The Early Daze

I thought that I should comment on how Dick and I began. Dick was my first real boyfriend. He was the one I gave myself to, body and soul. Yes, he was my first in every sense of the word. Hopefully he won't be my last! We met at his Senior Prom. I was there with a friend of his that I worked with. We sat across form each other and I found myself staring at him quite a bit. I wasn't staring because he was gorgeous or anything, I thought he was cute, but nothing to write home about. I was drawn to him for some reason. At one point I found myself thinking..."I wonder what it would be like to go out with him?" Then he did something or said something that escapes me right now and I thought..."Never mind...he's probably an asshole." That was not the only time I thought that or something similar in the months leading up to when we finally became "us", a couple. I remember how my best friend at the time, Tina, took an instant dislike to him the first time she met him. Dick and I weren't going out yet, but we happened to be at the same party one night and he just made the hair on the back of Tina's neck stand up. He was half in the wrapper and kept trying to throw bottle caps and peanuts down my shirt. I know, real mature. What a catch!! This type of behavior in a drunk, 19 year old boy is not something that usually sends up warning signals, but for some reason all Tina could see were red flags. I on the other hand kind of enjoyed the attention...after all what drunk 18 year old girl wouldn't? Tina told me on the way home that she didn't trust him and hoped that I wasn't interested in him. I distinctly remember saying to her "Oh, please!! Don't worry, I wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole!!!" Yup, a ten foot pole. Those were my words and I meant them. That was in July, by the end of August Dick and I were dating, you know, going steady. What changed? He told me he loved me. With those three words he became my Prince Charming. He rode up on his white horse and swept me off my feet. Thirty one years later, he dropped me...right on my ass. And Prince Charming turned out to be nothing more than a figment of my imagination.