Never Forgotten Her

I met her in 6th grade when I moved into a new town. I had literally no friends and she was the girl next door. We gradually began to hang out after school, just shooting hoops in front of my house. I had just started really liking girls and in all honesty she was my first crush.
At that time I was an introverted nerd who played way wayyyy too much Everquest (had a character with over 365 DAYS played). That should give you an idea about how I was around girls. I was completely awkward and to be honest scared out of my wits.

We became really good friends and I was still scared to do anything about it. She would occasionally disappear for months at a time without saying a word and I’d be constantly thinking “What did I do?” “Why did she leave me?” All the sorts of things that a massively depressed teenager would tell himself if he lost the person he perceived to love.

We went on to highschool and were still friends but not really all that close. After highschool she went away for a year to a distant college and I didn’t really talk to her at all for that amount of time. I dated people and hung out with friends but always had that little nagging voice in the back of my head thinking about her.