Steve

After the drunk and wounded episode with Kim, her boyfriend Steve decided that he would be safer and happier if he stopped seeing her.  I didn't know that they had broken up until the weekend when Steve and David came to pick me up, and Steve was alone.

Steve didn't mind bringing David up and seemed to be fine with going solo.  Sometimes he would bring another guy along to keep him company, and sometimes a couple of my female friends would go with us.  Kim was never mentioned; it was as if she vanished.

Now that it was warmer weather, we would often go to Fort Washington, an old fort on the Potomac River, on Sundays.  It was a good place to hang out, with plenty of secluded areas where underage drinkers could imbibe and party.  We could buy fast food and have a picnic and drink.  There were plenty of local kids hanging out all over the park grounds doing the same thing we were, but we were never bothered by park rangers.  I would say that most of the visitors to the park were under 21.  Occasionally unsuspecting adults would bring their kids to tour the park on weekends and find themselves embarrassed by intruding on teenage passion.  They would hurriedly exit the area, red-faced, and usually with the sounds of their kids asking, "why do we have to leave?"  I guess you could say that "we" pretty much owned the park.

Months were passing by quickly, and soon David would be graduating.  He was becoming somewhat hard to get along with.  He frequently told me to "grow up" and "stop playing games" with him.  All I can say to that is, huh?  He was making me crazy; I thought I was doing a good job of pretending to be 15.  I guess I was wrong.  He started talking about buying a motorcycle and going to San Francisco when he graduated.  I wasn't included, of course.  Those conversations were becoming more and more frequent, and we stopped seeing each other around mid-May.  But I would see him again down the road.

Steve asked me to go out with him, and I did, mostly as a way to get even with David, because it was inevitable that our paths would cross. After all, we shared the same group of friends.  Much to my surprise, I started to like being with Steve.  He was charming, sweet, well mannered, and he had a beautiful car.  What wasn't to like?  And he was the most agreeable person I had ever been around; anything I wanted to do, anywhere I wanted to go, was okay with him.

At the beginning of our relationship, we mostly hung around in Maryland.  He wasn't comfortable with the idea of running into David anywhere.  He didn't know how he would react, and neither did I.  We would often have a car full of his friends or mine with us, and we would drive to Chesapeake Beach, Tucker Road to see the Goatman, the drive-in movies, or Georgetown.  We always had a great time.  We were very compatible, and he was very generous, always surprising me.

By the time the hot part of summer rolled around, we had started to go back to Triangle to hang out.  That was when I heard that David had gone to California.  We started hanging out more with his friends, one of them was David's brother.  That was a little awkward for me, but I got over it.  We started going swimming at the Occoquan Reservoir.  They had put in a Tarzan swing, and the guys were on a mission to kill themselves.  It was not a public swimming place, and we were not supposed to be there, but we were.  I was the only one in the group that could not swim.  I watched from the shore.  The water was deep and muddy looking, and, eww, it had snapping turtles in it.  Boys would always grab me and try to throw me in, but I valiantly fought them off and won.

When Rosecroft Raceway was not running horses, Steve would take me there and teach me how to drive his car.  It had a 4 speed and a big motor in it; I loved driving it.  Once I had the hang of driving, we would go to this old two-lane, seldom-used road with curves and hills and woods around it.  That was Old Wheeler Road.  I would drive up and down it for an hour or so and became quite good at using the tachometer and going through the gears.  Sometimes it would be a white knuckle drive.

Steve and I stayed as a couple for almost two years.   He was 2 and a half years older than me, and he was a junior when I started going with him.  He took me home to meet his mom and step-dad, and sister.  I had been invited to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with their family.  My mom was also invited to Christmas dinner.  I really didn't want her to go.  She just acted so weirdly around my friends, kind of standoffish, and looking down her nose at everyone.  I don't know why, based on our family history.  Somehow I survived that day, but I held my breath because she was drinking, and I had no idea how she would act.  She was fine.  Her only mistake was wearing some idiotic looking hat, which I told her had to go.  Fortunately, at the last minute, she removed it.

I went to Steve's Senior Prom with him.  He went to a tiny school, and it was actually a junior-senior prom.  I really don't remember much about it; I don't think we stayed very long.  When we were leaving, we ran into David.  He stopped us and stuck his head in the window on my side of the car.  I hadn't seen him in a year.  My heart was beating so fast, I hoped that Steve didn't notice.  David commented on how beautiful I looked, his words, not mine.  He talked for a few minutes, and then Steve told him we had to go.  I turned around as we drove off, and he was still looking at me.  I felt a little sad.  That would be the start of a mutual dislike between them that exists to the present time.  They were no longer friends.

In the fall, Steve would be leaving to go to Nashville to attend a mechanical trade school.  He would only be back during Christmas break if the weather permitted.  He had started talking about getting married when I graduated.  I wasn't sure about that.  I had vowed to leave home one way or another as soon as I turned 18, but I didn't know if marrying him was the right thing.  I just didn't feel the way about him that I felt about David.  It was just different.

When Steve went to school during the fall, I started hanging out more with my own group of friends.  I had missed not being around them more, and we had all matured.  I was now starting my junior year.  Steve would write to me faithfully several times during the week.  I answered his letters as soon as I got them, and we were still trucking along.  He was looking forward to being home at Christmas, and I was looking forward to seeing him, but I was not that "head over heels" in love with him, and he wanted me to commit my future to him, but I just couldn't.

When he came home for Christmas, he had changed.  He was more mature, I guess from not having his parents looking over his shoulder.  I had been enjoying the freedom that being away from him allowed.  He just insisted on an answer, and I couldn't give him one.  He went back to school, and I wrote to him that I didn't want to be tied down in January.  I wanted to enjoy the rest of my junior year and all of my senior activities and be free.  He was very hurt.  He told me to find dates for school events to not miss out on anything, but I couldn't agree to that.  I broke up with him permanently, leaving the door open for future times, but I knew we were through.

Sometime after that, he met another girl and married her, but I didn't find that out until August.  I reconnected with him in 2007.  He lives in Florida now, and his wife died in 2005.  I still communicate with him by email and phone calls.  He hasn't changed much; he is still the nicest guy I ever met.  Sometimes I could kick myself for breaking up with him.  Life goes on.