What person in your life knows you best, and how did you meet?

Kids, this is the story of how I met...my best friend, Melissa. But to do so we have to go back about ten years before we officially met.

It was the summer of 1997. School was out for the summer and I was fifteen going on sixteen. TGIF was still on the air and the summer movie season was going into full swing. And many mid-season replacements were wrapping their season runs.

One such show, was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy began her run in March of 1997 and in June of 1997 it aired its season finale, Prophecy Girl. This was the first episode of Buffy I watched. It was the episode that pulled me into a fandom before I knew what fandoms were.

Nothing was really on, so I gave it a try. A guy was practicing asking out a girl he liked and thought, maybe a tip or two could help...it did not by the way. As the show progressed I started to fill in what was going on, it being a finale and I have seen none of the episodes. I did see the movie back in '92, so I knew enough.

I spent the summer catching up on repeats ('member those?!) and became a fan as season two progressed. I was a fan of the show and of the cast. Sarah Michelle Gellar has been my #1 crush ever since. I related to Xander (who was far from perfect and did lots of idiotic things) because of his humor and heart. As the years progressed, I always hoped the two would come together at some point.

I became a Buffy/Xander shipper and never really looked back. With the surgence of the internet, I found fan communities and B/X fanfiction communities. This truly began my love for writing. My early stuff is buried and mostly lost and let's be honest, that's where it's going to stay. Later I joined LiveJournal and InsaneJournal communities as Xander (the best of all Xander's if I do say so myself) along with Clark from Smallville, Sam and Dean from Supernatural. Just fun nonsensical writing with a group of people that loved writing and fandoms as much as I did.

In the mid-aughts, my Xander was a little heart broken and just existing. Helping people where he could, including Abbigail Whistler from Blade 3. Xander helped heal her from her injuries of a night of slaying vamps. The person behind that character was Melissa.

We started messaging on AIM and became friends. We'd watch True Blood together and make fun of the cheese. Now, she's one of the most important people in my life. She knows me better than anyone. Know just what to do to make her smile. What references to make her laugh.

She's my best friend and is the absolute best. And that kids is how I met my best friend.