Cookies + Texting

Not much happened after Joey and I took our first selfie together the night of the homecoming game. The end of senior year was fast approaching. I had few plans for the summer besides working before attending Iowa State in the fall. Graduation was so close. I couldn’t wait to be done with high school. One day between classes, I jumped into a hallway conversation between one of my best friends and Joey. He was complaining to her that he never received cookies—something she had just given a friend going through a breakup—from her after his breakup. I chimed in that I’d also not received my special “breakup cookies” the year prior. “We should make our own cookies” Joey said to me. A small laugh escaped my lips. “Yeah, we should do that” I halfheartedly agreed.

Our next class was band—my favorite class. Shortly after taking my seat, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and to my shock, there was a text from Joey. “So when are we going to make these cookies?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. Joey never texted me. I had hardly ever even talked to him! I texted back a quick, noncommittal “Oh, I don’t know. Sometime!” His texts kept on coming and I kept on responding. We talked about everything. Surprisingly I found him so easy to talk to.

Many late nights following that day were spent texting back and forth with our fastest T9 skills. Joey, the boy I’d liked, then fallen out of like with and ignored for the last three years, was becoming a fast friend. My opinion and my heart began to shift. Texting him was exciting. I don’t know what it was, but I started looking forward to seeing his messages on my phone. What started as a random text was quickly turning into an all day, every day occurrence. And that didn’t upset me one bit.

We never made cookies together, but that hallway conversation changed my life forever.

This is us at high school graduation about two weeks after our texting had begun!

Catch up on the rest of the story:

I: Middle School Band, Day One
II: He likes me, he likes me not
III: Summertime Crush
IV: Royalty and Selfies
V: Cookies + Texting
VI: Gas Station Hugs