summer love'n

As our relationship heated up like the summer sun, we found ourselves getting more familiar with each other.
Pet-peevs, likes and dislikes. We fought a few times, and even broke up once  during that summer. But we found ourselves right back together again.
  I introduced him to my family right away. I scored "good boyfriend" points from my dad because Bob had a summer job, and seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. Bob, on the other hand was very hesitant to introduce me to his parents. (I now know why) I think deep down inside he knew that I was not going to fit in well with his family. I should've heeded the waring signs. But, I was young and didn't know what warning signs were. And really at 18, who heeds warning signs?
  When he finally introduce me to his family, I stuck out like a sore thumb. They were not your typical parents. Well, compared to mine anyway. They were alot older then my parents. They didn't seem to care for their appearance or take time to groom themselves. They lived in a very, what I thought was, a run down and cluttered home. I was use to a larger home with more room to breath, we had more privacy. It had one bathroom. Mine had 3. I would describe their home like the song "over the river and through the woods." It was a small white house isolated on 6acres. Talk about your privacy. They adored their home. It had been in his mother's family for years and she "some how" inherited it.
  I never saw what they did, to me it was just another home, unlike mine.
It had a cold and dark feeling to it. Their was not happiness, no cheery vibe to it. The floors were solid wood and the fireplace was all stone. The kitcehn was outdated, and very old. Funny, that even back then I could spot an outdated kitchen. I guess I got that from my dad. He was always remodeling something in our home.
  Now, my dad never hunted. We didn't have dead animals on the walls as decoration, no sounds of deer calls or smells of Venicin cooking in the kitchen.  I mean the closest thing we had in our home to an animal was our cat, and he was a pet. I couldn't even think of him being stuffed and hung on a wall as a trophy. "Yuck!"
  But I tried to like what he liked, and tried to find an interest in it. But honestly I have to say, it was hard to do. I hated it actually. And still not a huge fan of it to this day.

His parents seemed strict and withdrawn from each other, especially his mom and dad. She adored her sons, and would do anything for them. She would also do anything for her husband too. To the extreme, I thought. His father was almost like a dictator. Tall, about 6ft 5in. Full facial beard. You never knew what type of mood he would be in. Always liked to sit on the front porch and drink beer after a hard days work.
His father also had such a bad potty mouth. Again, something I wasn't use to. My dad never told nasty jokes or used profanity, well, unless he was very mad.
  His dad would say jump and his mother would say how high. I just never understood that.
His mother was tough lady. She didn't take much crap from anyone.  She could be very intimidating at times too. She enjoyed gardening, that was her hobby, I guess. I will admit, she did have some beautiful flowers. I remember sitting on the porch and just admiring her arrangement of flowers that were growing all over. She would tell me stories of her child hood and growing up in this house. I would act like I was interested, but really wasn't. I was 18, who really cared?
She was the total opposite of my mom. My dad would hire people to plant flowers in our yard. And probably hired people to maintain them too.
 We both came from 2 different families, different up bringing, different lifestyles. It was a match made in heaven.

The first meeting went well. We didn't stay long. But I will never forget what his dad said to me before we left that evening. He told me "don't interfere with Bob's football season this year." I was a little intimidated by that statement. But I told him that "I was not going to stop him from attending games and had no intention interfering in his football season."
 Maybe they thought that I was going to be a distraction or something. I didn't know, and really didn't care either. They had huge dreams for their son. He was going to be this big football star according to them. This was "their" dream. Little did they know that it wasn't Bob's. He wanted to join the military.

We had enjoyed our summer. I attend a few of his football practices, and brought lunch to him at work.
I had a job that summer too. I was working at Connie Shoes in the mall. One evening I had called Bob while I was at work. As we were about to hang up, he said  those 3 little words that all girls long to hear. He said "I love you." I said "you do?" He said "well ya!" I said "ooooookkkk!"
 It took me by surprise, because I didn't really have those same feelings for him that soon into our relationship. But what the heck, I will go along with it I suppose, what could it hurt?
  Sex was never talked about. And for a long time we didn't even think about taking our relationship to that level. He was scared, I wasn't. I hadn't exactly been a virgin when I met him. I had been down that road. Been their done that!
  I do remember a time when Bob and I were alone in my backyard, laying on a blanket under the stars, and things got a little steamy. But nothing ever happend that night. And it would be sometime before we got that carried away again.

As our senior year began the fall of 1991, our relationship status blossomed into a strong and steady one. The rumors that started to spread at the end of our junior year became reality for most of our class. We quickly became one of several "hot" couples.
   I was an adorable girlfriend. I wore his jerseys on Fridays with his name proudly promoted on my back.
I was hoping to be one of the lucky couples to be nominated that year for homecoming king and queen. We were a cute couple how could we loose? The day of the voting, of course I voted for myself and my boyfriend. I don't know exactly how this all went down, but somehow all the ballets got messed up. He was runner up with another girl, and couples were not placed together with who they should've been with. It was a disaster. Whoever did the counting of ballets did not count them correctly.
  "Umm, excuse me, I want a recount please."

I was his biggest fan. Even bigger then his mom. The night of the homecoming game was intense. Our school had not won a game in like 13 years. Ya, it was pretty bad! Lets face it, Jacobs football teams had sucked throughout the years.
 As the players ran out into the field, the crowd cheered and chanted. Fans were singing the "Eagles" anthem, and cheering on their team. I looked around to see where his parents were sitting. As I noticed they had such depressing expressions on their face. Maybe it was just a game face! But they didn't look happy. They never did. They didn't cheer for the team.
  Would you believe it, after so many years of a loosing streak, or team won. It was a celebration like no other. The crowd ran out from the bleachers and celebrated with the team. Now, I like to think that Bob was calling my name through the crowd like Rocky was calling Adrine after he won his fight to Apollo. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, like a movie.
...Ok, maybe not like that, but he did call for me a few times, and when we finally made it through the crowd we hugged from pure excitement. It was a great night. A picture was taken that night and was made into a T-shirt. I wore the heck out that t-shirt too. (not to school though)
  His dad came down to congratulate his son, but it wasn't without ridicule and disappointment. All his dad could say was how bad he played, "you could've done better, " he said. I was shocked! This wasn't the time nor the place to put your son down. This was Bob's moment to shine and celebrate with his team.
But I guess this was a routine for him. Something I would learn to quickly being with that family. But Bob just brushed off his dads harsh words like he didn't even hear him. I don't blame him, I would've too.
  It was a great start to the homecoming weekend and our senior year.

It wasn't long before it was Christmas break. We were all excited to ring the in the year 1992. After all, this was going to be a big year for us. Little did we know how "big" it would be.