The Sunrise.

After the night in Adam’s dorm over winter break, and returning to LSU for the spring semester, I was ready to go home and see my friends for the summer. Sheena and I were headed out for a typical summer night—out to a lake house. This was a friend’s family’s lake house—a notorious hotspot for partying in high school.

Once we arrived, it was a tightly knit group of guys from our high school, some were older and some had graduated with us. Sheena and I started drinking (we’d graduated to drinking beer by this point in our college careers) and we were taking shots. The music was blaring. We were all gathered outside, by the lake. It was a covered dock area, but it had lights, a bar, and a sound system. It was a little more sophisticated than the Tiki Hut from years ago. It was open on either end—one end faced the house and the other faced the lake, which was surrounded by huge houses.

Since I was enjoying the booze, I’m assuming no one else realized just how loud the music was, nor how loud we were talking. At this point, we were yelling.

Before I knew it, someone casually said, “Cops are here.”

I looked up, toward the house and walking toward us was a police officer. He was an older man, with a belly like Santa Claus—but his bag of toys included a breathalyzer and a set of handcuffs.

When he reached the dock, the music was shut off and he asked for everyone’s IDs. My purse was sitting in a chair, across the way from where  was standing. In an attempt to gain time, and perhaps save my ass, I told him I didn’t have my ID. I knew I was about to get busted.

He instructed us all to line up for a breathalyzer. I looked at Sheena, and she mouthed a reassuring, “We’re busted.”

My mind started to race. I didn’t even have any phone numbers memorized to call either of my parents for help. But then I realized an even greater problem: even if I had the numbers memorized, my parents wouldn’t help me. I could hear them now, “Enjoy the night in the slammer.”

Once Sheena and I were in line together, she told me not to worry because her dad had enough cash for situations like these. But I was still scared shitless.

But then, a savior appeared out of nowhere. And her name was Mary.

She was standing at the front of the line and struck a deal with the police officer. She asked him if she blew a .0, if he would let us all off the hook. He clearly thought she would blow something higher, so he agreed to her deal.

By the grace of God, Mary blew a .0. We were all off the hook. The police officer told us all to quiet down for the rest of the night—he didn’t want to be called out to the lake again.

We were all so thankful of Mary and we didn’t know how she even pulled it off. She said she’d had a shot, but it had been an hour or so since she had anything to drink.

We were just shy of lifting Mary above our shoulders, when we realized some of the other guys were missing. Not long after we began to search for them, they came paddling up to the back of the dock in a canoe.

They had paddled away at the first sign of the cop. Laughing hysterically, we all poured inside the house and proceeded to tell each other the story over and over again.

While we had somehow been spared out of getting arrested, but the night wasn’t over by any means.

Enter yours truly on a pull out couch, naked with Zach—the boy I had a crush on my senior year in high school. Sheena was in a spare bedroom, fighting off another guy, when she came out into the open area where I was laying.

“Holly…are you here?” She asked.

“Sheena…I…I have no clothes on,” I whispered.

We both laughed, some how I found my clothes and we were on our way unscathed. And no, I didn’t sleep with Zach. Ever. No more than a few weeks after that, Adam invited me over for dinner at his parents’ home.

When I got there, his parents weren’t home. He had grilled a dinner of kabobs for us—they were perfect. Each wooden stick had the same pattern: tomato, onion, pepper, chicken. They were so perfect, in fact, I questioned him over and over about making them. I was certain he bought them.

He fixed my plate and I was a bit smitten. We talked, and decided to try to date. That night, I slept next to Adam, in his bed upstairs. For the first time in many years, we kissed. It was a little awkward—something neither of us expected.

“Once we kiss, we can’t take it back,” he said.

Over the next few months, our relationship wasn’t much different from our friendship. We still hung out with our friends, but of course, we spent time alone, too.

Adam and I had already met each other’s parents over the course of our friendship, so there was no ta-da over that. However, Adam’s mom and dad would cause a problem in our relationship that I didn’t see coming.

I was out shopping with my mom one day, and I wanted to bring Adam and I home some dinner from PF Chang’s. I told him not to eat, and showed up at his house with the food. Adam’s mom was there, she had made something for herself, which made me feel bad—I hadn’t thought to include her, mainly because I didn’t know she would be there.

While we ate, she made a big deal about how expensive PF Chang’s was, which was incredibly awkward. Then, she asked me about a few new lamps she just put in her family room. I told her I thought they were, “okay” after she asked for my honest opinion.

Big mistake.

She told me she loved them and they were expensive. I tried to backtrack, but all I could do was put my foot in my mouth. From that point on, I felt like Adam’s parents didn’t like me as much as they could because I wasn’t raised in a church and I didn’t dress as preppy as they did.

At the end of the summer, Adam wanted to take me on a fancy date. I showed up at his house in a white, strap-less dress, with printed red flowers on it. As I stood outside on his front porch, Adam’s mom asked, “Who is THAT?” Who would’ve thought that I could clean up nice?

That night, Adam drove us to Indianapolis to eat dinner at The Eagle’s Nest—a rotating restaurant. There, I had brie for the first time. Adam stacked a cracker with brie and an apple slice and properly fed it to me. I was falling in love with my best friend.

Weeks later, Adam came with me to a family fish fry at my uncle’s home. It was the first time I’d ever brought anyone I was dating around a family member other than my parents. After the fish fry, Adam had a surprise for me. He drove me way out into the country, to a clearing by a lake. There, Adam set up a fire and all the proper camping fixings.

We watched the sunrise, for what would be one of our last moments together.