Part 1

Unfortunately there’s not much a 12-year-old can do about love in the 7th grade, but Junior High is when Brian first noticed Sara in one of his classes. This cute and feisty female classmate sparked his interest, but he opted to keep calm and carry on, which resulted in Sara not even remembering him.

Years passed, and Sara and Brian found themselves in the same large group of friends in 10th grade, the age where all of the sudden it was cool for boys to hang out with girls. At one cowboy themed dance they all attended, Sara in her bandana looked over at Brian wearing a cowboy hat and thought to herself, “Ooh, that Brian Robertson is pretty cute!”

The next year, Sara was assigned a seat directly in front of Brian during history class. This fateful seating arrangement became a courting battleground as now Sara and Brian had scheduled and anticipated interactions. Sara’s intentional hair flipping proved successful when Brian asked her to be his project partner for a Buddy Holly history project.

Soon thereafter the two were at a mutual friends birthday party. Sitting in the jacuzzi after everyone else had gotten out, Brian finally mustered up the courage, and through the roar of the bubbles and curtain of steam boldly asked his crush, “Do you want to go out?”

Misunderstanding the young warriors intentions, Sara replied, “Ya, it’s really hot in here,” and preceded to exit the aforementioned spa, leaving a dejected suitor to shrivel like a raisin in the hot water.

Part 2

After Brian sadly explained to a mutual friend that he had tried to ask Sara to date him and she had ignored him, the friend confronted an unsuspecting Sara. Realizing her error, she called Brian right away and asked if the offer was still up.

They exclusively, officially and happily dated for the rest of their Junior year and into their Senior year of high school at La Costa Canyon. Looking back on their high school relationship, Sara sweetly summarizes, “Brian treated me like a little gem. Especially for being in high school, he was Very Sweet.”

Brian’s thoughts? “Kissing wasn’t gross anymore.”

When the time came to think about college, Brian knew he needed to fly the coop while Sara was secure in her decision to stay in Carlsbad. Putting the whole situation in God’s hands, Sara and Brian decided to break up and go their separate ways, trusting everything to work out for the best.

Brian went off to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, studying Civil Engineering, and later acquiring a job at a consultant firm in Orange, near his digs in Long Beach. Meanwhile Sara graduated from Cal State San Marcos with a degree in Sociology and climbed the corporate retail ladder.

Then in the spring of 2010, through a series of events and the help of Facebook, Brian and Sara got in contact with each other for the first time since graduating high school. Meeting up for breakfast on a random weekend when Brian was in town, they were both too nervous to eat, and thus drank more coffee, which only exacerbated the situation. The two jittery hearts fell right back in love, and Brian asked her out on a first ‘real date’ the very next night. All nerves aside, they immediately felt safe and relieved, like a wandering ship who finds his harbor, or a weary traveler who takes off her heavy load.

Written and Illustrated by Kirsten Renee