Everyone has one, right? Seeing as this is now a relationship blog, I should probably give you the details of our relationship…

Our story starts out in 2002, when I was in eleventh grade, he in twelfth. We went to different schools, but we spent half a day at a Vo-Tech school. After my core class was finished, I transferred into Computer Programming, where I was one of three girls and twenty-some-odd boys. I was already friends with a couple of them, and Jay quickly introduced himself after yelling “Whoa, another chick!”

We flirted a lot in class and exchanged screennames to flirt online as well. He asked me out on a date and I got permission to go so long as it was a double date. I asked my friends Kara and Phil to come with us.

November 28, 2002 was our first date. It was Black Friday, and I had to work at FYE in the mall until like, 5 or something. Kara met me when I got out, and we walked around until it was time for the boys to show up. Phil came shortly thereafter, but JJ was a no-show. We waited around for a good hour – I called his house and his mom said he had already left – it turns out he had to celebrate Kelsea‘s birthday and then his grandmother made him go shopping for a new coat. We all really thought he was going to stand me up, but thankfully he finally did show.

We went and bought tickets for the new James Bond movie that was coming out, and then walked around the mall until it was time to go see it. Kara’s mom started calling and texting her telling her it was time to go, so she had to leave half-way through the movie. That was kind of bogus. After the movie, Phil left and Jay and I were left on our own.

We went to Johnny D’s and talked for a couple of hours about everything and anything we could think of. I was still really shy, so he did most of the talking, but it was a lot of fun. I ended up getting picked up somewhere around 11 if memory serves me correctly, and we said our goodbyes til we went back to school.

I remember talking to him online for a while from my aunt’s house and we were hardcore flirting. He was trying to say that he wanted to kiss me, but I completely misunderstood and thought he was already trying to fuck me. After we got that straightened out, he tried really hard for a few days to do it, but I was so shy and scared I kept turning my head or walking away. I had never had a real date or a real kiss or a real boyfriend at that point… He finally got the balls to straight up grab my face and just do it, which was surprising and incredible all at once.

We dated on and off through 2004, but he was also dating other girls at the same time, which I later found out about. It was a really rocky period for us, but nothing like it turned out to be later…