He said, She said or vice versa

The story of how Josie and Craig met as told by Josie and Craig


She said:
Ok so I met orchid, back in tech school, the first time I actually recall meeting or hanging out with him was that day we went bowling (Atom used to have pictures on facebook, they are probably in that Josie Orchid photobucket) Anyway I remember he started out the evening playing a video game, I went to see what it was and found out it was Kingdom Hearts and said I'd always wanted to play that so he let me play it. At first I thought he was just quiet, but on the walk back to the dorms that night he and I just talked and found out we had a lot in common, so we started hanging out more. The hanging out increased when he got ATP(old phase 3) and was allowed to wear civvies off base, so we were walking off base and hanging out a lot then. During all our talks it came up that I wrote and he liked to draw comics and I asked if he'd be interested in working on a project together and he said sure, which led us to hang out even more. We even started texting eachother when there was curfew(had to be in our rooms by 10? Every night)I thought he was a really nice guy, and towards the latter part of tech school started to think that I like him but he had a girlfriend at the time(I didn't think it was a great relationship, he never heard from her, in fact at one point she told him he came 3rd on her list of priorities-after her horses) When he left tech school, I really missed him, I didn't realize how much I'd hung out with him until I realized it felt I didn't have much to do anymore. But te fact that we still texted and video chatted made me really happy. I remember trying to introduce him to you guys when I was on leave via video chat. Then my computer broke. . .I remember that when I flew to Barksdale, I was texting him every chance I could hoping to see him when as soon as possible. He greeted me with a big hug. By this point he had broken up with his girlfriend(having done that back when I was in Tech school I think) Anyway we went straight back to hanging out as often as we could. I thought he was so sweet, but I wasn't sure if he liked me. It should have been obvious everytime we went walking somewhere we'd go arm in arm. At one point I got really frustrated with him because we were hanging out in my room, he was sitting across the room for me and then I complimented his smile, and told him he should smile more often, and he ran out of the room(he was embarrassed, he gets really cute when he's embarrassed.)

Anyway then he admitted he liked me, he was soo embarrassed when He did. When we were dating we didn't really change anything we still acted the same, both still goofy and strange. That is part of what made me start thinking about how much I really did like hime, because even with Jordan I felt like I stopped being myself even if it was just a little bit, but with Orchid I didn't feel like I stopped being myself. It was when I started trying to imagine my life in 5 years or 10 Years etc etc and I didn't ever see him out of the picture or want to see him out of the picture that I started to realize I wanted to marry him.


He Said:
Okay, I met Josie by way of Atom. Atom, Justin and I were the "volunteers" for flag carriers in a parade at Keesler AFB. I was also on a medicine that made me loopy and "happy"...Naproxen or something. Anyway, Josie somehow ended up helping carry flags too.

However, I noticed her before that. It's kinda hard to miss the short, cute little ginger kid walking into the door. However, I was in another relationship in the time, so I was like, "Hm. She seems cool, but whatevs. No big deal." We actually hung out for the first time at the base bowling alley. She didn't bowl and seemed bored, so I lent her my always present DS to play with while I bowled. When we were walking back, she told me how the guy she was dating was basically really odd. I don't remember too many details of the convo, but I felt kinda bad for her, dating a weirdo like that.

I found her to be a somewhat icy, yet legitimately nice person. (look up the term "tsundere")

We became fast friends, despite the fact we didn't see each other as often at first due to my ever-present bad luck. I found out she was also a writer, and wanted to turn some of her works into comics. I agreed to help.

That acceptance to help was the start of it, I think.

We worked quite a bit on it (though it's currently on hiatus), and she and I talked constantly, and were always hanging out, leading to rumors that we were dating. Hence the "she's my white cousin from my dad's side" story. (my dad is a white fellow). Now, having fairly close female friends was nothing new to me, seeing as my policy was "I'll talk to people, as long as they have something interesting to say. "

When the girl I was dating at the time, Lauren, paid a visit, there was a slight change in Josie's behavior. (much of this I thought was just our dear little ginger being odd, but I found out the true motives later) She seemed to be louder than normal, and would yell "dead fish" at every deceased aquatic animal washed up on the beach. As I found out later...she was somewhat jealous. After Lauren left, she calmed down again.

I often confided in her, seeing her as a kindred spirit. At the time, I was fairly sure we wouldn't ever date or anything,not wanting to ruin our friendship. (oh, how bad I am at predicting the future. Lucky me =3 ) I graduated before Josie, and moved to Barkatraz.

Now, Lauren didn't really speak to me much. It was rather sad, honestly. I would have liked maybe a text or two a week. Not even normally. However, everything happens for a reason. Lauren broke up with me over the phone (one of the few calls I got from her. )

I do believe shortly after this was the first time we were introduced. (Zelasko family and I)

I was so happy to see Josie after she got here. Estatic,even. Except for some off-base friends, I didn't associate with anybody. It was awesome having a friend here again. I spoiled her, I'll admit. I got her a DS and whatnot so she wouldn't be too bored.

I slowly started to realize that I really liked her. She had always been there for me, and she had a thing for making me get all embarrassed and whatnot. I think she liked doing that. I admittedly kinda liked it too. However, I did not my feelings come into the open, fearing a rejection and being shunned.

One night, she made an random remark about how some random dude walking by was cute or something. I felt a huge gut-punch of jealousy. My thoughts? "I better admit the truth or else...I'm toast when it comes to liking her.:" Shortly after this, I was hanging out with her,as usual . Then, I did something that took a tremendous amount of guts. Here's a rough transcript of those events:
Me: "Um...Zero...c-can I tell you something?"
Josie: "Um...sure?"
Me: "it's probably painfully..obvious...but...well..I really like you...okay..there, I went and said it..if you want me to go, I will now.." (here I begin to reach for my belongings)
Josie: "Don't go..."
Me: "are you saying...the feeling is...mutual?"
Josie: "yes.. :)"
And here we share a fond embrace. That's basically how it went. Soon afterwards, I formally asked her for permission to be her boyfriend, which she accepted with a typical beautiful smile.

So as we got to know each other more and more, we realized that like had turned into love...and well, after lots of discussion, we decided a marriage could indeed work.

So I got the ring, (badly) hid it inside a Gir pillow, and you've seen the video for how that goes. I was nervous as heck, but was hoping she'd find it cute or something. Thankfully,she did...

And that's basically it. Sorry for rambling, but I had to get the story out.