Part 17: 3 Years

 On Valentine's Day in 2020, Gaston and I celebrate our three year anniversary. That is a long time to be with someone, when you're nineteen. We had the whole day planned out to go to White Rock all day and then have dinner later. He actually agrees to go which makes me really excited because he isn't usually so enthusiastic about hanging out with me. Our whole day is great, but my parents won't stop bugging me. They keep messaging me asking when I'm going to be home and if Gaston and I want to eat dinner with them. Gaston had probably eaten dinner with my family one time since we had gotten together. He never had anything to do with them and they didn't really care about him at all. They actually preferred when he wasn't around. We wrap our date up and head back to Abbotsford and have pizza with my family. 

We had been home for maybe ten minutes when I look out onto my parents back deck, I see my sister Manda. My big sister, who I was missing so much since she had gone away to school. She had come home to surprise us all, but mainly Jill who was playing the lead in YMT's production of Annie. She had begged my parents to fly Manda home for the show and they insisted that it would never work. Little did we know, they had been planning this all along. I am shocked to see her. I turn into an instant puddle of tears and run into her arms. The videos of Manda surprising Jill and I still make me teary. It's so hard to be apart from your family for so long and we were so happy to have her home. 

After we all go to Jill's show, Gaston had to drive Manda and I back home. He has passed his driving test and he is a really cocky driver. He thinks that he is the best driver ever and I'm the worst driver ever. Yes, he actually said that followed by something along the lines of "because you're a girl." 

When he drives us home, he is speeding so fast and swerving around the road. I am horrified because Manda is in the backseat witnessing this. Why was he being such a tool in front of my family? I put in so much work for them to think that we're in a happy relationship, he was not helping my case. When we get home, Manda rips into me about Gaston's bad driving. She tells me that it is incredibly irresponsible for him to drive like that and I cannot get in the car with him when he drives like that. I say that he never usually drives like that and he was just being silly. She goes back to BYU, probably thinking even more that she hates him more than anything and she can't believe that I'm with him. 

At this point, Gaston and I talk for five minutes a day during the school week and he usually cancels plans last minute on the weekends. I am mad at him most of the time, he doesn't care. He makes fun of me in front of people, he makes me cry and when I ask him why he didn't respond to my texts he says he just needed to relax after school. This hurts my feelings because all I want to do is talk to him but he doesn't find it relaxing? He has a pretty heavy course load but I still feel like he should be able to text me once in awhile. He hasn't asked me to prom yet either, and everyone is kind of wondering why. 

Amidst all of this, there are rumours of a pandemic circulating. Although my dad assures us all that it's just a rumour and there is no way it will get as bad as they say it will, it's getting scarier and things might get shut down. Gaston picks me up on Saturday night. When I lean in for a hello kiss, he dodged my kiss. This was a great start to our date. We hum and haw about going to a nearby city next weekend to go shopping at their mall. We small talk. At the end of the night, we end up in a parking lot (as most dates in high school do) but we just fight. He's mean to me and I don't take it this time. I tell him that his behavior is ridiculous and that I deserve better. He's mean. He hits below the belt and makes jabs at my character. I was blinded my love but I was pretty sure that this relationship was near its end. 

He drops me off at home and we hug goodbye. We don't say goodnight that night. When I get in the door and everyone asks me how the date was I say, "It was great!" My family tells me that church has been cancelled because of the pandemic. It's the first week of "at home church" and it feels surreal. I don't think we realized how severe the pandemic would be and all that would change. Things were really going to change for me, I don't think I was prepared for that either.