Diaries I Read:
So, on Saturday night B and I met two of our friends at a pizza place for dinner. We�re sitting there enjoying the conversation, and one topic that came up was a good friend of B�s who is a very average looking guy but a TOTAL player. I mean, the kind of guy who picks up a girl everywhere he goes, and nobody quite understands how he does it.
Anyway, one of our friends says, �Speaking of which, check this guy out.� So we look over to a table nearby, and there�s this guy sitting at a table with about eight very blonde, very cute, VERY young girls. He obviously wasn�t with them, but he had just sat down and was charming them all.
So we�re looking at this guy and laughing about it, and I looked again, and I said, �I think I know him!� That got another laugh, and then I said, �No, seriously, I think I know him, and I think I dated him!� (I didn�t mean that I was unsure about whether I had dated him, just that I wasn�t sure if he was the guy I had dated.)
So, I�m sitting there staring at him, trying to figure out if he�s really the guy or not, and I wasn�t totally sure. So when he got up to leave and walked by our table, I said, �Mike!� And sure enough, it was him.
So now I have to tell you the story of Mike. It�s one of my more juicy dating stories (sad as that may be). It�s the story of when I dated someone from the wrong side of the tracks. Hee hee.
It was the summer before my senior year in college, and I was a lifeguard at a pool in a neighborhood near my house. There was this group of guys in their 20s who would come and hang out at the pool. They were the kinds of guys that made me nervous � flirty, loud, good-looking � and they just seemed to be up to no good.
There were a couple of them who were VERY cute, and they were brothers � Robbie and Mike. They�d come by the pool nearly every day, and at first, I probably seemed like a snotty b!#@& to them simply because they intimidated me and I figured that if they were talking to me, they probably just wanted to make fun of me or make trouble. But after a little while, I figured out that they were pretty harmless and we started talking a little. I was still very intimidated, though.
Anyway, I couldn�t tell if I liked Mike or Robbie better, and I didn�t know which one of them liked me. Then, one day they asked if I�d like to go out with them and some of their friends, and I was a little nervous, so I asked a friend to go with me. I still wasn�t sure which one was interested, but it seemed like Mike was giving me a little more attention, and I think I heard talk of Robbie having a girlfriend, so I ended up kissing Mike at the end of the night.
And thus our summer romance began. Except romance is a bit of a misnomer since there was very little of it involved. We basically just hung out and made out. He�d come by the pool and hang out with me while I worked. I�d go over to his house after work. I don�t think we ever really went out on a real date. If we did, I don�t remember it.
I was 21 at the time, and I think Mike was like 28. However old he was, it seemed OLD to me. And he was sort of a loser. I think he had dropped out of high school at one point, but I think eventually he graduated or got his GED. He drank and smoked. He had done drugs in the past, and he was always vague about it, but I think he had even gone to jail and rehab. He lived with his dad and his brother and he did construction work. He had tattoos. But man, he was hot. He had a really cute face and an awesome body. And he knew it.
I don�t think I ever considered him or called him a boyfriend. I knew it wasn�t going to turn into anything serious since I was going back to school at the end of the summer. And I was probably glad to have that excuse, because, to tell you the truth, I was in way over my head with this guy. We never did sleep together, but man did he try. I never had ANY intentions of sleeping with him, though. He was the kind of guy I figured you�d catch something from.
So anyway, the summer passed and it was the last night before I went back to school. It turned out that he had been invited to several parties that night, and he invited me to come along with him and a bunch of friends. Well, he basically just invited me along to be the sober driver and haul their drunk butts around town. That was the first thing that pissed me off. The second thing that pissed me off was that he basically ignored me for most of the evening. He�d take me in to this party where I didn�t know a soul and then he�d ditch me. Then, we went to a party at some sort of bar (in my memory, it looks more like a donut shop, though). I had threatened to take their giant truck and drive myself home, leaving all of them stranded there, but somehow he convinced me to stay. Anyway, at that place he tried to get into at least three fist fights. It was ridiculous. I ended up talking to Robbie more than anyone. At one point, I was leaning up against a wall, probably looking unhappy, and he came over � drunk, do I have to add? � and put his hands on the wall over my head and leaned in and said, �Are you in love with me?� And I may have hesitated at the very direct question, but then I looked him in the eye and said, �No.� He said, �Oh. I thought you were.� Then he says, �Are you gonna have sex with me tonight?� And with no hesitation, I said, �No.� And for the rest of the night he begged and pleaded for me to sleep with him.
So I finally drive them all back to his house, and he takes me to his bedroom. We fooled around for about two minutes, and then he passed out on the bed. I nudged him a couple of times and then he rolled over � right off the bed and onto the floor, where he stayed for the rest of the night, as far as I know.
So I�m there at his house wondering what I�m going to do since it�s 2:00 in the morning and I�m several miles from home. I noticed that the light in Robbie�s room was still on, so I knocked and asked if he could take me home. He said yes.
So he drove me home and pulled up in front of my house, and we said goodbye and then I gave him a hug. And then, before I knew it, we were kissing. And he says, �I�ve been waiting all summer to do that.� And then we talked about it a little and he said he�d always wondered why I�d chosen Mike instead of him, and I tried to explain that it was hardly a choice. And then we kissed some more. And then � this has to be the funniest of my make-out memories and I hope I can do it justice cuz it was like something out of a bad teen flick � he reaches over me and somehow releases the seat support and the car seat goes slamming backwards into a full reclining position and then he was fully on top of me in the car. Ha!
So we made out for quite a while. He, too, wanted to have sex but I stood my ground. I felt a teensy bit guilty about making out with the brother of the guy I�d been going out with all summer, but I think I actually felt more proud than anything. I felt like I�d gotten my revenge on this guy who�d been a jerk and a lousy excuse for a �boyfriend.� I thought it was funny, frankly. And it was fun because for once I didn�t care about the guy. All of my relationships had been so serious and emotional (in my mind) and I�d always get so caught up in them and so hurt in the end, and it was refreshing to not give a dang about Mike.
In my mind (and my journals), I referred to Robbie as �Prince Robbie� for months afterwards. I called him that because I knew that if he hadn�t come along and made out with me, Mike would have been one more name to add to the list of guys who had dicked around with me and didn�t care. But because of Robbie, I was able to not care either. Does that make sense? In my mind and heart, it did.
Working at home - Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004
Toronto - Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004
On the way to Toronto... - Tuesday, Nov. 09, 2004
A Good Day - Monday, Nov. 08, 2004
Another letter - Thursday, Nov. 04, 2004