It had started in year three.

A little boy named Liam approached a small girl named Bridget and asked to borrow her red pencil.Every day for several weeks Liam would gather up all his courage and then falter at the last minute and use the same excuse, even as a nine year old he knew was lame.
He liked Bridget. Alot.
He wanted to buy her a big house with big furniture and lots of dogs. (He had once over heard her confess her love for dogs) When it was Monday mornings, they spent the morning watching the community children’s educational channel, he'd make sure to follow her obediently and get a spot near her.

Bridget on the other hand liked the way Liam’s face would go red when he asked for her red pencil, but the pencil soon ran down from so much use. She went home one day and asked her mum if she could buy her two red pencils. When her mother asked why Bridget wanted two of the same pencils, Bridget had told her mother about Liam and that he might want to be friends with her if she gave him his own red pencil.

It worked.



In year five, Bridget and Liam were allowed to attend the school dance seeing as they were in the older, more sophisticated demographic of the school.
Liam was excited to attend the event and maybe Bridget would say yes when he asked her to dance.

Bridget was extremely excited to go to the school dance; she had chosen to wear her favorite dress and shoes. The ones she only wears when she has to go to church with her grandma, Christmas Eve. As her mother fixed red bow ribbons in her hair, Bridget nervously hoped her best friend, Liam, might ask her to dance.

Liam got to the dance early and eagerly waited for his best friend. He had told his mother that he was hoping to dance with Bridget, so his mother had given him a flower from her garden to enhance his chances of her agreeing to his request.

When Bridget had seen Liam with the flower looking around the room nervously, her heart had faulted for a moment. Was he waiting for someone else?
But his eyes locked with hers and burst with excitement and Bridget knew the flower was for her.

They had their first dance that night.

When Bridget got home she had shown the flower to her mother. Telling her that when Liam had put his hands on her waist that she had felt funny. Her mother chuckled to herself and kissed her daughters head, telling her to sleep.



In the first year of high school, year seven, Liam had had to get glasses.

He hated them and thought they made him look ridiculous. Even worse, he was sure that his best friend Bridget thought he looked ridiculous too. A group of older year ten boys had noticed him and for weeks continuely pushed him around and picked on him, calling him a nerd and four eyes.

Bridget had noticed a change in her best friend. He was sulky and didn't want to talk to her much. Bridget couldn't understand the change and could only put it down to he maybe didn't want to be friends with her anymore. There were many prettier girls then she and maybe Liam thought that if he wanted to ask Kelly Bradley or Katie Dunner to the movies on a Friday night that he couldn't hang around with Bridget. But as she moved towards her locker to put her books away and get her lunch she was confronted with a distressing sight. Four older boys had encircled her best friend and were laughing at him and pushing him around. Without a second thought to her own safety, Bridget marched up to the biggest one, tapped him on his shoulder and punched the older boy square in the nose, just like her dad had shown her. The older boy fell straight to the ground and as his friends helped pick him up off the ground with his now undoubtly broken nose, Bridget picked up the books Liam had dropped and handed them to him. She asked him about the bullying and why Liam hadn't told her. Liam told her about his new glasses and how silly he felt wearing them.

Liam was shocked when Bridget had asked him to put them on for her and when he had reached into his pocket to get them he discovered they were squashed and un-repairable, from his text book being pushed against his chest when the older boys were picking on him. Crushed and upset that his parents were going to be angry at him he started to walk away from his best friend not wanting for her to see him let a tear slip from his eyes. But to his complete embarrassment she followed him.

They shared their first hug that day.

Weeks later when Liam finally got his new glasses, Bridget had asked him if she could have his broken glasses for an art project. Liam was confused on why she wanted them but gave them to his best friend anyway. He smiled at the thought of the day they were broken. Bridget had hugged him and he hoped she couldn't feel how hard his heart had beat as she pressed herself to him.



In year eight, Bridget and Liam had gone on a end of school year excursion to a local farm.

As they walked around on a tour of the property they came across a ditch they had to cross. Liam easily hopped over it and looked back to Bridget who was looking apprehensively at the jump she had to make. Liam took the chance to do something he had wanted to do for months and held out his hand to his best friend.

Bridget really didn't think she could make the jump, but when Liam held out his hand to her, she suddenly didn't care about the jump at all. On their walk home from the bus stop Liams hand had brushed hers countless times and she had wished, prayed and hoped that maybe he wanted to hold her hand but was to shy.

That was the first time they held hands.

Bridget grasped Liam’s hand and she had to bite her lip to stop herself from grinning. She made the jump easily with the help of Liam and when she was on the other side she and Liam looked at each other awkwardly, but didn't let go of each others hand. Butterflies were in both their stomachs as they continued the tour and held hands all the way back to school. That night Bridget sat on her bed, playing with some sheep wool Liam had found caught in a fence and given her, remembering how his hand felt in hers.



In year nine, Liam noticed that a lot of the boys were asking girls on dates. He desperately wanted to ask Bridget on a date but wasn’t sure how to or if she even wanted to go to the movies with him. Shane Mortar had asked him if Bridget liked anyone and was sure that Bridget would choose Shane over Liam any day of the week.

All of Bridget’s girlfriends were being asked on dates. Bridget desperately wanted Liam to ask her on a date. She had even hinted at it but Liam hadn’t done anything so far, so she figured he must like a girl in their year. Bridget was confused though because they continued to hold hands as they walked home from the bus stop. She loved it when they did, she felt static running through her.

After a particularly liberating lesson of History, where Bridget’s teacher had taught the class about how women had come to be able to vote, Bridget marched up to Liam completely determined and asked him to go to the movies with her on Friday.

Liam was shocked at Bridget’s forwardness and asked if it was meant to be a date, with a serious look on her face Bridget nodded and Liam felt like he could fly.

They shared their first, first date that Friday.

Bridget and Liam went and got pizza and then went and watched the latest horror movie. Bridget squeezed her best friend and date’s hand and cowered into Liam. Liam was absolutely delighted, although he was still shitting himself from the movie but comforting Bridget was well worth being scared. Bridget was still rattled as they walked out of the theatre, Liam suggested ice-cream and a smile graced Bridget’s lips.

Liam noticed a smear of ice cream on Bridget’s lip and without thinking, reached up and swiped it with his thumb gently. Bridget who had been laughing hysterically at the joke Liam had told her stop and looked at him with a small smile. It felt completely right for Liam as he leaned in and brought Bridget’s face to his.

At that moment, they shared their first kiss.



A week later Liam built up the courage to ask her to be his girlfriend. He wrote her a short but sweet note and left it in her locker. He was nervous until, at lunch, Bridget literally crash tackled him to the ground, knocking his glasses off, when she hugged him she was that happy.



In year ten, they gave each other their virginity's and on Bridget’s 21st birthday, Liam asked her to marry him.



Two years later Bridget found herself sitting in a room quietly collecting her thoughts. She held in her hand a box full of her firsts with Liam. The red pencil that was so short, it was a nub. A dried flower that had survived over ten years. His broken glasses that she had told him she wanted for art project but really wanted it to remember the first time they hugged. A small tuft of wool from the first time they held hands. A ticket stub from the first date and a ice cream spoon from their first kiss after the movie. The note he wrote her in year nine asking her to be his girlfriend. The ticket from the school graduation dance, that was also the night she lost her virginity to him and the ear rings she had brought especially for her 21st, that ended up being the night Liam proposed to her. She kept it all and while some thought at 23 years of age they were two young, she knew that they had been soul mates from the start.



A moment later, her mother knocked on the door and told her it was time.
She gathered up her big white dress and followed her mother to where her father was standing.
Music started slowly playing as the brides maids started walking down the aisle and everyone turned to look at her, including Liam.

Tears filled her eyes as she looked at him, the song playing explaining exactly how she felt.

'Cause every time we touch, I get this feeling.
And every time we kiss I swear I could fly.
Can't you feel my heart beat fast? I want this to last.
Need you by my side.

'Cause every time we touch, I feel this static.
And every time we kiss, I reach for the sky.
Can't you hear my heart beat slow? I can't let you go.
Want you in my life.

As the last Bridesmaid got to the bottom of the aisle the song drifted off and the wedding march started.

At that moment, they shared their last, first time together.