hormones that are drawing me in.

But, what if I am not just crazy? What if you can look at someone and see who they are and your internal organs all react at once to their presence? I don't really like to get all Jesus-y about my impulses, but I know that I have spiritual gifts that I am truly unable to control. Getting used to it is the equivalent of a "weird" character realizing their whole life, they've had this super cool ability. Mine is the ability to know, which makes me really uncomfortable.

As a child, I had an awesome memory. Not even trying to brag, but I always remember people's names and faces. I can remember things about people from first grade like I just heard them yesterday. But, when you are six and try to become friends by remembering everything you've ever learned about them, you are basically a young Jeffrey Dahmer. So, by eight, I had completely masked my ability to remember things. Unless it was school-related (since I am a SUCKER for a good fact), I played dumb. Over the years, once I was close to someone, I would reveal how much I paid attention though usually no one really knows.

And now the present, I pay a lot of attention. As a cashier, I have to do something aside from yelling that I need something over the PA and bagging 10 laundry detergents. I know things about my customers that they would never know I knew. Without that context, it looks like I am a stalker. But I'm not. I just am a firm believer that if you're in my life, it's for a reason and that I should be a positive reason and not a negative one.

So back to this male that has given me more chills than the cooler I have to stock occasionally, I notice a lot. He's super good at customer service, and I think he really cares about people. He makes jokes to people he knows but doesn't really talk to strangers (like me and some of my co-workers), which makes me think introverted or reserved. Then, all the assumptions just begin to cascade and I get lost in that haze of imagination and start grinning and giggling.

Then I realize I'm being strange. The heat from my blushing makes me sweat and hazes my eyes. The terrible thoughts hit like a tsunami drowning and I gasp for air. My eyes water and my body trembles. If I'm at work, my body quickly rectifies itself. I stop breathing then my breathing slows to normal. My chest tightens and my hands stop shaking. My mind goes blank and the teariness in my eyes clears up. I depart momentarily, and when I go back to wherever the guy was, he's usually gone.

My body is relieved but my heart always feels cold and empty. I feel like I ruin everything. I go home and dive into a bag of edibles so the pain subsides and I can at least enjoy the rest of my night. I turn on music, my Sad Girl Shit playlist, and let Bad Bunny serenade me with my troubles. I drift into the thought of my soulmate. Whoever he is and wherever he is. I think of things we'll do together - cooking high, playing at a playground at 3 am, cuddling while watching the garbage television I used to sneak and watch after school. I wonder what he'll look like when I meet him. The thoughts of panicking creep back but a funny joke he'll say or a compliment he gives me neutralizes it like it will to once we're together.

I wonder what will happen the next day at work, drifting to the thought of the pharmacy guy again. Disney plays in my head. I drift into the scene of Megara, playing with a white flower while grinning and reminding herself she's not in love. The scene I imagined with so many other boys (and girls at some points) as I fought my worldly hormones to jump on the first thing with genitals and my spiritual desire to be with someone that is meant for me. I thought that fight would end as I got out of high school and started college. I thought I was over falling for any boy that moved. I thought that all the heartbreak and subsequent self-blaming and chastizing would stop all of the thoughts eventually.

Maybe I'm right about this one and just need to get over everything from the past and learn to trust myself again. Maybe I feel these things for certain men because they're real interpretations and I should go for it. Maybe I'm just convincing myself to try since I'm tired of being alone. Maybe I should go to bed because I have work in the morning.

Tom was sitting at the coffee shop, nursing a cup of coffee and feeling sorry for himself. It was a dreary day outside, and he had just been laid off from his job. He was debating whether to order another cup of coffee or call it a day when Jill walked in.

Jill was an attractive woman, and Tom couldn't help but stare at her as she walked by. She caught him looking and smiled, and Tom suddenly felt like a schoolboy. He blushed and looked away, only to catch her looking at him again out of the corner of his eye.

Tom tried to focus on his coffee, but he found that he couldn't concentrate with Jill sitting nearby. He kept stealing glances at her, admiring her curves and beauty. Suddenly, she got up to leave and Tom's heart sank. He thought he'd never see her again.

But then she came back over to his table carrying two cups of coffee. "I didn't want you to leave without saying goodbye," she said with a smile. Tom was elated – he could have talked to her all day! They talked about their lives and shared some laughs before finally parting ways. But Tom knew that he would be seeing Jill again soon…

Once upon a time, there were two colored hearts. The pink heart and the blue heart. They both started off as strangers, but as their circle of friends grew, they found themselves getting pulled to one another. Other shapes kept pushing them together until, one day, they both realized that they've grown feelings for each other. So everyday, the pink heart kept asking the other shapes what it meant for it to grow a centimeter and beat a loud thump each day. Meanwhile, the blue heart bottled up what it actually felt. Time passed, shapes grew and found their mates, tangents met, and seasons aligned. The pink heart and the blue heart each went and lived their separate lives. Reminiscing a love of what could have been if feelings were just shared. If fear wasn't a variable. Unfortunately, they were parallel lines. The blue heart, filled with regret, could only hope, "If only we were perpendicular lines, because a love that is 90 degrees is perfect."

How they met

As Andrea walked the school as usual, books pressed to her chest, her hair pulled back in a low pony tale and nerdy classes adorning her eyes. When she felt herself collide with something hard, waiting to stumble, and to hear the loud thud of her behind kissing the floor. But it never happened. Eyes, still shut and her body encaged in arms that was perfectly tone, a set of hazel eyes staring back at her as she peeked the through her oddly placed glasses. her body hovering above the floor in his arms. Stiffening at the realization that the arms that held her belonged to Matt. Matt, the jog, the hottest boy alive. And here he stood with her in his arms, that charming side smirk that every girl got weak in the knees for.

The disbelieve of the odd that he would be her knight and shinning armor.

That is how meet-cutes play out in so many young people, when in reality it is the opposite of all of that.

In reality, a normal meet-cute, is not as cute as books make them,

In my case, the good looking boy that caught my eye at church on a Sunday morning after service. For a second it felt like we were the only two people alive. Little did i know that the moment he started to 'yap' I would feel like punching him so many times he would forget his name. Apart from the girls stroke his ego, making it grow bigger than it already was. He knew he had every girl around his pinky, and he owned it. I guess you could say, that was a put off to me.

The next Sunday church service I saw him, I felt less pleased. After service we had brunch in the church yard. We were standing in a group when a priest decided to hand on the both of us and utter "Just because you older now, do not think you can start kissing" I remember him chocking on the donut he had been eating and I coughed up the orange juice that barely made down my throat.

Long story short. Even though I was put off by his arrogance, God had other plans. Here I am eight years down the line with the boy I like, Disliked and now engaged to be married. I must say though, after eight years I finally realize that it was all a act, he is the sweetest idiot you could ever find.