From that day on we have spoken every single day. We almost didn't talk one day, this was when we hadn't confessed we liked each other so we didn't want to seem clingy.

We spoke to each other a lot on WhatsApp from then on. I remember asking Abbie if she liked girls and she wasn't sure (I was kind of happy with that answer because it felt like she liked me back but these feelings were new). We took a while to admit that we liked each other, we would post indirects and leave little hints. I didn't want to tell Abbie I liked her because I was scared she didn't like me back. I just waited to see if she would say anything to me, I wouldn't have been able to keep it to myself much longer. It didn't take us long to admit we liked each other. If I remember right, Abbie told me on my birthday (9th April). She told me in a long paragraph and I didn't reply for about 8 minutes, sorry Abbie I know that was the longest 8 minutes ever. I told her I liked her too and was so happy she felt the same. I just remember smiling and having many many butterflies.

We met April 14th 2014. Who knew talking to a girl online could actually live a 20 minute train ride from you? I was so happy she lived so close, long distance relationships are so hard so this made me so happy.

We met at the station near Abbie's, we went to hers for 5 minutes as of course she wasn't fully ready (the girl is never on time). We then walked down to the seafront, we decided to go on Southend's pier. It's super long and actually the longest pier in the country. So, being the longest pier you'd think they'd put some effort into it and put some arcades or something at the end. Nope, no arcades, not much there to be honest. We didn't mind though because we was enjoying each others company. The photo above (left) is actually the first picture we ever took together, captioned windswept. After that we went and got some chips and sat by the seafront. We also went into the arcades and went into the awful old fashioned Photo Booth. I stayed round Abbie's that night, we got a chinese takeaway of course and watched a couple films, but mainly spent the evening chatting. Although we didn't kiss, we wanted to but both got too nervous.

Our first kiss happened the 2nd time we met, which was 2 weeks later and Abbie came to my house. We also got chinese takeaway again.. oops. My mum already knew Abbie was my girlfriend at this point so she was nervous to come round but everything was perfect. We never actually asked each other out it just kind of happened and fell into place.

Since then we've had some amazing memories together, we've been to loads of concerts, trips out, holidays! We've been to Disneyland Paris twice, Spain, Cape Verde, Center Parcs and we're planning to go New York next year. We love travelling so much, we wish we could do it more but we save as hard as we can.

Disneyland Paris | June 2015

Center Parcs | April 2016

Costa Brava, Spain | July 2016

Disneyland Paris | November 2016

Cape Verde | May 2017

Here's to many more adventures to come. PS. Happy pride month!

- Shannon x