Love. Every high schooler will experience it, at one point or another. It’s the basis of sleepless nights, beating hearts, and countless of screenshots sent between friends, accompanied with “CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY SAID THIS?!” Fighting back tears, you’ll put down your phone and call it a night. “I’m so done,” you’ll mutter. But you never are. Because that’s what love is. You deal with her, because deep down you know she’s the one.

A true high school story is never actually about the useless details. It does not mention her by name, nor give her a face. If a high school story tells you her name, don’t you dare continue to read it. If by the end of it you can recite the number of brothers she has, or remember the color of her cat’s fur, put it down. You can tell a true high school story if it ignores the minor details, while revealing to you the important ones. You’ll be able to recite the way she laughs, or the way she stutters when she gets nervous. You’ll be able to recite the way she blushes when he talks about her to his friends.

It’s just like any other day. After school you walk home together and he sits her down. What happened was, he wanted to let her know how he felt. He admitted he liked her and that he wanted to ask her out and he kept saying he just liked her so much and if she could just have faith in him and continue trusting him that eventually he would ask her out and he hoped she would not start seriously talking to any other guys and he just hoped that she would continue liking him back. He was silly because he didn’t know that, of course, she’d wait for him, he was the one for her. But then again, maybe deep down he did know that he didn’t have to worry. Of course, she’d wait for him.

A true high school story is about the experiences that define a relationship. Her eyes lit up when she unwrapped her gift and saw a blue diamond necklace shining in the Christmas tree lights. She laughed as she grabbed his hand when they walked around the lake. She kissed him at the last second as the photobooth counted down from three to one. She decided one day she would sit down and write him a letter just as he did to her every month. She realized that over the past few months she had begun to fall in love. One day he said those three words they had both been thinking out loud. She even said them back.

And, in the end, a true high school story is never about simply having a boyfriend or girlfriend. It’s about finding someone you can tell all your secrets too. It’s about finding someone who helps you find yourself. It’s about finding someone who subtly changes your vocabulary to match theirs. It’s about finding someone who forgives you for all the times you’ve messed up. It’s about the major things that make up the person you love, and the promises you make between each other.