It was the summer before eighth grade and his name was Kevin. For many years, he and I went to school together, knew of one another and even shared the same friends but were never really friends ourselves. Eunice, one of my best friends, started (and I use this term loosely) "dating" him, which really meant rarely talking, never going anywhere together, but labeling each other his/her girlfriend/boyfriend.

One random day he instant messaged me, we started talking and thus was the beginning.

Eventually, he and Eunice broke off their "relationship." As time went on, he dated other girls; Eunice and I became engrossed in our own set of random guys and interests, but one thing remained: night after night, he and I talked endlessly about everything going on in our lives.

Before I knew it, it was March of 2001, my 14th birthday was coming up and it was time to party.