"PC"

I don't remember if I've ever called him this on Pandora, but my nickname for Sam is "PC." It's his name in my Gmail chat list. It's his label on Pandora. It's the way I refer to him.  It's his name in my phone.

In real life, this provokes more conversation than I ever anticipated.  My roommate, Bekah, was pretty confused for a while. She knew I was dating Sam, but she saw that I texted someone named "PC" kind of a ton.  Eventually she asked who that was, and I told her it was Sam.

A guy named Harley noticed immediately.  We were at a soccer game together on election day, and I was texting.

"Ah," I said. "Romney and Obama are tied for electoral votes. 153-153."
Harley raised his eyebrows.  "Who's texting you this?"
"My boyfriend. Sam."
Harley looked at my phone.  "You call your boyfriend PC?"
"...yes."
"Huh. That's interesting."

It is, actually, and I'm going to tell you how he got that nickname. I think only about three people besides me and PC himself know how it happened.

It was three years ago. My best friend was Ellie {the one who got married in June -_-}, I was still into the Fire Fairy Stories, and Sam was a friend with a crush on me.  However, because Ellie and I were best friends and because Sam had a crush on me, we ended up talking about him a lot.

Like. Most of the time.

However, we already had a Sam in our lives, and he was a pretty big part of our lives. He had been my crush of like five years, he was our best friend's older brother, and he was a main character of the Fire Fairy Stories.  Therefore, everytime we wanted to talk about MY Sam, we had to clarify, and if we ever wanted to talk about both of them at the same time, clarifications added an extra two minutes to every five minute conversation.

So, Ellie and I did what fifteen-year-old best friends talking about potential crushes do:

We gave my Sam a codename.

Now, Ellie and I were already pros at nicknaming people. We had several, including Him, Him 2, Him 3, It, Pyro, and CRB {Christopher Road Boy}.

But the thing about those nicknames is that they just happened. Nicknaming Sam was necessary and intentional. Ellie and I scheduled and conducted a phone conversation specifically with the purpose of nicknaming Sam.

"What are we gonna call him?" I said.

"I don't know," Ellie sighed.  "Red." {He has red hair.}

I glared at the phone. "No."

"Aw."

"What are some characteristics of him?" I said, thinking out loud.

"Well, he talks a lot."

"Yeah. But we're not naming him Mouth or anything."

"Hm, I don't know," Ellie said. "He's smart. He argues with you. He's spontaneous. He doesn't take your crap. He reads. He's funny."  She paused.  "He's pretty much perfect for you, Steph."

"Perfect...like Prince Calvin."

Prince Calvin was a character from the Fire Fairy story. He was actually sort of creepy and annoying because he was literally perfect. He always said the right thing, did the right thing, asked the right questions, knew the right answers. He was perfect.

Ellie laughed.  "We can't call him Prince Calvin. That's awful. And takes way too long to say."

"I know. But maybe we could abbreviate it. Make it an acronym. PC."

"I dunno," Ellie said.  "That sounds weird."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Oh well. We'll think of something eventually."

We decided to use "PC" til we thought of something better.

But we never did. Instead, the name "PC" became synonymous with my Sam. It came to be more than a nickname, even more than a real name. It was a feeling. It was a milestone. It was an IDENTITY. PC was the perfect person for me, the person who completed me and balanced me and enhanced me.  PC was the person who made me more of who I was.

Today, I associate "PC" more closely with the guy I love than "Sam." When I see the name Sam, it's still the tiniest bit ambiguous to me.  My boyfriend is PC in my head. He's PC in my heart.

And he's still the perfect one for me :)

~Stephanei