DEATH.NOTE

Monday, March 28, 2005

Opposites attract

Do you have a particular “type” of guy that you always go for? Kelly, 21, did—until she realized the benefits of dating someone totally different.

I always went out with the preppy guys—the goody-goody types who wear American Eagle Outfitters and get straight A’s. They were the guys that I felt comfortable with—they looked and acted like me. And let just say that Bobby was not one of those guys.

“I INGORED HIM”~

In high school, Bobby and I went to the same church, but that’s where our similarities ended. He played in a rock band, wasn’t into school, and had a three-inch tall Mohawk; I was three years younger, in the marching band, and got mostly A’s. but he was still kind of cute and funny—and I had fun flirting with him. Even so, when he finally left for college (a full two years after graduating high school), we didn’t keep in touch at all.

A year later, I was a freshman at Indiana University. I didn’t even remember that Bobby was at IU—until he emailed me my first month there and invited me over. I though it was nice of him to get in touch, so I went. But his house was gross: There was food on the floor and posters of pot leaves plastered on the walls. It freaked me out, so I left a half hour. And the next time he e-mailed me, I didn’t even reply.

Over the next year or so, I dated my usual smart, preppy guys—but they ended up being more into school than me. And all that time Bobby kept e-mailing me and asking me to hang out when he’d see me on campus. I knew he was being friendly, but you know… how you can tell when a guy wants to be more than friends? That’s how it felt with Bobby. I liked him, but I wasn’t interested in him that way. So I ignored his invites—I didn’t want to encourage him.

But by the end of my sophomore year, u started to feel bad about brushing Bobby off since he was always so nice, so I invited him to have dinner with me and my roommates. They loved him, and when he left, they were like, “You guys have to go.” My gut reaction was, “Are you kidding?!” I mean, we couldn’t be more different: He had six tattoos and was a total slacker—he took only two classes a semester, when I had five.

“I WAS AN IDOIT”~

After that dinner, my roommates started inviting Bobby over—even when I wasn’t there. He’d send me flowers and leave burned CDs for me in my room, but I still considered us “just good friends.” Yet I was starting to get weirdly jealous when my roommates spent more time with him than I did….

Even though I didn’t want to date Bobby, we were eve closer. We’d have long talks, and I learned so much about him. I had thought he did drugs but found out that he was really just overwhelmed with emotional stuff after his younger sister died. That’s also why he only took two classes at a time. As we spent more time together, I stopped seeing Bobby as this rebel type. He wasn’t dumb or a slacker—Bobby was a real thinking and feeling guy.

One night I went with Bobby to hear a band play, and I watched him joking, smiling and laughing with everyone. I suddenly felt like such an idiot! Bobby was the nicest person I’d ever been around and he genuinely cared about me. So why was I holding back? As soon as I realized how blind I’d been, I grabbed his hand and told him I was falling in love with him.

“I’M IN LOVE”~

Bobby and I have been together for a year now. Yes, on the outside we look like the kind of couple that only a reality show would put together. But I love how we balanced each other on the inside: He’s so easy-going, that he gets me to slow down when I take my work too seriously, and I’ve helped him to focus on school. I don’t know what’ll happen to us when we leave campus, but I’ll do anything to make this work.

…what Bobby says~

“I pursued Kelly for so long because she had all these qualities that I admired: She’s brilliant, beautiful, sweet, ambitious and really funny. I felt like I could be with her for a whole lifetime without a dull moment passing.” Aww!

DEATH.PEN 12:27 PM