Rupes first came into my life in the Burton College canteen. I saw him drinking coffee and looking run-down, but he was awfully handsome all the same. The Lord had arranged for me to be as high as a kite that particular lunch time, so I was overflowing with confidence, and as me and my friend Oliver discussed this little beam of lovliness sitting in our canteen it suddenly struck me that unless I did something about it right now I was probably never, ever going to see this man again. And I WANTED to see him again. Heaven only knows why I made this decision. I was high; bipolar sufferes are notorious for their irrational actions. So I got up and went to talk to him. I opened communications by taking his left hand, looking intently at his ring finger, and then declaring; "No wedding ring. That's a good start!" The poor man, he was terrified. But I badgered him relentlessly until he gave in and wrote down his mobile number for me. Then I merrily sauntered off late to class without giving him mine. At the next break, when I'd come back down off my sky rocket, I was stuck as a madly antisocial and really rather shy teenager with the phone number of an intensely attractive older man. Under normal circumstances, I would have thrown away his number and prayed I never saw him again. But the Lord intervined once more; for reasons that, even at the time, I wasn't quite sure of, I called him. I actually CALLED him - real words! He was pretty surprised to hear from me, and admitted that he thought I'd only got his number as a dare. I apologised for my excessively forthright manner and, after a bit (O.K. - a lot) of persuasion, he agreed to meet me at lunchtime the next day. And so the epic romance began...