Back in 2009 my mom kept trying to introduce me to this guy she met while going to the gym. "He's so funny!" she'd say, "I think you'd really like him!". I knew he was a couple of years younger than me though so I kept telling her "No, mom. He's still a baby". At this time, I still lived in Nebraska. The day I came home for Christmas break I was at K-mart typing up reports for a friend, and in walked this tall guy with dark hair. I didn't know it was him at first, but after a few minutes I figured it out. I told him "Oh, YOU'RE the one my mom always talks about". He just gave me a weird look and moved on. A few weeks later I ended up adding him to Facebook, because isn't that how all the cool kids do it these days? He sent me a message a few days later and we ended up talking for hours. I remember we talked about our mutual friends, parties and peanut butter. And then we made plans to get together the next time I was in town.
I didn't really expect him to follow through with our plans. I figured he was just trying to be nice, but on February 27th I picked him up from work and we went to my friends party. I was so nervous. We had a really great time, until some really unexpected things happened and the ambulance got called for one of the girls there. We ended up going back to my moms house and hanging out there instead. I didn't think he was ever going to speak to me again because the night ended up being so crazy, but we were together the next weekend and the weekend after that and almost every weekend that followed.
I started coming back to Missouri every weekend so that I could see him. Back in Nebraska I was working 2 jobs, 11 hours a day 5 days a week, so coming back home and being a teenager again felt really nice. We were always doing fun things, like going to "Felix's Grave" with our friends Scott and Shannon. We used to go on walks a lot back then, too. We'd walk around, holding hands, telling each other stories trying to get to know one another. We were also good at causing trouble here and there. We went with his friends a couple of times to TP and fork their teachers house. Like I said, I was used to trying to be responsible, I wanted to have fun! And it was :) He was always doing things to make me laugh... I never wanted to leave on Sundays when it was time for me to drive back home, 2 hours away.
After dating for a couple of months, I decided that I was going to move back to Missouri. I was tired of having to leave him every weekend and I really wasn't ready to ask him to move up to Nebraska with me. He didn't have any family there like I did, so I didn't feel like it was fair. His parents were getting ready to move to their house at the lake, so we decided that we'd move into my moms house together to save up some money until we could get our own place.
At that time, I worked at a Preschool and Elementary School and had to finish out the year before I could move home. It was my last Monday at work and Preston and I had been texting all day. I got the last text from him around 3:30. I knew he had to be at work around 4 though, so I didn't think anything of it. I thought it was weird though that I didn't hear from him on his lunch break, and when 11 pm rolled around and I didn't get a call, i decided to call him. His phone went straight to voicemail. Of course my mind went to the worst possible place, but it's NEVER that, so I told myself that he was probably out with friends and that his phone had died and I went to bed.
The next morning before my alarm went off, I got a phone call. It was my mom yelling "Why didn't you tell me Preston wrecked his brand new car!". Of course, I hadn't heard from him since 3:30 the day before, so I had no idea what was going on. I instantly burst into tears and my mom called the hospital to look for him. The first thing he said to her on the phone was that he wanted to call but his phone broke in the wreck and he didn't know how to get ahold of us without our numbers. She called me on 3 way so that I could talk to him, thankfully. On his way to work the day before, a few minutes after 3:30, a truck pulling a trailer loaded with hay bales pulled out infront of him. Going highway speed, Preston couldn't get stopped and he crashed into the side of him. His lung collapsed, he had staples in the back of his head, and fractured his wrist. It could have been a lot worse, but from what I heard from the police officer, it would have been had his wheel been even slightly turned. I went to work for about an hour that day and couldn't get my mind off of him, so I went home, packed my car up and moved to Missouri that day.
It's crazy what something like that can do to your feelings for someone. I didn't want to leave his side. He was in the hospital for 2 weeks and had to have lung surgery because the hole wasn't healing on its own. I realized then how much he really meant to me. I hated seeing him in so much pain. He lost about 30 pounds during that time and was really beat up. I knew he was going to be okay, but it's really hard to see someone you care so much about in so much pain when you can't do anything to help.
I stayed in the hospital with him for a couple of nights. After he got a little better and was up moving around, he was back to his normal, silly self. After it was dark we'd turn the light on in the room and open the blinds and do stupid things in the hospital window to try to get the attention of the people across the parking lot. We laughed so hard and they probably never even saw us, but it felt good to see him having a good time again.
He was in the hospital for 2 weeks and went home on June 6th, I believe. He was so strong through everything! The wreck really put things into perspective for me... I'll never forget how it felt.
The wreck put off all of the moving for about a month. He moved into my moms house on July 1st, finally! I'm sure it was weird for him not seeing his parents all the time, but at the end of July we went to the Lake to visit them for my birthday. We had a nice vacation tanning on the docks, going down the slide, shopping, swimming, and playing on the jetski. We crashed a lot, haha.
After that, life kind of slowed down a bit. We were mostly working at our new jobs and trying to get settled into our new "home". Somedays we wouldn't see a lot of each other because our schedules were so different. On the days we had off together though we'd catch a movie or stay home and bug each other. My mom always said that the neighbors were going to call the cops on us. We were always screaming. He was always trying to give me a wedgie, so of course I had to get him back! Too bad he's stronger than me and I ended up in a headlock or my undies practically pulled over my head. We always had fun together though and that's the best part. It's crazy to think that if I hadn't added him to facebook that night that we might not be where we are today.
February 27, 2010
