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Chapter Three: Beans, Beans, A Wonderful Fruit

I sat there trying to act normal, and my excitement level had seriously tripled. I was so confused. Why was I instantly excited when she said that? Why on earth did my heart act that way when she said his name? I can’t even stand hearing his name – what on earth is this all about? A thousand thoughts went through my head - was he my age or Samantha's age? Would he be going to my school - a senior with us, or will he be going to college? I realized he was our age, and thought "How fun - we have a new boy to add to our friend group!" Oh man, oh man...what was this? I went from having a normal care-free day of drinking ice water and reading magazines to a gazillion thoughts whirling around in my mind. Is he as cute as everyone lets on? I sure hope so! He’s pretty darn cute in the pictures I’ve seen….I must admit. Maybe he'll have a crush on me...after all, I'm like the only girl from my town he's never met! What's he like? The legendary Darin Gatsby is possibly moving in to MY town?? Wow. This was definitely going to be interesting.

And then I stopped and mentally smacked myself.

WHERE were these thoughts coming from?

Whitney. You are not going to even let yourself like him, even if you think you might on down the road. He is going to come in and sweep every girl off their feet. I refuse to succumb to such ridiculousness. No matter what, under no circumstance whatsoever, are you to allow yourself to even be attracted to this boy. I will not be just another girl on his list.

I had myself worked up into quite a tizzy and they hadn't even called to offer the idea to Curt yet. I wanted so badly to tell all of my friends who fainted at the mere mention of Darin’s name, but I was sworn to secrecy, so I remained silent….and continued talking myself out of what I had felt when my Mom said he may be coming to town. After all, I'd met this kid when I was like 13 and we hadn't even spoken except for "hi", and he was nothin' special. Yeah, that's right....he's nothin' special. I told myself that all night.

For a week.

About a month later, they called Curt, (his dad) and he came to talk with the Church and try out. The entire family came. They were a great family and I could totally see them quickly becoming an integral part of our Church. After Curt preached, the family lined up at the end of the Sanctuary so that we could shake their hands on our way out. They lined up like this: Curt, Becky (mom), Casey (sister), Darin. I hugged Curt, I hugged Becky, I hugged Casey, and I stopped in front of Darin. I looked him in the eye and thought to myself, "so... this is THE Darin Gatsby, huh?", and I stretched out my hand to offer a handshake. I could hug the rest of his family, but a lady never hugs a boy she doesn’t even know. He smiled his famously huge smile and said, "Hi, you're Whitney, right? Jennifer talks about you all the time." (Jennifer = my friend that went to Truth and Peace and reported every happening to me). I shook his hand and nodded, "Yes, I'm Whitney. It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you, as well." Yeah, more than you know, buddy.

We had an all-church lunch to get to know the family afterward and I don't remember a thing about the actual lunch. I do remember the beans, though. Baked beans.

My Mom is known for being the last one to leave a party/dinner/get-together, because she feels like it is her sole responsibility to clean up the last speck of anything. I rode with her, so I was stuck there too. I do recall Darin sitting at my table with our group of friends, but he was pretty quiet. “Geeze, for being the schmoozer that he must be, this boy sure does keep quiet a lot”, I thought to myself. “This must have been how he was at the Country Cottage.” Lunch was over and everyone started scattering home and there were only a handful of us left. I walked over to the food to try and help speed up the clean-up process. It was Sunday afternoon…we needed to be home napping and watching movies, not cleaning up at Church. As I was reaching for a pan of stale baked beans, I looked up. It was Darin.

"Hey Whitney", he said.

I said hey back and we stood there, on either side of the baked beans, and talked for probably twenty minutes or so. I don't remember what we talked about, but it was our first actual one-on-one conversation that was more than just the hey/hi business. There was a spoon still in the baked beans remnants and I nervously stirred it around. Why was I nervous? This guy was easy to talk to....he was actually very fun to talk to. I think we could be friends. Good friends, actually. I tucked that thought away; they still had a full summer to decide what to do. We wouldn't know their decision until the end of summer/beginning Fall. Darin and I continued talking and then as if we were on the exact brain wavelength, we looked down at the beans in unison and began to laugh. I had been stirring them the whole time...and they stunk. And they were cold. And we laughed. We both made a few lame jokes about the beans, said our goodbyes/nice-to-meet-you's and parted ways.

“This guy wasn't so bad after all,” I thought to myself on my way home. “I don’t think I will have to worry about ever liking him, either. In fact, I think we are going to make great friends. I really hope they move here”. I needed something new to throw in the mix for our Senior year. I needed a new friend. A new guy friend. “Yeah…he’s not so bad after all”, I said to myself.

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*For the previous chapters, look here: http://ourlifelonglovesong.blogspot.com/
I am a modern day homemaker with a passion for family, cooking, celebrating, decorating, travel, and memory making! The Lord has blessed me with the desires of my heart in my husband and our two sons. We recently built our dream home and cultivating a loving and happy haven for my family is where I find so much joy.

Comments

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Love the recap! Very interesting! :) And not what I was expecting from the title!

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  3. awe :) what a sweet beginning to your story! i can't wait to read more!

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  4. so funny!! this is so fun to read!!

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  5. Love hearing your stories! :)

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  6. YAY! I was going to post a comment yesterday asking when the next chapter was coming (but I didn't post). Are you considering trying to publish? It's really good so far..

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