‘An annual market? We can also go to the pub.

‘An annual market? We can also go to the pub.

“Mark never noticed me in the mavo. And I did notice him neither. We saw each other sometimes in the corridor at school. I did know that he had a girlfriend. Her name was Charlotte. For my idea they had been forever. She was a striking figure. A popular type. Something like the prettiest girl in the class.

In mavo 4 we sometimes had (Dutch) lessons together. With Mark and his friend Bart, we were joking all the time, Mark had to laugh very loudly. We both went on to HAVO. At the beginning of the school year I saw him sitting in the smokehouse. We always hung around in the break. I walked towards him. The only thing I knew about him was that he and Charlotte were close. I asked him about his relationship. He replied: “I am no longer with her.”

Then I immediately thought: “Then he is mine.” I thought Mark was a super handsome guy. Beautiful dark curly hair, dark eyes. He had a lot of humor with his word jokes and the re-enactment of types. He could very well imitate things from music and films by Jim Carrey. Mark was very cool and did not join the hip types. He was relaxed. Very much himself. Serious. He behaved older, but he is younger than me. I thought, “This is a type that I can take home.”

Now that I heard it was finished with Charlotte, I quickly took my chance. Since that meeting in the smokehouse we often cycled home together and spoke via MSN almost every evening. Within two weeks he came up with an idea, if I had ever seen a blu-ray movie. I said, “No, never.” “Are you joining me to see a blu-ray?” He asked. I thought that was nice and sweet, but also exciting. I liked that he thought of this instead of the pub.

It was original and at the same time so nice. I was curious how long he had thought about this. He said of course that it was a spontaneous idea. It was also exciting, because I never really had a date. I was very nervous for that date, although I saw him every day at school. But the setting was different. I really liked him. But I was not very sure whether it was mutual, even though he had invited me. So I could have known the answer.

Prior to that film we went to the annual fair in Leusden. Also his idea. He had really thought to make the date special. I thought that fair was a little bit tedious. I thought: ‘An annual market? We can also go to the pub. “At the fair we went to eat an apple fritter. That was the thing there. I only took one bite. Was bloodly nervous. I gave the rest to Mark. He ate it. And the second. “So, he is hungry,” I thought then. He probably did not know what to do with it. We have only been an hour. We have walked around a bit. It was a bit uncomfortable.

We did not know very well what to do next. We did not go hand in hand, because we had nothing yet. Then we went to his mother’s house to watch the movie, Two Weeks Notice. His room was completely cleaned up. I can imagine that it was not normally the case. His parents were not there. I was surprised about that. That would never have happened in my home.

I have not seen half of that movie. We were just dipping. We listened to Michael Jackson and we talked about the Spice Girls, Feyenoord and Hattie. That blu-ray was a nice excuse for the date. He thought, “If I come with something very cool like a blu-ray then she will join me.” Since that evening we are always together. We then visited the annual market twice more and also bought an apple fritter. I ate it then.

Later Mark ask me to marry him at the Brooklyn Bridge. Now I wanted to give him something special. A watch that last!