I Was An Emotional Prostitute Pt. 15

            As I look back on my dating life, I see that I’ve dated more than I realized, until now. The stories I will tell in this chapter are all true. It still amazes me sometimes to realize just how inconsiderate and/or plain hurtful men can be. I’ve already covered some of the relationships with men that had the most impact on me, so I intend this to be a list of the ones who had an effect on me, but were not major players in my dating life.

            Every girl has a first boyfriend of course and mine was Billy. We were in first grade together and I thought he was totally cute. Nothing ever came of it, but I do have some fond memories of him.

There were some men, or should I say boys, who wanted me to do things for them but I refused.

            First was Russ.  I had a huge crush on him, so when he invited me over to his place, I eagerly went. When I got there, he took me into a travel trailer and we laid next to each other on a bed in it. He then tried to convince me to take my shirt off. I didn’t want to and told him so. When he asked why, I told him it was a body shirt, which had snaps in the bottom and I didn’t want to deal with those. He persisted and I kept saying “no.”

            What really clinched it was when something liquid dripped down between us from a space in the cubby above us. He told me he had mice or something up there, which occasionally spilled their water or some such excuse. However, shortly after that another boy from the neighborhood popped out of a small closet because he could no longer stay in there. He explained that my brother Mike was hiding in the space above where Russ and I had been. I was angry and embarrassed.

            Another fellow, Kelly wanted me to help him test his new waterbed. I refused. I told him I was trying not to engage in that kind of behavior anymore. When he persisted in asking, I slammed the phone down in his ear and refused to talk to him after that.

            Probably the subtlest, was Kevin. He invited me over for dinner, even made Cornish game hen, which I’d never had with butterscotch pudding for desert. After dinner, Kevin begged me to have sex with him. I refused and kept on refusing until he realized I meant it. Once he realized that, he gave up then said he’d take me home. He took me out to the bus stop, as he didn’t have a car, then decided he’d rather go visit his father than see me safely home, even though it was dark out

            I met a couple of the men I dated through Howie, whom I mentioned previously. One was Alex. He was cute. Blonde hair, blue eyes, just my type, or so I thought. Like a lot of the other men I went out with, all he wanted was my body. He convinced me to skip school one day so we could hang out. I wished later that I’d said, “no,” so I was hoping he wouldn’t be at my bus stop. He was there on his motorcycle when I walked up, so I got on it and went with him. All we did was hang out his house and have sex.

            Then there was Russell. He had red hair and blue eyes. Things seemed fine between us until I came back from visiting family in Idaho. He told me he’d joined the Marines. I was really surprised. Once he left for the Marines, our relationship fell apart. I met him again at work several years later. He’d been hired as a delivery driver at the Domino’s pizza I already worked for. I remember looking at him and thinking I was glad our relationship had fallen apart. He wasn’t the kind of man I needed.

            I met Dane in high school, riding the bus. We dated and had a good time. We shared a locker while dating. One day when I went to exchange books for my classes I found a note from him hanging in our locker. At first I thought it was a love note. As I went to class with it in my hand, I suddenly got this sense that something was wrong and I was about to be hurt. I tried to ignore it, but couldn’t.

As soon as I got to my desk, I opened the note. I couldn’t believe my eyes at first. It was his way of calling off the relationship as his old girlfriend had started talking about getting back together. When I confronted him with why he hadn’t told me in person, he said it was because he didn’t know when he would see me again. Given that we saw each other almost daily on the bus going to and from school that was the most cowardly excuse I have ever heard.

            To make matters worse, I ran into his girlfriend, Linda in the hallway one day. As we walked, we started talking about Dane. I told Linda how I felt about her disrupting my relationship with him only to learn he’d never even told her we were a couple! She told me she would chew him out for it. I’m sure she did.