It was weird.

I had always been tongue-tied, quirky, and generally unnoticed, especially when a cute boy was on the line. So, what made my wits come about me on that particular night? This would be the insane question I would be mulling over for the next few days. But right now, I could think of nothing else except the insanely cute Target employee before me.

Wait… I’m getting ahead of myself.

The day had been long, and not to mention boring and downright painful one… not having any friends can do that to a person. So there I stood in my bathroom while gingerly applying sparkly lip gloss to my cracked lips. I turned away from the mirror to yank up a pair of sleek, black jeans up my long legs. Next, I pulled a black shirt with silver stars glowing across it over my head. And last came on my aeropostale jacket… green of course because I could never leave the house without a random-colored jacket.

I was headed first to a basketball game and then to Target afterwards. I was dreading and looking forward to the basketball game at the same time. You see, it was my old team. But, due to a nasty knee injury, I had had to drop out. Ever since then, no one had really seen me and I had become an outcast to them once again.

So there I was at the last game of the season to try and show support and no one would speak a word to me. Disheartened and feeling quite shoved under, I left the game to head for Target before returning home.

And this is where the story begins…

I had just stepped through the entrance with a gust of cool air shoving my honey-colored hair back over my shoulders. I softened my eyes modestly as I always did when entering a public place. It always made me uncomfortable whenever eyes would flick over to me as I walked through the doors.

I headed down the path beside all the cash registers until finally reaching the area where I could print off my pictures.

I rested my purse on the counter beside a yellow box that read in capital letters for me to shove my disc of pictures inside the slot. After digging through my cluttered purse for a brief time, I pulled out the disc. And in obedience I tried to get it to slide into the slot.

“Oh, great,” I muttered to myself as I often did when traveling anywhere alone. It was a pretty bad habit that probably should have been broken by now. But hey! I was sixteen, for Pete’s sake!

Anyways, I spun around to seek out assistance because my disc was now jammed in the slot with no hope of moving. My eyes briefly passed over a short, yet muscular man standing behind one of the cash registers. But then, I soon saw another girl employee who appeared more like she worked with the photo area.

“You need some help?” she called over to me.

I nodded my head in slight embarrassment.

“It won’t go,” I chuckled.

The young girl, whose dull-colored pony tail now bobbed on the back of her head as she moved, began walking towards me.

And after a few seconds of struggling with the disc, we both gave up.

“Um, Josh?” the girl now addressed the handsome guy, “Have you seen Veronica?”

He leaned forward so that his bulging arms rested on the metal table beside the cash register.

“Didn’t she go home?”

And upon the startled look in my eyes, he grinned charmingly at me and with a small flick of his wrist said, “Just kidding.”

“Oh,” I answered while chuckling.

“Just call her on the intercom,” Josh suggested jokingly.

“Yeah, she would love that!” the girl laughed.

“Do it!” I joined in the joke.

And the debate of what to do went on like that for probably about eight minutes or so until finally the girl blurted out, “Okay, Josh, you call her on the intercom. You have a phone right there!”

He laughed nervously and retorted with, “It’s broken!”

The girl charged over there and reached for it. “Oh, yeah? Let me see it.”

“Well, I could break it!” Josh said and after a couple more minutes of the three of us just laughing at each other.

And finally, Veronica emerged… she had been in the bathroom, much to our embarrassment.

“Man!” Josh said while grinning coyly in my direction, “Veronica, you’ve had this customer waiting for like ten minutes.”

And if I wasn’t already flustered for his attention I was glowing red even more when all she had to do was barely touch the disc and it went zipping right in.

Both of the girl employees walked off together to leave me alone with Josh and the instant print machine.

A few seconds passed and then my prints began to slide into the slot at my feet. I would be here for a while because I was printing close to one hundred.

“So,” Josh began from behind me.

“You so should’ve called her on the intercom,” I intervened with a snicker.

“I know!” he agreed while flashing me that adorable grin of his, “But she was in the bathroom the whole time.”

“Well, I suppose we can excuse her for that.”

He smiled… odd, because he couldn’t seem to stop smiling.

“So, you going to school anywhere?”

In my mind at that moment, I instantly knew he was talking about college. And for some reason, I would not allow this handsome, older guy know how old I really was. The only thing I could think to say was, “Well, it’s a pretty small school… you wouldn’t know it.”

And by some miracle, that worked.

“I go to UWC,” he said, “I major in engineering.”

“Oh cool!” I exclaimed, “My mom’s an engineer too.”

Josh grinned… again.

And all the while we had been talking I had been walking towards his register until I was leaning on the table across from him.

“What’s your name?” he asked in a moment where he was staring particularly deeply into my eyes.

“I’m Audrey.”

He fumbled with his name tag briefly and talked as he did so, “Well, as you can see, I’m Josh.”

“Nice to meet you.”

His thick, brown hair cascaded like a milky waterfall all around his head as he shook it briefly as though it was messed up. Although, I could see pretty clearly that not a single hair was out of line.

And just then my pictures were done. I went back over to them to collect all of my photos. I grabbed the receipt and headed over towards the movie section.

“You know you have to pay for those, right?” he teased.

“No, I was going to steal them!” I retorted playfully.

“Hey, come to my line!”

“I’ll be right back!” I called over my shoulder.

And after checking to see if my favorite movie, ‘I Am Legend’, was in stock, which it was not, I headed back to the cash register.

“Man! You had me waiting forever!” Josh kidded, “Almost ten minutes!”

Recognizing the pun, I threw back, “Ha! The favor is returned.”

He grinned and chuckled as I prepared to buy my pictures.

And for that time, he smiled and watched me for a while with an expression that made me want to melt.

Just as I was done and preparing to walk off, I placed a gospel tract down before him. I was about to explain it but then he interrupted me with, “You seeing anybody?”

“Um, no,” I answered numbly.

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a target receipt all folded up and handed it to me.

“Here’s my number. Call me or text me sometime when you want to hang out.”

I took the paper with shaky hands and grinned while saying one husky word, “Okay.”

And that was the beginning of a very long, interesting story that would dramatically change my life.