rewind

i remember, justin, when you and i first met, way back in 2001, when you came to dinner at my place as steve-o's date, and i thought to myself..."what a cute, funny guy". you and the tool i was living with and steve and i had a nice night, i baked one of my mexican pies, which apparently you really liked!
well about 2 weeks later you and steve were kaput, and life went on.
i met, fell in love with and moved in with bill, you continued school.
bill fell out of love with me and i moved back to akron, in with my friend mikey. you graduated and bought a house and moved to parma. as your trajectory went up, mine went down...
then in january 2007, you saw me online and IM'd me "hey, i know you"...
that was the re-launch of our friendship, as you commented that you had never forgotten that night at my house, how it was your first experience of "real, gay life"...you said what an impression it made on you to come over with a date to 2 gay guy's house just for an evening of dinner and drinks and games...that it made you feel grown up.
why...why did you IM me, why couldn't you have just left me alone, my heart was already broken, i would have healed and settled into oblivion, but no...you had to listen to my problems and be a shoulder, be kind and caring and tell me how fabulous i was and what a dick bill was for letting me go (do you 2 get together for drinks now, raising a glass to what a total mess i am?)
anyways, that was the beginning...we chatted online for months, partly because i was recoupimg from surgery and you were taking a night-class and working at your new career as an engineer. finally, one afternoon in early may, it was a beautiful, warm sunny day, you came down to hang out.
we watched hours and hours of madonna concert dvd's, and episode after episode of "sex and the city", and then you took me to Friendly's for dinner, really late, and when you left to head home, my heart was nervous...with good reason.