I didn’t know this four years ago, but that boy who sat behind me in high school chemistry class was the one for me. After three years apart, a fish of all things brought us back together. I know it sounds cheesy, but hear me out.
He sat behind me in our junior year chemistry class, and, while I was thinking of him as my buddy, he was developing a huge crush on me. He asked for my Snapchat and we started talking. Once the summer came, he asked me to hang out a few times. I would later find out that he was already planning dates he wanted us to go on and had never felt this way about someone before. Of course, at the time I didn’t know or admit to myself that they were dates.
One week, he asked me if I wanted to go to a local drive-in theater. I knew he had a crush on me, but I didn’t see him in that way. Not wanting to risk putting myself in a position for a more awkward friend zone later on, I decided to tell him that I only thought of him as a friend. At that point he denied having feelings for me and we continued being friends. In the spring of our senior year, he sent me a text confessing that he did have feelings for me over the summer, and he wanted a second chance. However, my feelings hadn’t changed at that point either.
That was one of the last times I heard from him. Since then we’ve both been in a few relationships, had experiences with other people, and even ended our most recent relationships one day apart by coincidence. Our relationships during this period taught us both what we did and didn’t want, and I believe that they brought us closer to finding each other again.
Fast forward to this summer, and I was looking through my Snapchat stories when I noticed his name, which I hadn’t seen in a while. On his story was a picture of him holding a northern pike that he’d caught at his friend’s cabin the day before. I swiped up to comment on how big the fish was, and the conversation took off from there. Over the course of that week we saw each other three times. On our third date, we ended up cuddling outside in the same hammock until 1 a.m. I felt safe and comfortable with him, and I didn’t want to leave, even though I knew my parents would be so upset at me getting home that late. I’ll never forget when he said that his eleventh grade self would be shitting his pants right now.
We have been together ever since, and I can honestly say that this is the happiest I’ve ever been. He is able to express his love for me in the ways I’ve always needed, and he doesn’t shy away when I do the same. He never misses a chance to let me know that he wants to commit to me and always reminds me that I’m special and beautiful. He’s generous, kind, patient, and vocal with his feelings. I’ve always found stories of fate in romance to be unbelievable and cheesy, but this sure feels like fate to me.
