The summer between my junior and senior years of high school was a very terrible time. Very chaotic too. I was trying to get my life on track and decided the best way was to try and quit drinking and smoking marijuana completely. Go cold turkey. I did okay, but fell off back into a few times when days got really, really bad. During this time, Bob had moved out. I stayed living with Sheelah, Robert, and Erin. Bob came around a couple of times to complain to us kids about how horrible his life had become and how he was kicked out off the house. He never stopped to consider how this affected anyone else. I usually just blew him off and and said something like " uh, whatever". My 17th birthday was a milestone day. No one was home as usual. I went to my friend Eric's house. When I got there, we went into his garage and he said" Happy birthday!" and presented me with the only gift I received that day. It was a bottle of Bailey's. I popped it open and then started chugging it. Eric said, "Hey man, save some for me!" So I handed him the bottle back and thanked him. We hung out for a couple of hours and then I went back home. When I got home, Bob was there asking where everybody was. I told him that I didn't know. Then he started in as usual. Sheelah this, Sheelah that. After a few minutes, I had had enough. I said "F--- you!. Its my birthday and you didnt say anything and you come in here and ......" Yeah, I used many sentence enhancers and chased him out. I let him know that he wasn't welcome here.
I lived with Sheelah rather than going to stay with my dad. That must sound very strange, but I had enough of him and I was so completely filled with hatred that I would have enjoyed beating him into a slow death.
I started working on my plan of escape back to Maine. Sheelah started dating Merlin. My dad came around a couple more times. My friend of mine at the time was always trying to get me to take my dad's side. He kept laying a heavy guilt trip on me about how my dad needed me and how I was letting him down and everything. I just said okay, whatever. I just focused all the more on my plan to move to Maine and disappear.
Now with summer almost over and school starting soon, Eric and I continued to hang out and play guitar and talk about girls. I had decided to go back to Ontario High. I even got the same dumb counselor who put me into that bilingual history class when I was a freshman. We had been talking about taking some work experience classes and started looking through the list of ROP(regional occupational program) classes. I suddenly got what I thought was a wonderful idea. I suggested that we take the cosmetology class. My reasoning was that we'd be the only two guys in a class FULL of girls. He was worried that people might think that we were gay. I told him that he was stupid and no one was going think that. We argued about it for a little while and then one of us, probably Eric said hey how about retail sales. We could hang out at the mall, get credit, work training, and the girls would be in that class too. We signed up when school started and it was fun. Eric was a little mad though. In the mall there was a music store that we both wanted to work at and only one student was allowed per store. I got the music store. Pedrini's Music. It's not in the Montclair Plaza anymore, but it was fun. This is where I met Eric's friend , Jennifer Clark. They had a math class together and they talked about school and stuff. She was very nice to me and I thought she was pretty. The three of us would walk around the mall together just talking about everything. Whenever she'd stand next to me, Eric would get a weird look on his face and move between us. Obviously, he liked her and I was a threat. He was a friend so I backed off. Jennifer would come around and talk to me at school. I was nervous. I mean here's this girl and she's flirting with me, but my friend Eric really likes her or so I thought. I ask him about her in a non threatening way. He laughed and said no that they were just friends and that I should go for it. I had read EVERYTHING the wrong way. A couple of days later, after ROP was over with for the day, she hands me a note and leaves. I open it up and she has written something like how cool I was or something and to call her. Her phone number was in it. I kind of went into a state of panic. Here's this girl who has so much going for her and she is interested in ME ?!?! I mean I had asked a girl to the movies or dances and stuff like that, but it was usually after a friend set me up. I almost thought this was a joke. I waited a couple of more days and then bit the bullet and dialed her number. Her mom answered and then turned the phone over to Jennifer. I don't really remember what we talked about, but we talked for a really long time. It was really great. I still wasn't expecting how it would turn out.
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