True Love

Joe was an average kid growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania. He was a 5'10" 135 lb self-proclaimed geek. He loved reading, writing poetry, and going for walks through the forest. Joe was the product of a teenaged pregnancy, his mother had him when she was 15, and he never met his real father, as he left before Joe was born. This, coupled with being raised by his mother and grandmother made Joe extremely shy when it came to talking to new people, especially girls.

Joe considered himself to be a very moral person and prided himself on not being like the other "jackasses" at school. Where they treated women as objects, Joe was able to truly see their beauty and appreciate them. The problem was he couldn't talk to them.

Joe had one major crush growing up, her name was Ashley. He first met her in third grade and immediately fell in love, and this continued up until the end of his junior year in high school. This is when he learned not to build girls up to some idyllic unattainable level, because this is what makes him so incredibly shy, and Joe learned this through the realization that the girl whom he had loved had turned out to be a slut. This crushed him, and for the first summer in a long time, Joe didn't write love poetry.

Joe began his senior year as all the other seniors at his high school did, searching frantically for something to do for a senior project, a state-mandated project that all seniors needed to complete in order to graduate. This is when Joe was approached by an old English professor of his who wanted to know if Joe would like to do a play for his senior project along with another senior. Joe jumped at this chance, as he loved the theater and he would be doing something he loved for a project.

As they say, all stories are about a girl, and this is no exception. Joe stayed after school to talk to his professor and the other student to discuss what they were going to do. When Joe saw who he was going to be working with, he smiled and considered himself lucky. Her name was Charlotte, easily the nicest, sweetest, most down to Earth girl Joe had ever met, and one of the only ones that he was able to talk to without becoming a nervous wreck, she just had this calming aura around her. Whenever thinking of Charlotte, Joe would just think of Janeane Garofalo, he always thought that they were incredibly similar.

The weeks passed by with Joe and Charlotte meeting 3 times a week to practice on the play. Joe was becoming more and more comfortable around her and always talked and joked with her in school, and the funny thing was that he didn't even realize he was in love with her but everyone else did. Joe was asked by many people if he liked her and when was he going to ask her out, but he just laughed them off and denied it, until one fateful day at play practice. Joe, Charlotte, and their English professor/play director were in the school auditorium practicing. Charlotte was looking incredibly cute in her jeans with roses weaved into the legs and a simple white button down shirt, and she was sitting on the stage looking over lines. Joe was standing over her talking to their professor when all of a sudden Charlotte looked up at them, and the spotlights above the stage hit her eyes. When Joe looked down into her eyes, lit up by the lights, that is when he knew. He just stared down, feeling as though he was gazing into the stars themselves.

The weeks and months pressed on, each time Joe feeling himself fall deeper in love with her. Finally, in December, the day had come to put on the play. The show was a success and Joe and Charlotte went out to dinner to celebrate. At dinner, Charlotte looked so incredibly beautiful with her sparkling eyes and smiling face, that Joe began to feel the butterflies in his stomach. He had been practicing this moment over the past month and now that it was here, he was nervous, but he had to tell her. Joe reached across the table, took one of her hands, and looked into her eyes.

"Charlotte, there is something that I must tell you, now before I completely lose my nerve." Joe said with his voice quaking.

"What is it Joe? You're shaking! Is everything alright?" Charlotte responded with a little concern in her voice.

"Yes, I am fine, I'm just a bit nervous. I've never done this before, and I hope that it comes out alright. You see Char, I...I've had...have a bit of a...actually a big..."

"Calm down Joe, just spit it out." Charlotte says with somewhat of an amused expression on her face. She knows what he is trying to say, for she also has known how he felt about her for a long time now, she has just been waiting for him to come out and say it.

"I'm in love with you, I know this sounds crazy and maybe scary and will probably scare you away from how intense that word love is but I really really do love you I know I do and I have for awhile now I just haven't been able to tell you because I'm all shy and nervous as you can probably tell because I keep rambling on and on and I just can't stop talking and I hope that you don't get scared away because I want to know if you will do me the incredible honor of going out with me?" Joe says all this with one breath, finally stopping at the end to catch his breath, searching her face for a sign, any sign.

"Joe, you don't have to be so nervous around me ok? I know that you are in love with me, I'm just glad you can finally say it, because it gives me an opportunity to say something I've been waiting to say for awhile now. You are, without a doubt, the sweetest guy I've ever met. You aren't like everyone else in the school, when you talk to me, you look directly into my eyes, you don't ogle me, and looking back into your eyes I can truly tell that you care about me. Of this I am relieved because during this time we have spent together working on the play, I have fallen in love with you too, and nothing would make me happier than going out with you."

Joe breathes an intense sigh of relief, breaks out into a huge smile, kisses both of Charlotte's hands and gives her a giant hug. They sit there, hugging each other and crying from the relief that they both feel. They both know that this is a love that will last.