Memoir - Chapter 1

An interesting and true love story, based on yours truly.

In the years of our youth we find ourselves to be very vibrant and willing; which will soon lead to us being taken advantage of and used for another’s selfish gain. It seems that, no matter how hard one tries, they can never truly seem to satisfy themselves or their lovers when we are in that teenage period of time in our lives. I believe; however, that it is those trials and those pains that bring us closer to becoming the strong men and women we are today – and it leads us to finding the one we know to be our true love.



I was in the stage of being hurt by another.

I was 15, and I had just broken up with my boyfriend of 7 months so that I could be with a nicer, sweeter boy of 18. His name was Brant, and he was very troubled. People had always wronged him in his life, but I had hoped to change all of that. So, we developed a friendship that soon grew from long hugs to shy kisses – and so on. I must say, we really must’ve looked an amusing pair; him being over 6 feet tall, and me being no taller than 5 feet and 1 inch! He had wonderful hair, and that was probably my favorite thing about him; it was feathered at the ends, it shone perfectly in the sunlight, and it hung just right on his head. Then there were his eyes; they were so pretty, and I found myself gazing at them constantly. He was a tall, lean jokester and I was a tiny redhead with a hidden heart… and I think that’s where I’ll start the story.

**

“You two are so cute together, Britty,” Tina said to me after school. Brant’s arm was draped around my shoulders, but he was deep in conversation with his friend Zeb, and so I found myself talking to Tina instead.

“Thanks! He’s so amazing…,” I could hear my voice, and it sounded so cliché but – it was true, in my heart; I really found him to be the most amazing guy I’d ever met.

“I can tell you really like him; how long have you two been dating, now?”

“About two months.” I smiled happily up at Brant, and he returned the smile after bending down to kiss me.

“Two of the most amazing months of my life,” He said with a smile, and I felt my heart skip a beat. “And now I’m going to go spend some more time with the most amazing girl… in Danny’s basement!”

Zeb nodded and waved goodbye to Tina as Brant and I made our way to his car; hand in hand. It was surprisingly hot out, for a late September afternoon, and the sun was shining on his hair so perfectly; he looked like an angel. It was moments like those that kept me so close to Brant… it was when I could really see the good in him that made me love him as much as I did – and boy; did I love him.

“Wait up, asses!” Zeb called from behind us, jokingly as he jogged up to us just in time for me to steal the shotgun position in the passenger seat of the car. He gave me a slight scowl and moved on to the backseat.

“So where are we going first?” I asked curiously; knowing that we had to pick up a few people before we could go to Danny’s.

“We need to go get Jeremy and Harley; then we’ll be set.” Brant said as we backed out of the parking lot and he took off down the street. He reached his hand across the seat and I placed my small hand in his large one; another thing I liked about him. He squeezed my hand lightly and I smiled up at him before Zeb interrupted.

“So how are we going to do all of this? Because I’ve never really played before….”

“Well, really we’ll have to get some dice and fill out character sheets… then we’ll go from there.” Brant replied, returning his eyes to the road ahead of him as he turned to go through the underpass.

“Oh, okay,” He said simply, and I watched him give a small nod before looking out his window. I liked watching the way Zeb said and did things; he was always a touch dramatic in what he did – almost like everything was a big act or some kind of joke.

We pulled into an apartment complex, and Brant opened his cell phone. Finding Jeremy’s number, he called his phone just as he pulled up outside of his apartment. The siding was a dull gray, but the roof was a rich green color. It reminded me of trees in a fog. Clouds had appeared out of nowhere, and it began to ran down. I watched the droplets slide down the glass before turning my attention back to Brant. Leaning towards him, I gave him a kiss on the cheek just as Jeremy answered his phone.

“Get out here! NOW!” Brant said in a faux angry voice. I heard a muffled reply on the other end before Brant shut his phone again, and turned to kiss me. We kissed so often, it seemed…

It took a few minutes, but soon I saw the image of a plump Jeremy hurrying towards the car and a leaner, stronger looking Harley doing the same. They both squeezed themselves into the small backseat of Brant’s car with Zeb, and I laughed at the sight of them. Zeb wasn’t fat, but he wasn’t as skinny as Brant; Jeremy had quite a bit of girth to him; and Harley was the smallest of them, and it was probably a good thing he was tinier than the other two, otherwise they would’ve been squished together even more unbearably then they were just then.

“It’s raining!” Jeremy yelled as Brant took off again, and we all shared a laugh. I sat sideways in my seat and watched as Jeremy and Harley shook beads of water off of their faces and out of their hair. I watched as Harley struggled to see himself in the rearview mirror; he was very fixated on making sure his hair wasn’t ruined, and it made me laugh. He noticed that I was watching him and he greeted me with a smile. I returned the smile before Brant pulled my attention away.

“So, have any of you aside from Harley played before… or know anything about what’s going to be going on?” The answer was a resounding “Nope!”

“Hey, Britty, I bet you’re hoping we pass some of your friends; because you’ll look so cool since you’re in a car with a bunch of Seniors,” Zeb accented the last word and pretended to look all superior. I laughed, and Zeb turned his attention to the other two in the backseat.

“I love you,” Brant said with a smile, pulling my attention away from the chattering three behind us.

“I love you, too, handsome.” I kissed him again and thought; Everything is so perfect…

We turned down Danny’s street and looked over the houses; trying to figure out which one was his. After one failed guess, we pulled up in front of a yellow one with a large garage and Brant gave us his word that this was the right house. The boys in the back all filed out of the car, but Brant and I lingered for just a moment – one last kiss before we got out of the car ourselves and strode up his driveway; hand in hand.

“Hey peeps,” Danny said, opening the door after one of us knocked. We all greeted him and made our way inside.

The boys all talked about things that had happened that day – they were all seniors and all went to the same school, but I was a sophomore at that school and so I really had nothing worthwhile to add to the conversation. Instead, I busied myself with running my fingertips up and down Brant’s hand. We were in Danny’s basement and Brant and I were sitting next to each on the long, curved couch. He noticed that what I was doing and he picked my hand up in his and kissed it. I smiled and he kissed me again; resulting in someone throwing a pencil at us - which Brant through back at them, of course.

“So… we’ve got the character sheets… does anyone know how to fill them out?” Once again, everyone replied with a negative answer.

“Well; fuck.” Brant said in a simple tone.

“Wait,” I said, remembering a fellow sophomore friend of mine. “What about Jack?”

“Oh, yeah!” Zeb said with enthusiasm; he was dating Jack’s sister, so he knew that I was correct. “Here, someone give me their phone and I’ll call him.”


“Good job, baby,” Brant said with approval while Zeb talked on the phone with Jack. It took him only moments, and he closed the cell phone he was using and handed it back to its user.

“Okay, someone needs to go pick him up.”

“I will.” Brant said, getting up and helping me to my feet along with him. “DANNY! Let me use your expensive car.”

“Well,” Danny hesitated, fumbling with his keys, “I don’t know… I love my car… I usually don’t let anyone drive it.”

“Hey. Danny; it’s me.” Brant said in such a sweet and innocent voice that I couldn’t help but laugh. Danny gave in, of course, and gave up his keys to Brant – asking him to please not wreck it. Before I knew it we were sitting in his nice red sports car; racing down the streets to Jack’s house. Techno music was blasting and I was dancing in my seat next to Brant’s as we sped down the road.

“I love this car!”

“So do I!” I agreed, yelling over the music.

Since Jack lived only a small ways away from Danny’s house, we were in front of it in no time, and I had to pull my chair up for him to get in the small backseat. That wasn’t a problem for Jack, though, because the boy was very tall and very skinny; so he could fit pretty much anywhere. I turned and smiled at him as we took off once again; Brant hated staying in one place for too long when he could be speeding down the roads instead.

“What’d you bring?” I asked, looking at the backpack Jack had brought with him.

“A bunch of the books and all of my die; do you guys have the character sheets?”

“Yep.” I said with a smile before I turned around to watch the road ahead of me; we were already turning down Danny’s street again. I hated living in such a small town; there were never any new sights.

**

When we entered Danny’s house we could hear laughter coming from downstairs. We found them all huddled around Danny’s computer laughing at something they’d found on the internet. For a while, we watched what they were doing, but then our attention turned back to the game. Jack had set his bag down and unloaded all of his books onto the circular table that laid on the floor. Everyone crowded around the table and listened as Jack began explaining how we would fill out our character sheets. Then, everyone got to work making their characters.

Now, I really didn’t know much about this game, and the only reason I had really even agreed to play was because I knew it would make Brant happy and it meant I got to spend more time with him. So, I had Jack help me with mine. Well, that’s an understatement – he practically made mine for me, which he really didn’t mind doing since I was one of his closer friends. After awhile though, everyone lost their seriousness and went back to joking around. This particular group of boys did that quite a bit; seeing as how they could all find humor in anything. I joined in every now and then, but my attention was mainly on trying to be close to Brant. I tried my best to be near and close to him, and I felt that I had to be touching him in some way; it was just intoxicating, and it took up most of my attention. I barely even noticed the time going by so fast that it was nearing 8:30 and we were all getting ready to leave.

“Alright, we need to figure out what days we’re doing this.” Danny said to the group and we all agreed.

“So… since it’s a Wednesday; who’s available on Wednesdays?”

Everyone raised their hands; so Wednesday was then agreed on.

“Thursday?”

Harley, Jeremy and Zeb raised their hands.

“Friday?”

Everyone once again raised their hands; Friday was agreed on. So then we had our two days a week; Wednesday and Friday.

Everyone bid a farewell to Danny before we all trotted out his front door and piled back into Brant’s old car. It was a lot more difficult for all of them to fit this time; since Jack was back there, and he ended up having to sit across a few of them. Jokes flew around the car, and I laughed as Jack struggled to get out of the car when we dropped him off after we’d dropped off Zeb. Brant asked Harley where he should drop him off, and he said it would be easiest to just drop him off at Jeremy’s – since that’s where he was beforehand. Suddenly, Brant slammed on the brakes as someone raced out in front of us – apparently disregarding a stop sign.

“Ahh!” Jeremy screamed loudly; as he often did to make people laugh. My hand had was on the headrest of my seat, since I was sitting sideways in the seat – facing Brant. (I always sat that way.) And when he slammed on the brakes, Harley’s hand went on top of mine as he steadied himself. After Jeremy’s scream, everyone laughed and Brant began driving again; but I stared at my hand where Harley had touched it. Goosebumps ran down my arms and I could feel my cheeks flushing. My eyes were wide with surprise and I turned around in my seat swiftly; making sure that I was once again facing forward. I clutched my hands in my lap and stared straight ahead; this wasn’t good.

Now, I wasn’t a very shy girl when it came to my guy friends. In fact, it took a lot for one of them to make me blush, and since they were all as perverted as they were – it’s not like I’ve never had one of them “accidentally” touch me or say something horrible to me. However, I never blushed like I did then; I never felt an electric shock like I did when Harley’s hand brushed against mine. It was strange, and I didn’t understand it. My mind went racing and I scarcely noticed when Harley and Jeremy got out of Brant’s car. I watched as Harley turned around to give a slight wave and smiled brightly towards us.

My heart skipped a beat at that moment, and I knew things were about to change.

“Uh oh.” I said aloud, causing Brant to look at me with curiosity; but I kept my mouth shut and watched the road.