Anniversary passes without notice

Justin and I have been dating, this time around, for about three years.

When I tell people we technically have three anniversaries, they usually look at me sideways. It does get a little confusing because we’ve dated multiple times. So, Justin and I –– maybe it was mostly me –– decided to only recognize our most recent anniversary date: May 7.

It was a couple of weeks ago. And, yes, we forgot.

Dates aren’t a big deal to us, honestly. We do have a trip to Ohio planned for next week, although we didn’t really plan the trip to celebrate our anniversary.

Justin and I met in a seventh grade algebra class at Blackford Junior High School about 10 years ago.

Preface: I come from a math-oriented family, but I am not a math-oriented gal. One can only imagine how much I disliked that class.

But Justin loves mathematics, and he’s really good at it.

He often worked through problems with me, and our relationship later blossomed from my least favorite –– and his absolute favorite –– subject.

Justin developed a crush on me in eighth grade while we were learning Geometry. (Fun fact: my dad taught our class.) He joined the track team to spend more time with me and walked me to my locker every day after class.

I was clueless. Justin was just the funny kid who helped me with my homework sometimes, after all.

It wasn’t until one day during track practice our sophomore year I learned he had feelings for me.

We started dating shortly after on April 21.

Our first time dating was, to put it mildly, extremely awkward. Then again, what blooming high school relationship isn’t?

Dad wouldn’t let me go on dates until I turned 16, so Justin and I went on our first date the weekend after my birthday. His mom, Marci, drove us to the Muncie AMC movie theater. We held hands the entire time, and on the ride home, we sat on opposite ends of the car.

I’ll never forget how Marci started yelling as we entered Hartford City.

“No, no, no,” she shouted. “Don’t do that! Don’t do that!”

A deer slammed into the door beside me.

Marci pulled to the side of the road and looked back at both of us with teary eyes.

“You heard me tell it not to run out in front of us, right?” she said in a quivering voice.

After a quick call to Justin’s dad, Marci dropped me off at my house. Justin walked me to the door and gave me a shy peck on the lips –– my first kiss.

I later broke off our relationship. Justin then dated a friend of mine for a few years. Their first date was the Sadie Hawkins dance, which I also attended … alone.

Our yearbook needed photos of the event, and I knew I’d get better coverage than one of the girls with a date. The regret hit me pretty hard as I watched them dancing on the floor together.

Still, Justin offered to help me in math class whenever I needed it, and we both ran track and cross country. Over the summer after we graduated high school in 2016, we spent a lot of time together playing Pokemon Go.

We started dating again early in our college careers (Nov. 12, to be exact) and broke up after a year.

Several of my male friends made their moves then.

One friend pulled the “nice guy” card for about a week before expressing interest in me over text.

“I’m still in love with Justin,” I responded without a second thought. It wasn’t like I had given mixed signals –– we’d spent the day before talking about it.

This (former) friend proceeded to tell me I was a fool.

Yes, maybe I was a little foolish.

Certainly foolish enough to start seeing Justin again not six months later. And now, more than three years later, we’re still a couple. Foolish, for sure.

We’ve had our trials and tribulations through the years, but there’s no one else I’d rather be spending my days with than Justin. I suppose, when you know, you know.

I’m just glad he forgot our anniversary, too.