Besotted Boys, entry #8

To tell you the truth, I'm getting a little bit uncomfortable with all this.  The more I think about writing another post, the more boys I remember.  I talked to my sister and she said I should just do one or two more and jump right to D'Artangnan - who I've been married to for almost eighteen years. (She also told me that the word "plaited" is very medieval and I should have used "braided.' Sorry.) I've considered her advice and asked a couple of close friends who are of the opposite opinion.  So, for right now, I'll just go with the flow and see how I'm feeling when I start discussing people whose presence in my early life was truly significant.

This post is about boys I was besotted with but who never gave me the time of day.  

1)  Steve S. - I invited you to the girl's choice dance.  Heidi and I would come and visit with you in your driveway.  We drove by too because she was equally enamoured. You were always very gracious and kind and smelled like you had showered. 

Can't you see the besotted look in my eyes? I should have just flipped those suspenders.

2)  Tom - Student Body President.  You had me rub your shoulders at the State Drama Competition and sing the Who's "Nobody Knows What Its Like to Be the Sad Man, to be the Bad Man, Behind Blue Eyes."  You said that you didn't know a girl who knew all the words to that song. Ah, empty compliments. Here you are, crowded in the middle of our school play pile-on.  I could have wiped that frown off your face.

3) Darrin - You were five years older, living in my Dad's apartment building and sat through Intellectual Traditions of the West Class with me for an entire year. I flirted shamelessly, but not once did you deem to go out with an 18-year old.  

4)  Charles - my best friend's cousin.  I dreamed that someday I would sit alone at a campfire with you and you would sing to me on your guitar and I would wear turquoise earrings.  Don't ask me why the earrings were part of the fantasy, but they were.  We all have our quirks.  AND just in case you ever read this - I had no idea that you boys were watching me swim in that Wyoming river when I thought I was alone. I think it was shameful of you to see what you saw.  Because of that, I'm posting a picture of you here in your spandex.

Both Charles and John are here.

5)  John - my best friend's other cousin. I liked you for two whole weeks.  You were such a generous and kind person and you still are.  I'm sure you had no idea I was besotted.

6)  just wait until I get to my best friend's brother....jeez.

7)  Pete, I'm putting you here even though we went out for a while.  Why? Because you dumped me so hard without telling me why until years later.  You broke my heart.  Pete was a bass-playing, earring-wearing, poetry-writing hippie.  He asked me to Sr. Prom and held my pinkie in the rented hotel room while dozens of Seniors drunk wantonly around us.  I'd never been to a party where people drank and when he saw I was overwhelmed and didn't know anybody, he took me home.  We read poetry on the front porch and then he asked to kiss me.  BEST SENIOR PROM in history.  

8)  Scott - I flew all the way to New York to meet him in person after meeting him over the phone while working for Continental Airlines.  I made his reservation and then gave him my home phone number.  We talked for weeks before I flew there. He sensed I had peculiar feet.  He lived on Broadway.  I was so nervous when I made my way to his building.  I bought a new outfit, had my hair newly permed, and trimmed my toenails. I knew I looked good because the New York construction guys whistled. (despite what you've heard, they don't do that to just EVERYBODY!) 

Scott lived in the rooftop apartment.  He opened the door and he was just perfect - despite his receding hairline and the small David Letterman gap in his teeth.  He showed me the roof and the view.  There was an angled skylight that I had to stand on and I fell flat on my ..... and quickly jumped up.  He was gracious enough to pretend not to notice.  What he wasn't gracious enough was to tell me until a half an hour and two guitar serenades later that his girlfriend was pregnant with twins....sigh.

9)  I don't remember his name, but he from South Africa and wore a black-curly haired toupee.  I think it was the accent that tricked me into letting him borrow my acoustic guitar - bought when I was 15 while I was in Mexico City.  He smashed it against a wall and broke the entire neck off.  Needless to say, I was completely disenchanted and my eyes turned to his Iranian roommate who cooked cow's tongue for me on our date and was a little too pushy.  

10)  Keyvan - I worked with Keyvan the summer of my sixteenth year up at the Hospital Cafeteria.   My first day of work I dressed as Audrey Hepburn because it was a costume day. He was another Iranian with big brown eyes that followed me everywhere.  I never knew working in a hospital cafeteria could be so sensual. He must have been ten years older than me.  I was completely besotted.  Thank heavens we never did any of the things we talked about - he would have been arrested.  I still blush thinking about my behavior, but the crush on Keyvan sure made the summer go fast.  I saw him walking along a street about five years ago.  I pulled over and we had a chat.  He had grey hair around his ears and wrinkles around those brown eyes.  I think I saw him smile when I drove away.