An engagement 10 years in the making

Alex and I have known each other since elementary school. We both started at a new school in 5th grade, however, this story does not have a happy beginning. I became a classic member of the "popular" girl group, while Alex remained on the "unpopular" kids. And for the next 4 years he was subject to my torture methods. For example, in 6th Grade he had a crush on one of my friends. So I went up to him and said "Guess what! Emily really likes you!" Excitedly he replied, "REALLY?!!" Then with a scoff I told him, "ugh NO!!". Another cruelty Alex had to endure, was when I locked him in a shed at one of my friend's birthday parties. Not only was Alex the only boy in attendance, I locked him in with this painfully awkward/perverted girl.
Finally in 9th grade,Earth Science class, I recognized that Alex was actually really smart! So I asked him to be my lab partner. That was the first year that I was actually nice to him. In 10th grade, Alex and I had every class together. That year was especially hard on me because 4 close family members pasted away. And Alex was always there for me, it didn't matter if I needed to cry or laugh or just have someone sit with me, he was always the one I could turn to. It was so easy for me to talk to him about anything and everything, and it wasn't long until he and I referred to one another as best friends. We started dating the beginning of our junior year (2004) after he asked my dad for permission to date me. We have been together ever since, not one break up or separation time in all the years we've been together.
This next part is our actual engagement story, but it is told from Alex's perspective because I think it makes it that much more special. This was an email Alex sent to his cousin telling her our story.
" Ok, so the first thing you should know is about a month ago, I went to visit her at her house and that's when I asked her Dad for permission to marry her. The day before we had went out and looked at rings and she found the one she absolutely loved. (Even more of a backstory, she found one she loved about 4 months ago, but it was really expensive, and the more she thought about it, the more she didn't like it. Moral is, we've been looking for a while :) ). So anyway, the guy that we were talking to sent her away to go get coffee/take a walk while he and I discussed finances. Unknown to her, I actually bought the ring that day :) She just thought I was talking to him about how much it would all cost, etc.
So moving along, a week ago today, I visited her at her dorm in Buffalo.
I knew I wanted to ask her, but wasn't sure how (I did know that she didn't want to be asked in front of people or at a restaurant or anything...very low-key). We got back to her room around 9-9:30 after running errands and eating dinner and started watching a movie. I'd like to say it was a romantic movie, but it was Anchorman, We love it! So anyways, to give a bit more back-story, one thing I used to do was to fake ask her to marry me (odd, I know), but she made me promise to stop unless I really meant it around the time we started getting serious about taking the next step. So we were watching the movie and after some conversation I asked her to marry me. She gave me a look and said "You know you're not supposed to do that". I got on a knee and pulled the box out of my pocket and asked her for real. You should
have seen her, she freaked out! :D It was priceless. She kept
saying "Are you kidding me!!" and I was like "so...is that a yes?"
That's our engagement story, the next chapter in our lives together. We have set the date for summer 2011 and we couldn't be happier.