The Beginning of Daren + Angie

Angie and I met when I was 13 and she was 12. She sat in the seat behind me on an old burgundy-colored school bus owned by what is now our church (but we didn’t attend there at the time). We were headed to youth camp, and each of our churches arranged to be picked up. Her parents were pastoring the Prosser Church of God, and I was attending the youth group at Christian Worship Center. This is the same trip that Angie met one of her best friends, Amanda.

We instantly formed a friendship as well. Angie will probably kill me for telling the world, but she fell in love with me during this trip. Ok, probably not real love, but definitely an infatuation to rival any rom-com. I, on the other hand, had a secret crush on her older sister, Candy. Now, listen, blogging world, I was 13. That’s a license to make a lot of questionable decisions regarding hair cuts, clothing styles, music choices, and crushes. In all honesty, Candy is still one of my favorite persons on the planet. Plus, we get to geek out on trauma-informed support and social services.

Angie and I met right at the rise of the Internet and AOL Instant Messenger. We talked a lot on the original text messenger! I, the most naive boy on the planet, had no idea that Angie was like way into me. Unfortunately for her, I was also an avid flirt. I would flirt without even knowing it. Flirt. Flirt. Ghost. I would check out for a few months. Yeah, a real smooth criminal here.

As we grew older, Angie would spend the summers with Amanda and her family. We would get super close by going to camp together, traveling on missions trips, and just hanging out at bonfires and hang-out nights. I was busy chasing other girls, but still flirting my way to Angie’s heart. By the summer before my senior year, Angie had enough of my foolish ways. She decided to move on. To put the nail in the coffin of her hope for us together, she told me that she had a crush on me before. I vividly remember working next to her at Gleanings for the Hungry, elbow deep in peach guts when she told me.

Some of the guys that were going on the trip met together before we left. We decided that we were not going to focus on girls, but instead try our best to focus on Jesus. I threw that promise out the window and immediately kept replaying Angie’s comment in my head. I could have kicked myself for missing my opportunity. Later, I tried my best to be cool and aloof by asking her if she still had feelings for me. I don’t remember what she said, but I do remember her friend, Amanda, confronting me about playing with Angie’s emotions. In short, Amanda threatened me to near death if I was messing with Angie.

I wasn’t. I invited her to an abandoned phone booth on the property to talk this out. I wanted to know if she felt the way I did. After a really awkward conversation, we figured out that, yeah, we did like one another. So I kind of asked her out by asking to clarify our relationship. We were a couple--and we sealed it with a high-five. Yeah, we’ve always been pretty romantic.

Because Angie’s family lived in Oregon, we only had a few weeks of “dating” before we had to start the long-distance thing. Our first official date was a picnic at the park, snow cones, and a movie: The Village. We had double dates with Amanda and her boyfriend, and lots of late nights laughing and driving back Zillah roads.

Many people told us that long distance relationships wouldn’t work, especially with me headed to college. I guess we’ll see how this thing turns out.