my friend jerry was bald. save for the cutest curls on the sides and a darling curly patch at the front of his forehead. he had dancing eyes and a shy smile. i adored him. i hadn’t seen him for an entire summer, and when i walked on stage for choir practice i ran over and scrunched his curly little self. not long after this, an impudent little freshman came behind me and patted my head.
those of you who are short, will understand that being treated as an infant is par for the course. it is not, i’ll admit, a course that i am fond of. thus, i twirled around and told him that i was neither a small child nor a puppy dog, and that he should never do that again.
he thought i was a bitch.
we were a few weeks into the school year before we spoke again. he was a tenor and he stood right in front of me. as a lover of aesthetic beauty i felt compelled to remark that he had a nice ass. he started to reconsider the bitch label.
that being said, as the weeks passed, i was supposed to date his roommate. james taylor. james was a debater. he was skinny. he had a cute accent. and he did absolutely nothing for me. leon, at the time was entranced by a slumpy thing called angela. my father even remarked upon angela’s beauty. they could not see the slump.
his birthday rolled around, and i came across him strolling the sidewalk with a most dreary countenance. it seemed that no one remembered his birthday. i promptly took him to PapaLeno’s (the local pizza joint) and treated him to pizza. again, he thought that i might not be altogether bitchy.
now bear with me a moment...the college owns a mountain. and one day a year they dismiss classes in order to allow the students to celebrate “mountain day.” it has a rich history, i believe, but has been reduced to a day of drinking, making out, and camping on the mountain. here is the official blurb: "Berea College's special heritage and unique mission provide a strong sense of community on campus. Institution-wide traditions help to encourage the development of community. "Mountain Day" is a good example. On this day classes are canceled and students and faculty climb a nearby mountain to celebrate Appalachian culture and get to know each other better."
up until then, my most memorable moment on the mountain was breaking up with my boyfriend to music that was streaming up the hill. the song? “listen to your heart, before you tell him goodbye.” *snort*
at any rate...i had been dancing to a slow song with jerry on the aforementioned mountain and we sat to talk. the leon stopped by to chat. i danced with leon, of course. and we kissed. he apologized, i said what for? then he went off with his friends, and i went off with mine.
we kissed a lot after that. behind buildings. on top of buildings. on the grassy fields. in that secluded bit by my dorm. but he kept talking about angela. so, i told him to go off and woo his angela if he wanted. that i might not be ‘round when he came back. so he did. she did that love you / hate you bit. and he was notsomuch enamored of her.
i wore a short black skirt with a low cut blouse, 4-inch heels, and hose with a line down the back of them to the next dance. and i ignored him. which worked like a charm. (oh, please...i was eighteen).
angela? she got kicked out of college for having “relations” with her boyfriend in the shower of her female-only dorm. *snort*
a few more years of teenage angst, some long distance relationship thrown in for good measure...and here we are. 16 years later.
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