Joel Osborne

In the middle of all the chaos, we kissed. It was such a delicate, sweet kiss that I wanted it to go on forever. Then, he shot me! He shot me. ( Well not literally, we were playing lazer tag.) He ended up winning the whole game. The event I just described to you was my first date with Joel, the first of many.
It was June 2012, my friends and I were all acne-faced, oily-skinned, squeaky-voiced, soon to be freshman. Joel was a Sophomore. I had a crush on him since the 4th grade, and I finally found the courage to tell my friends at my 14th birthday sleepover.
“Cass, your turn.”
We had been playing truths, a game we made up so we wouldn't have to do dares. The rules of the game are you have to tell you deepest, darkest secret, no matter what.
“Okay, I have had a crush on Joel Osborne since the 4th grade”, I confessed in barely a whisper.
“WHAT WHY HAVE YOU NOT TOLD ME?!”
Lily is my best friend, and has been since preschool. She is very loud and I am very quiet, polar opposites of each other. Even though it is three a.m. she still yelled at me at the top of her lungs. We all shushed her quickly, not wanting to wake my parents.
In a whisper Lily stated, “Y’all are going to be a couple soon, leave it to me.”
That's the last thing she says to me before she fell asleep and left in the morning without saying goodbye. She had Joel talking to me within a week. He's the pastor's son at the church we go to. It wasn't very hard for Lily to get us to start talking. We had youth the night after my birthday, that's the first time I heard him speak towards me. What he said made my smile light up the entire room.
~~~
“Cass you look dazzling”, Joel states it like it's a fact.
I felt like I was blushing, no I knew I was blushing. My outfit is just a simple T-shirt and shorts, nothing exciting. For a second I wonder if he was dared to do this; I knew I didn't look dazzling.
“Well thank you!” I responded with a small smile.
“So, do you want to go out sometime?” He asked, beaming.
I'm mentally freaked out! Joel Osborne just asked me out! But I kept calm on the outside.
“Sure.”
Joel responded looking like he could jump up and down, “Okay! Friday 6:30.”
“Where are we going?”
“It's a surprise.” He smiled and walked away.
I need to find Lily! She had to be the first one to know. I found her leaning against the back wall, staring at me, smirking.
“How'd it go?” She asked, still smirking.
“Come on.” I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to our secret hiding spot. A spot we've had since going to church here.
“Okay, he told me I looked dazzling, then asked me out. We have a date on Friday.”
Lily responds happily, “Yay! Yay! Yay! You have to always keep me updated.”
“I will.”
That night I couldn't sleep. Our date was in two days. When I finally fell asleep I had a smile on my face; I dreamt of him.
~~~
The the next day my mom took me to the mall to get a new outfit. The problem was, I didn’t know what to wear! Dress or jeans? Dress of jeans? That was the question. I like wearing dresses anyways, so that’s what I got. It was an olive green t-shirt dress that was longer in the back, shorter in the front, with black, high top, converse. My mom even bought me some new makeup from Sephora. My hair pulled the whole outfit together. I got lucky enough to have long, thick, brown ringlets. I pulled it half up and half down. My date wasn’t until tomorrow, but I had to have a trial run with everything on. I ate spaghetti without getting anything on my dress. That’s when I knew I was ready.
That night I couldn’t sleep again; I was counting down the hours until my date. Tomorrow would be perfect, I felt it. Lily said my outfit was perfect, down to my earrings. I was ecstatic. If Lily said it was perfect, then it is perfect. I fell asleep with another smile on my face.
~~~
I got ready at 5, Joel was there 6:30, on the dot. My mom had to take pictures. Those 15 minutes would have dragged on to 30 if Joel wouldn’t have said we would be late. The destination was still a mystery.
“Where are we going?”, I asked impatiently.
Joel replied with a smirk, “You’ll see when we get there.”
I guess I made a face because he just laughed and put a cd in. It was High School Musical. High School Musical. My favorite movie, ever. I started singing along instantly. Joel didn’t do anything but sing along with me. He made me happy. We sang at the top of our lungs until we made it to our destination. A laser tag arena.
~~~
“You couldn’t tell me not to wear a dress!”, I felt my voice squeak as I slightly yelled at him.
“Sorry.”, He just couldn’t stop smirking.
Joel payed for my ticket and bought a slushy, with two straws, for us to share while we waited for the next game. We just smiled, sitting right beside each other, drinking a cherry coke slushy. Then we were called to the gate for the next game.
“Please grab a vest and gun from the wall. To know what team you are, look on the inside pocket of your vest for a slip of colored paper.”, the worker sounded like a robot, reading the directions off from a piece of paper.
“Orange.”, Joel looked at me and smiled.
“Blue.”, I smirked back at him.
We joined our new teams before going into the area. My goal was to win, it always is. I met my new teammates, a group for four teenage boys, none of them better looking then Joel. My thought made me smile. I like Joel, but I had to beat him. My team's plan was to send groups of two in, five minutes apart. Then I would go in and finish the job, five minutes after the last two. When I looked over at the orange team, they were in a huddle. Joel looked up and smiled then, got right back to planning. Two minutes until we went in. Two minutes until I planned to win.
~~~
“Gate opens in five, four, three, two, one, go!”
My group ran to our base while Joel’s group ran to theirs. I set a timer on my watch for 10 minutes, and sat guarding the others. Our first two went out, one running and making a distraction, while the other shot at the orange team. They got hit fast, the other two went out earlier than planned. I didn’t try to learn their names, Joel was the only one that mattered. With 7 minutes until I was supposed to go, I was bored. I didn’t hear Joel sneak up on me.
“Hey beautiful. I’m not going to shoot, I just wanted to see you.”
His statement made my cheeks get as red as a tomato immediately. He called me beautiful. He wanted to see me.
“Come on, let's go find somewhere to hangout.”
He grabbed my hand and took me to the corner of the room, farthest from the battle. My heart started beating faster. Was he going to kiss me? We sat there until there was a minute left on my timer. Then, he pulled me closer.
“I love you Cass Olivia.”
He kissed me. Me. It felt like it lasted forever. His kiss was so delicate and sweet, I knew it was genuine. I knew he meant it. I murmured a “I love you” back while we kissed. When my timer when off, he pulled away. Before I could pull my gun, he shot my vest. The lights came on and the worker announced that orange team had won.
Joel had tricked me. He looked at me with the same smirk on his face that I felt like I had seen all day. He did a happy dance then pulled me back to him. He kissed me again.
“I meant what I said.”
Then he kissed me once more before walking me to his car and taking me home. From that point on, I knew that Joel would be my person. My Joel.
~~~
I’m writing this on the night before our wedding. Joel is sleeping soundly beside me with a smile on his face. He’s beautiful. He’s my Joel. Of course, I can’t sleep. Tomorrow is the anniversary of our first date, and our wedding day, June, 27th, 2020. Tomorrow I will be Mrs. Joel Osborne, and that makes me happy.