I'll share a little narrative that will in a sense explain how I got to the point I have. Time travel with me if you will for the next brief and bitter sweet moments. Here we go...I was in the 4th grade, and had just discovered girls for the first time. It was all I could think about. There was one special girl in my class named Kelly. She was the kind of girl you could just stare at for five minutes and it'd feel like a lifetime.
I had always noticed that Kelly loved earrings, she wore them everyday. Some loops, some studs, all kinds. Remember we're smack the middle of the 80's here, fashion was odd, even back then. For the next two weeks I mowed, raked leaves, pulled weeds in the yards of almost any neighbor that would let me until I had enough saved up for what I thought could get me what I dreamed Kelly would love, a nice new, shiny, pretty set of earrings. That weekend my mom took me shopping and in all honesty I didn't want her knowing what I was doing, after all she could have slammed the brakes on my whole mission at that point, again seeing as how young I was, I just knew she'd think I was being ridiculous.
At my third pass at the jewelry counter she finally caught on and asked what I was doing? I broke down and told her because I honestly was a little lost and needed help. She actually for some reason thought it was sweet, maybe a little much, but she never let on that she didn't approve 100%, she was on board as far as I knew.
She helped me pick out the perfect set, not too big, not too small, and a pair that didn't completely wipe me out because she knew how much I'd worked for what I had. That upcoming Monday, literally the whole day my stomach was in my throat, and my butterflies were eating me alive! Now I wasn't going into this ordeal blind, I had some inclination via rumors and my own flirtations that my soon to be efforts were not going to be totally in vain. As our last class got out, I could feel the sting of the heat from outside blast my face, and for a brief second take my mind off what was about to transpire. Halfway down the outside phoenix corridors of our little school,
I jogged up to her, gave her a tap, and when she turned I simply said, "hey Kelly, these are for you". At this point all the blood from my body now resided in my face and I quickly shut my mouth and let the gift do the talking. She smiled from ear to ear and said thanks and ran towards the bus because by now it was literally leaving. I watched as I saw her climb the stairs, and standing about the half way point down the isle I saw her arms shoot up in the air, followed by bouncing around and smiling and screaming. My heart felt like it was full of helium and could lift my boy size body right off the ground.
I didn't sleep a wink that night. Then tragedy struck my little heart not a day later. As I got up to grab myself and her a milk, which I always did, I noticed she wasn't at her desk, but her trapper keeper lay wide open, and in the bottom corner of one of the pages it read, with words inside of small hearts, "I love Robert"...."I love Chad"....."I like Cameron a little"...... (I'm Cameron by the way).
My head started spinning and I felt like I'd just found out there was no Santa, my world stopped. As if that wasn't bad enough, her parents called mine that night and scolded them for allowing their son to, at that age, be so advantageous and outgoing to a girl.
So here I am, looking for someone else who might like my earrings
