LOVE STORY



This is the story of Jason and I.  How we first met, how we fell in love, how that love amazingly continues to grow everyday, and how our life unfolds together on this beautiful journey that we have started together.  This is our story, it may not be like the romantic novels that Nicholas Sparks writes, and it may not be a chick flick that everyone so rightfully swoons over,  but it is ours, and it's my favorite story of them all.

Chapter 1

It was January 7, 2013, and my friends and I were invited to a friends birthday party. There were going to be a lot of people there, and that meant that we could meet some new faces and make new friends. So, we went to this party, and when we got there we saw a familiar face and gravitated in that direction. This party was at a cabin, so my friends and I were upstairs in the loft playing pool with some guys that we knew. Then, some guys that we didn't know came up and… "Oh… he's cute! And wow… his eyes are unreal." I thought to my timid little self.

Luckily for us, these guys that we knew and the guys that we didn't know were friends. They introduced themselves and the cute boy with the pretty eyes told me that his name was Jason. So, as the night went on, we talked and got to know each other, but the party was big and the options were endless, so after awhile we split up to meet other people. At the end of the night, Jason and his friends were leaving, and my friends and I were still with that mutual friend of ours. Jason turned and asked me, "You hang out with Dakota a lot, right?" and I said, "um… yeah?" and he said, "Cool! Well I'm sure I'll see you around then."

 …………

 Okay… really? Well, that was being blown off if I'd ever been blown off before! He didn't ask for my number, nothing. Just a "see you around!" Oh well, you can't win 'em all… A few nights later, our friend Dakota invited us to another party, and we decided to go. Upon arrival, Who do I see but all my friends?! And that mysterious cute guy that I suddenly forgot his name.. oops. And you know what I did? I marched straight up to him, put my hands on both sides of his face, and got unusually close to his face with mine and said, "You're the boy with the pretty eyes! But I forgot your name… what is it? I promise I won't forget it again." WTF… Did I just do that? If you know me, you know that is extremely out of the ordinary for me to be that gutsy.. especially with cute boys. Of course he gave me trouble, but he finally told me his name. Again, it was a party, so we chatted for a bit and went on our way.

At the end of the night, my friends and I were with Dakota, and Jason had taken a picture of my friend and I with Dakota at the last party. Dakota asked him to send it to him, and I piped in and said, "Oh! Send it to me too!" So, he then asked me for my number so he could send it to me.

Guess what? He didn't send it to me. In fact, he didn't even text me at all.

However, I did see him pretty much every single day that week because I had become quite good friends with his friend group. Like all the other times, we would talk but nothing to show that either of us had interest. At this point, I just thought that we were friends. So, now that we were such good buddies, about a week or so later, I got a text from Jason saying, "Sheree Otterson what's up?" I am no game player, so I texted him back right away... smooth right? And not only did I text him back right away, this is what my text said, "haha hey Jas! I'm sitting in English.. Yuck. haha you?" Okay... since when did I start calling him 'Jas' like we are on a nickname basis? And why did I nervous giggle twice in a 10 word text? Give me the award for worst game player ever. Anyway, he asked me if I would help him pass out flyers for his friend's party at my lunch break. Since we were such good friends, of course I said yes and didn't think anything of it!

We met in the food court at UVU to pass out flyers, and he said that he would buy me lunch after for helping him out. So, as we passed out flyers, we talked. This was the first time that I had actually been alone with Jason and talking to just him. We talked about so many different things, and he brought up dating. He asked me, "if a guy asked you out, and you weren't interested and knew that there would never be a chance that you would date him, what is your opinion? Do you live by the one date rule, or would you say no?" I straight up told him that I'd say no.

I'm going to get on my soap box here for a minute. I have six brothers, and all of my older brothers have told me that they would rather a girl be honest and upfront with them at the beginning, because planning a date takes time, effort, and money. Not only that, but they get their hopes up that you might be considering dating them.. I mean, you said yes to the date, so that must mean there's a little bit of interest, right? Wrong. If a girl isn't interested and knows that there's no chance, most guys would rather the girl say no. There's ways to be tactful about saying no, but I think it isn't nice to say yes if you know you're not interested. There's my two cents on the subject.

Anyway, so, right after I told him my opinion and why, you know what this ballsy kid did? He asked me on a date for that Friday! It was a group date that he and his friends had planned, and of course I said that I'd love to go. So, we went to Costa Vida and had lunch, and we talked and talked for hours. I missed my next class just because I didn't want to leave him yet. We found out that we had so much in common, and I was blown away by him. That little "trick date" that he took me on couldn't have gone better! And I couldn't wait to see him again. However, I was still a little confused, because I didn't know if he viewed me as just a friend, or if he was interested. I have always been "one of the guys," so I didn't know if he asked me just because I had become such good friends with all of them and they wanted to do a fun 'friend' date, or if he was into me.

Chris called me that night and asked me if there was anything going on between one of their friends Dakota and I, and I said no... not to my knowledge.  Why?  He said he was making sure that Jason wasn't stepping on anyone's toes or anything, and I laughed and said that he wasn't and that there was nothing going on between me and anyone at that point in time.  I later found out that Jason asked him to call and got so nervous when I answered that he left the room cause he didn't want to hear my answer.  He's so cute.  We talked for a little bit about the dynamics of our newfound friendship groups, and then we hung up.  Now, I just looked forward to Friday night group date night.

Chapter 2  

I lived with my parents at the time, which is kind of far away from where Jason and his friends all lived, so I gave him the option of me meeting him somewhere, but he insisted that he pick me up.  I was extremely impressed with him at this point, because most guys would be like, ya... that would be easier!  But Jason was different, and he thought it was ridiculous of me even to ask!  This was a date, after all.  Come Friday, I was so excited to go out with him because I had been looking forward to it all week!  I got my hair washed and styled at work, and spent more time on my makeup than usual, and by the time it came to picking out my outfit, I tried on about a million things before I finally decided on one.  He was a gentleman and came to my door to pick me up, and he was very personable and didn't seem phased at all to meet my family.  We drove with another couple, so conversation was easy between the four of us, but for some reason Jason was suddenly so shy.

We went on our date to The Chocolate, a little desert shop that makes amazing cakes, cookies, pastries, etc. and we ordered a Cazookie to split.  Jason and I were able to talk pretty easily, but not as easily as the other day that we went to lunch, he was acting so timid!  It was kind of adorable.  After our dessert, we went to Coulsen's house to watch a movie.  We ended up deciding on the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks in it.  The second the lights turned off, Jason strategically asked for a back scratch.  I gave him a back scratch and I was so focused on it!  I wanted it to be a really good one.  I think that's the moment he fell in love with me... haha just kidding. Kind of.  Then he asked if I wanted one, and I said sure, so he gave me one and then we cuddled as we watched the movie.

It was the best feeling!  You know when you have butterflies and your heart is racing and you're trying to be cool and fight back a smile, but no matter how hard you try, you just can't?  Yeah... that's how good it was.  I was so excited!  After the date, he drove me home, dropped me off on the door step and we said goodnight.  The next day I was meeting up with one of his friends to help him with some music, so I was super busy and completely forgot to do the "post date text."  Which I didn't even know guys expected, I just kind of always have done them if I had a good time.  I knew we were all planning on hanging out later that night, so I figured I would just talk to him that night.

While I was helping his friend, Chris, he told me, "Jason is so into you.  We have been planning on how to get you two together since we met you."  I was obviously flattered and excited, but I wanted to play it cool, so I was like, "really?  So he kinda likes me, huh?" haha and then I told him, "I had a good time with him last night, and I'm interested in Jason, but I guess we will see where things go!" and left it at that.

We all went to the Malt Shoppe on University for milkshakes, and it was the whole gang and then some.  There were so many people!  Jason came in, and said hi, but didn't give me a hug or anything.  He didn't even sit next to me at the table, and was kind of giving me the cold shoulder, so I was super confused, because in comparison to what Chris had told me earlier, he was not acting like he was interested in me at all.  I played it cool, talked to all of my friends and met some new people that were friends of our friends, and then we all were going to Chris' to watch a movie.  We were all talking and I met one of Jason's mission companions.  He was talking to me and asking me questions about myself, what am I studying, what do I like to do, etc, etc.  We were sitting on the floor, and Jason came over and sat next to us, and the three of us had a nice conversation.  The second we all were going to watch the movie, Jason was like, should we go sit on the couch?  And I said sure, and then BAM.  He wasted no time in putting his arm around me.  I was pleasantly surprised because all night I was wondering if he decided he didn't like me after the date.

After that night, We got closer, but both of us were still trying to act cool and not too interested, which made things more confusing for the both of us.  One night Jason invited me to a friends house to sing hymns and have dessert and stuff like that, so we went together.  Before we went, he took me to a church parking lot and taught me how to drive a stick shift.  We talked and laughed and had fun, and then we headed to his friends house and like always, there was a million people there. I didn't want to be annoying and attached at his hip, so I talked to everyone at the house, and tried to give him his space, which he took as me being uninterested.  He was going to leave me at the party, but he decided just to stick it out and take me home.  After the party, we talked and when he got to my house, he said, "..I kinda don't want to take you home right now."  Then I said, "I kinda don't want to go home right now."  then he turned around and we went to his favorite lookout.  We talked for hours about anything and everything, and after that night, there was no confusion on our feelings for each other.  From that point forward, everything just kept getting better and better.

To be Continued... :)

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