Who Are We?

We're Jake and Hailey. Two young kids who fell in love early on in life and are getting married on March 22nd, 2014. We've been dating since September 30th, 2012, and became each others' best friend quickly. We never really expected or honestly wanted to date each other, but God had a different plan. Most family and friends have heard our story, but for those who haven't, this is how it goes..

Both of us went to the same high school, and knew of each other and had a lot of close mutual friends, but never hung out together.

Back in August of 2012, I (Jake) started to chat with Hailey. Now, Hailey works at 107.9 KUZZ here in Bakersfield as a part time DJ. I used to chat with the Morning DJ's, Steve and Geoff, so I knew of the radio station fairly well. We started to facebook message back and forth about the station, what her job is like, concerts and music, and so on. Soon enough it was texting back and forth, and then finally one Sunday night, Hailey asked me to skype. She wanted to know what exactly happened with my last girlfriend and why it ended, so I filled her in about it, and then sure enough, it turned into a chat that lasted longer than her shift. I told her to text me once she got home, she did, and then we skyped until way late into the night. Talking about everything under the sun. This quickly became a frequent thing for us. Talking nearly every night until at least one in the morning before school and work.

Finally, I wanted to actually spend some time with her in person, and just as friends. I didn't want to date again for a while after my last breakup. So, I asked her if she'd like to go to the Kern County Fair with me and my twin brother Austen and his (then) girlfriend one friday night. She accepted the offer, and as it turns out, Austen was late coming back home from Los Angeles. Hailey and I didn't let that bother us. We wound up getting corn dogs and actually getting into our first argument. She thinks (still to this day) ketchup goes with corn dogs, and I think mustard goes better. You decide for yourself what's really better. Anyway...

As we waited for Austen, we kept bumping hands, and I thought it was just because of the crowds. Turns out later, she tried to send me some signal I kept missing ALL NIGHT that she wanted to hold hands. We spent nearly three hours waiting for Austen to arrive, which was fine, because I was having the time of my life with her. The thing is, dear reader, and I'll give you a spoiler alert here (as if you didn't see this one coming..), I was starting to crush on her.

So, we keep bumping hands like bumper cars on the midway, and actually turned people's fashion disasters (This is Bakersfield, people. It's not really Paris when it comes to how people know how to dress) of wearing cheetah print in the worst way, into who could find the most, and worst of them all, as we waited and walked.

Finally Austen arrives, and we all hang out. We spend time laughing, eating a lot of terrible, cardiac arresting, artery clogging fair food, and we have to end the night. Since I picked up Hailey, I had to drop her off.

Again, another spoiler alert: what's coming up next, is when I knew that she was different than anyone I've met.

We pull up to her driveway, and continue our conversation. She keeps talking, and I'm entranced. She carries herself with this air of confidence, and knowledge of things that has always impressed me. She starts to talk about stars. We look up.

I look back down. She's smiling.
She starts to spin.
Laughing. Spinning, giggling like a school girl. All of this late at night, in suburbia, where everyone else has their lights off and asleep, and the only thing to light her spinning is a low-lit yellow street light. She stops, and I walk up to her, and I wanted to kiss her.

"But we're just hanging out. Just friends. Jake, she's just a friend. But why am I so drawn to her? She's awesome. Don't kiss her." My body was straight up going Jeckyll and Hyde. Lean in, no don't. Go for it! Stop! So what happens? My forehead touches her. I go 90%. But I can't complete the 10%. We're close enough to see each other's eyes, and I don't go in for the kiss. We keep hugging and awkwardly standing there, dealing with my idiot move.

Turns out later she thought it was adorable and respectful that I didn't kiss her.

So we say goodnight, and I go over to Austen's. First thing he asks me: "What was that?"
Me: "What was what?"
Austen: "You said you didn't want to date."
Me: "Yea..I didn't."
Austen: "Jake, you're in for it now."

Turns out, that over the rest of the weekend, we spent every evening together. Saturday night, we went to Talladega Frights (local haunt maze). This was the first night we held hands. Why did I pick this? Because it's scary, and she needed a man to hold onto so she wouldn't feel scared, duh!

Sunday, she had to go to the fair for work, and I met up with her to keep her company. After spending some time together, I asked if she wanted to go out to my house to watch The Avengers (so romantic, right?), and have dinner with my family. She accepted, and we spent the evening together. After this entire weekend, I knew we couldn't be just friends. I liked her way too much.

So when it came time for her to leave, we were standing outside the drive way of the house, and we were being goofy, asking random get-to-know-you questions, and I asked if she had one thing to ask before the world ended, what would it be? She wanted me to go first, so I gutted up and said something cheesy.

"I dunno..I guess I'd ask if you'd kiss me or not."

(facepalm.)

She just stood there, rocking on her heels back and forth. Saying nothing. Finally, after a while, she asked me this: "What are your exact feelings for me?"

I answered..

"I like you. A lot. I want to get to know you a lot better, more than I already do. And if that is just being your friend, or being your boyfriend, I'll be happy. Just more happy with one over the other. We just click. More than I've ever clicked with someone before. I like you."

She smiled, stood there and rocked back and forth some more. I swear, it felt like an eternity. Finally she said, "Yea, I would copy and paste that answer" (She's such a geek, I LOVE IT). Then she said, "Oh yea, the answer to your question would be yes, yes, yes, most definitely yes!"

This is where we began. September 30th we started dating, and through a year of losing Hailey's grandma, me moving out on my own, family drama, losing my grandma, working two jobs each, me getting into a car accident, and more, it's been a long year. But near our one year anniversary, I proposed.

The weekend of our one year, and I'll admit ahead of time, it wasn't romantic like I had planned. But we spent the day at the LA Zoo, a first for us together. We went and looked at the monkeys (Hailey's favorite) and all the reptiles (my favorite), and had a great day. After the zoo, we went over to Santa Monica, walked around the pier, and rode the ferris wheel before dinner at Chart House in Marina Del Rey. Once we got to dinner, we had a great meal that overlooked the harbor, and spent time together. I was nervous as all get out. Once we were done with dinner, we walked back to the car, and I told her I had a surprise for her. So I got the ring, and as we were walking along the beach of the harbor, a tall lady with a balding man next to her (odd couple alert!) were walking ahead of us. Hailey looks at me, and asks, "how would you feel if I was that much taller than you?" Now, what I said next I didn't even think about until after it came out, but Hailey has alopecia areata. In short it means this: she gets stressed = she gets bald spots. So I look at her, without thinking, and shot back saying, "What if I was that much balder than you?"
Strike one.

As we're walking the beach, she asks me if she has anything in her teeth. Well, in high school, Hailey played basketball. One game some chick got too rough and knocked her tooth out. I'm so beyond nervous, I end up going strike two. She asks if anything is in her teeth. My reply? "Well, you've got the fake tooth, so nope. You're good."
This is all leading up to me asking her if she wants to spend forever for me. I can't blame her if she would have told me "No, you're trying this again". But the final strike out is still coming..

The ring I used to propose is her late-grandmothers. What I thought would have been a good thing was just okay. I had the ring in my pocket, but told her to close her eyes while we're standing on the beach. I hand her the ring box. She opens it, and nothing. I tell her that the ring is either on me, at the place we're going to get dessert, back in the car, or back in Bakersfield. My original plan of just asking her turned out to be a nervous wreck for me. She's getting nervous because the ring is priceless to her. So I tell her to close her eyes one last time. I walk behind her, get down on a knee, and I hold the ring. I tell her to open her eyes. She turns around, and I stutter out "Hailey, will you marry me?". She starts to tear up, and even through all of that, still said yes. I know, this is far from anything even I wanted. I was nervous about setting it up right, and kept saying all the wrong things. But, I love my Hailey, and I cannot wait for the rest of my life with her. I guess this just shows that she loves me even through the times I'm the biggest idiot in the world. You can bet that I'm thankful that.