Summer is our favorite time of the year. Wes is off for 2 1/2 months. We sleep in, we watch movies. We go to the pool. We cook, we eat. We laugh. I was sitting here thinking about our life and I realized that summers have always been our thing. It started with a summer 22 years ago.
Every couple has a story ~and this is ours...
I met Wes in high school. We were on the track team together. We were both dating other people and we became friends. We talked about everything. I used him to do my math homework (just kidding). He is really good in math though!
In 1988, the night my brother graduated from high school, my friend Andreea and I snuck off to the beach with Wes and all his rowdy friends for a weekend away. I lied to my mother! Ugh, I still hear about this one on a yearly basis.
Mother, I am sorry...I have repented. I am a good girl now.
I knew I could get in trouble. I knew lying wasn't right. I knew my grandparents were here for my brother's graduation and they would distract my mother. I didn't care. I wanted to go and hang out with my friends and not think about my life.
In my defense, my dad had died the month before, I had just turned 16 and I wasn't processing things correctly. I justified it, I rationalized it. Wes always made me laugh and I wanted to laugh again.
We left as soon as they called my brother's name. "Yeahhhhh, Sean! Ok, RUN before my mother changes her mind!" I lied and told her I was going with a friend and her parents.
I know, I know. I am a heathen.
We drove to the beach in Wes' dad's Toyota Corolla. There were 7 of us in a car made for 5. We looked like clowns in a circus car. AC/DC was blaring on the radio. A truck almost hit us on the right. Wes had to swerve to the left... towards the wall. He turned the wheel at just the right time and our tire bounced off the wall and sent us back onto the highway. We all cheered and high-fived each other and kept driving~ We were young and dumb.
We stayed at the beach house for several days. We laughed, we jumped off the pier into the water. I got stung by a jellyfish ON THE FACE! We laughed hysterically! We drove around town. We laughed. We sang songs at the top of our lungs. We spent a lot of time on the beach. We got sunburns. We played cards. We ate Subway...a lot. We drank out of the Subway soda fountain without cups. (Sorry Subway, we were young and immature and not familiar with the heath codes.) We were 16 and 17 year old kids without a care in the world.
Wes and I had been friends for a while. We talked about things that I didn't share with everyone. I told him all my thoughts, fears, feelings and hopes for the future. We held hands, we shared our first kiss. We had a song, "The Flame" by cheap trick. The Toyota Corolla was a standard and he gave me a quick kiss every time he had to shift. I think sometimes he took the back roads instead of the highway on purpose!
We finally went home. I was sad it was over but happy because Wes and I were officially dating.
My mom found out that I had gone with Wes. I was grounded~ for a while.
Although I am sorry that I lied to my mother, I have never been sorry that I went. I needed that trip. I needed the laughs. I needed to start healing. It was the beginning of our love story...
We dated all summer. There were good times and not so good times. We broke up... he dated my friend... GASP! I became friends with his ex-girlfriends.
We dated again.
We broke up, I dated somebody else... I got engaged to somebody else.
He dated other people, he graduated from high school, he enlisted in the Air Force.
I almost got married to somebody else ~until... the summer of 1991
To be continued...
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