A Story

It’s been a while, I know. I don’t want to catch up on the last eight months though so much as tell a brief story.

Twelve years ago, while I was in high school and still hanging around in AOL chat rooms, I was part of this group called “Althena’s Court Online” (ACO)–a fun community of folks who all liked the Lunar series. We talked, had our own message board, and invited other people like us to join in. One person was a girl named Jenner. Years passed and I went on to college. All of us at ACO migrated from the little AOL boards and collected around the LunarNET website and forums, and still continued associating with one another. Though during all that time, Jenner and I didn’t really talk all that much; to be honest I didn’t really give her any more thought than anyone else on the boards.

Some time after graduating college and starting my new job, Jenner starts to IM me again. Then we start talking over the phone. Then we start talking every day… for hours at a time… In 2007, she plans to come to Richmond to visit her friend. I’m on the way, so I suggest, ‘Why don’t you stop by to visit me?’ Jokingly, she says that even though I’m a creepy guy on the internet, it sounds fun. And I… started putting moves on her. Then I backed off, then on again, and off again. I was ambivalent–she was cute, I thought, but I didn’t know how I felt yet and was rather internally conflicted. The next two years were like that. There were some good and bad times, caused by both of us, and we sort of remained in a ‘just friends’ zone for a while. But let’s skip ahead a few years.

In 2009, I invite her to spend MAGFest 2010 with me. If you don’t know, MAGFest is my favorite convention of the year, and always the most fun I’ve ever had interacting with other folks who I’ve known online. And I wanted to share that with Jenner. We’re at the New Year’s Eve party, right before MAGFest is about to begin and celebrating the new year with everyone else there. I ask one guy if he’ll take our picture for us, and right before he snaps the shot, Jenner grabs and kisses me, then runs out of the room to play it off as a joke.

I realized two things then. One, I still had feelings for her. And two, she unambiguously still had feelings for me. I’ve always been a bit dense when it comes to these things, so someone really has to hit me in the face to realize it.

In the first few months of 2010, we’re still not sure (or rather, I’m still not sure) what to do about it. She’s eventually tires of my indecision, and casually suggests that maybe she should just give up and marry someone else who’s interested in her.
Me: ‘Don’t.’
Her: ‘What?’
Me: ‘…I wouldn’t be happy, and neither would you.’
Her: ‘…you realize that this means you lo–’
Me: ‘Oh hey my bus is arriving! I’ll call you back.’

Later in 2010, I need someone with me to help me recover from surgery, and she’s the only one I wanted with me during it. By then, she’s already said that she loves me, but for me it wasn’t until then that I finally told her the same.

We spent almost the entire summer together. She visited my family in the area during that time. We went to Otakon together. Thanksgiving weekend, she came with me and my sister to Nashville to visit the rest of my immediate family. Christmas break, I go with her to Cleveland to visit her family.

And here we are now, at the one-year mark and a day before MAGFest 2011. Looking back on 2010, it was a great year, to be sure. But I have a feeling that 2011 will be even better. ‘Til then. KF