My story, at least this is how I tell it

Who knew we would ever be homeowners. Sure, I have dreamed of things like this happening, but not to us. When Glenn and I met, he was 17 and I was 15. We met at the shore, on the boardwalk. That is where it all used to happen. You’d meet your summer love, make new friends and of course, fill up on the best ice cream and funnel cake around. My friends and I used to frequent the boardwalk a lot, and although sometimes we got sick of the boardwalk, most of those times were the best times in my life.
Back then, Glenn drove a Monte Carlo. Since he was the only one we knew with a license, we would try and squeeze as many people in as we could. I think, at one point there was at least 11 of us in there, including one or two in the trunk. Glenn was always the nice guy out of the group, he would always bend over backwards to help anyone out, although sometimes his simple demeanor got him into trouble. He had medium length shaggy, way light brown hair, parted to the side. He wore ripped jeans, cowboy boots with spurs and I am assuming whatever t-shirt he found on the floor of his room that was clean. There was something else about Glenn’s wardrobe he never left the house without, no matter if it were summer or winter. It was a black biker leather jacket, and over it he wore a sleeveless jean jacket with patches representing the favorite bands of the time. He took pride in this jacket, even though I can admit at times, I thought it looked ridiculous, but that was Glenn. He never cared what he looked like, he cared more about what he could do to help other people out. I, on the other hand had many different styles growing up. At that point in time, I wore jeans, men’s thermal shirts in all colors and whatever flannel I could find for under five dollars at the local Woolworth. I always wanted a pair of Doc Martin boots, but was never allowed to own a pair, so I decided to find a cheaper alternative version of the cool boots and put my own red laces in. If it was not the boots I was wearing, it was a pair of black converse sneakers.
Most of the people we hung out with back then dressed similar to us, not that they were trying to imitate the style we had, it was just the kind of attire people we hung out with liked to wear. There was one spot on the boardwalk that we hung out on the most. It was an area closest to the beach side of the boardwalk, and it consisted of two benches. Surprisingly, despite our odd appearance, this bench was located almost directly across from the police station.
When summer was over, a sadness came over the town of Point Pleasant. It was a quiet beach town during the rest of the year, I could almost convince you that it was more of a ghost town, but as soon as Memorial Day weekend came along, every year like clockwork people came from everywhere and filled up our small little town. Winter time was boring for teenagers, because like most towns there was never much else to do, without getting into trouble or simply staying home, but who wants to do that? We came across the OB and Ocean Queen Diner, two places where you could get good food cheap and fill yourself up on coffee. My friends and I used to sit at the diner for hours and talk about our problems, who was going out with who and more often than not, what were we going to do when we left there.
We never did figure that out. Most of the time we ended up driving around town for hours, and lucky for us gas was cheaper back then, until we met Ty and discovered the party van. The party van was actually a small old-style VW hippy van. It never ran, as far as I know. From what I do remember it was always parked in front of Ty’s house and inside was ample seating for us to squeeze in and hang out. Some of the people we hung out with there, happened to be over the age of 21, so we would normally talk someone into buying us a party-ball, if there wasn’t one available already. Thinking back I am not sure why I wasted so much time doing things I should not have been doing, I guess it was a thrill and what I would call a rebel stage of my life. After a while, Ty got into some trouble with the police, so we fled the party van and actually began hanging out at people’s houses. One guy’s house I remember going to all the time was this guy Joe’s. He was slightly overweight with blonde hair and blue eyes, not too mention always drunk when we arrived.. Most of the time, we hung out in this guys kitchen, in fact I don’t recall ever seeing any other part of his house. A lot of the time there was spent playing card games and drinking beer. There was one game they would always play where one person had to guess what card was going to be chosen, I guess you would say it was more of a magic trick than a game. Either way, it used to be amazing to me and my friend Kimm, every time it was done, we could never figure out how it was done. Til this day, I am not sure I even know. Kimm was a short girl about 5 foot tall. She had long brown hair and the more hairspray she could put in it, the better. Her wardrobe consisted of concert t-shirts or tye dyes depending on her mood and of course she too never left the house without a flannel on hand.
Kimm and I met in fourth grade. We went to the same school for years, but that year we shared home room in Ms. Brady’s class. Back then we were certainly more innocent than we were when we became teenagers, but needless to say we became friends. Kimm used to sleep over my house all the time and most of the time we would get in trouble by mom for giggling at all hours of the night. Kimm and I used to like to tape ourselves. I had a small tape recorder and blank tapes on hand at all times, we would laugh and tell stupid stories and then play them back and laugh some more. A few times, when she just came over for dinner we would have to eat at separate times because we would continues to giggle through dinner.
When we became teenagers it was almost a lifelong dream to find a guy with long hair. We listened to all sorts of 80's hairbands, so the more hair a guy had the more attractive he would be to us. That night when Kimm and I met Glenn, we were both dating two long hairs, as we called them. The guy I dated, his name was Jeff, he lived in Brick and all of the girls loved him. He was tall with long brown hair, he too wore concert tee’s, ripped jeans and of course a flannel. The best thing about him was the fact that he reminded Kimm and I so much of John Bender, our all time favorite character from the movie the Breakfast Club. She was dating a guy named Craig, a guy who used to call himself satan, but satan he was not. He was probably one of the nicer guys out of the group of people we knew. He dressed in all black and sometimes painted his fingernails black too. He loved the group Kiss and at Halloween was usually representing Gene Simmons. Sometimes Craig wore a trench coat and other times he had his leather jacket with lighter clips all around it’s perimeter. The five of us used to hang out all of the time. We spent many nights driving around aimlessly and most of the time ended up in Ty’s van. There were a few times when Jeff and Craig would disappear and Kimm and I would flip out wondering where the hell they could of gone. The worst always seemed to cross our minds, and later we found out probably with good reason. Craig and Jeff were both nice guys, but not the type of guys, at least back then that you’d want to date. I guess in comparison, you might say they thought they were something like a Casanova or a Don Juan DeMarco.
Needless to say, eventually those relationships ended and so did our fivesome. Kimm and I continued to be friends, and through out time managed to meet more long haired guys, we made out just fine. In fact, for a while a lot of our boyfriends happened to be friends too, how convenient? I talked to Glenn more than Kimm after that, he seemed to always fit that nice guy image because unlike the other long hairs, he never broke our hearts. Glenn and I always managed to continue our friendship and although there were periods of time when we would not talk for a while, when we did we always set out on an adventure. Glenn had always made me laugh, even though at that time I didn’t know we would ever end up together, in fact I thought he was more like a brother to me than anything else. He had long hair, but being the way I used to be I guess he just didn’t make the cut. It didn’t stop him from trying to date me a few times here and there, which probably explains why we would stop talking for periods of time.
There is more to 1992, and I will explain. That year we had a New Year’s Eve party at our friend Alice’s house. Her dad and girlfriend were away, so we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to have a bash. We again, managed to find someone over 21 to buy us a party ball and I am fairly certain we finished it. Alice lived right across from the graveyard and believe it or not, that was another place we would all hang out. When we were younger, we would play man hunt and as we grew older just managed to hang out on a tombstone or the entrance steps. Our party was not going to be too big, but we knew it would be fun. Jeff and I had broken up in the beginning of December, but I thought if I invited him there that he may want to date me again. Kimm and Craig were still together then. We also invited about 6 other people. Glenn was one person who didn’t show up. He happened to be hanging out with his girlfriend at the time, which we never believed he had because we only met her once and she didn’t seem to nice, therefore, we figured he’d ditch her to join us, but instead, I guess things were good at the time, he went out with her. By the time midnight even struck, we were all drunk. I was running around trying to force Jeff to kiss me, but he was more interested in hooking up with my friend Megan, so I got pist and kissed some other guy. Craig was really messed up and left the house and started running down the street screaming that he was going to kill himself. Naturally, Kimm was upset, I was already upset because of Jeff and decided to running and screaming the same thing behind him. Lucky for us, Alice had an older brother Jon, who managed to talk some sense into the two of us and got us back inside of the house. This part of the party was taking a turn for the worse because we were all so drunk, not to mention young, so we couldn’t handle the liquor.
By the end of the night their were bodies passed out all over the floor and a big mess to clean up in the morning. Craig took it upon himself to dump the evidence of the party ball in the graveyard behind a tombstone. As we all awoke, we managed to kick out all of the boys before Alice’s dad got home.
1992 was a good year. I learned a lot and met a lot of interesting and different people. Glenn was mad that he missed out on the party, but after all was said and done we all had a good new years. 1993, I was a senior in high school and despite my better judgement I didn’t take school seriously the previous year, so I had to make up a few classes in order to graduate....
As I was saying..in 1993 I started my senior year of high school. I was so glad that I would not have to attend school anymore, especially with a bunch of people who thought that they were so much better than everyone else. Granted, I am sure there were other high schools in the world that had the same problem, however, living in a shore town a lot of the people I went to school with were a little, let’s say conceited. Most of the boys were either surfers or skaters, and I must admit a lot of them came from wealthier families, or at least they acted like they did. A lot of the girls in the school were a little on the snobby side too, most of them only cared about shopping, having their hair perfect and dating whomever else was most popular. As for me, I didn’t really care about what people thought of me, I just went to school because I had to. My mom wanted me to graduate and despite some failures in class, I was going to prove to her that year, that I could. Besides I wouldn’t want to put up with these kinds of people another year.
Senior I befriended a girl named Jen. Jen used to live in Colorado with her family and then one day moved to Point Pleasant. The summer before senior year, Jen’s father died, not too mention her mom was pregnant with her third child. Jen was a short girl about 5 feet tall. When I first met her, she was a little on the preppy side. All she cared about was getting good grades, in fact, most of her classes were high honors classes. For some reason though, Jen and I clicked and we began hanging out. It wasn’t so much because we had that much in common, it was that our boyfriends were friends. She dated Chris, a 20 year old guy who work at the tire place down the street from the beach. He had his own pad in the basement of his mom’s house and a big ego to match. He was a surfer and skater and all the things that fit a typical Point Pleasant guy’s character. I dated Jay, a 20 year old guy who worked at the local gas station around the corner from my house. He wore baggy pants and spent most of his free time skating, surfing or snowboarding. Jay and Chris both had tattoos, which they gave each other because they were so cool, they had their own tattoo gun. Both of them were infatuated with Led Zeppelin and true to my nature, I became obsessed with Led Zeppelin too. Jay and Chris both had their own vehicles. Chris had a big yellow jeep and Jay had a Bronco with a lift kit, so you could see him coming from a mile away.
Anyway, at first when Jen and I realized we were dating two guys who were friends, we thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread, but later noticed the only thing cool about them was their played up image of themselves. Jen and Chris broke up first, she was going a little crazy about it due to the fact that she swore that he cheated on her, however, despite the break up Jen and I were still friends. I remember the first date I had with Jay. I was really nervous because I was only 16 and he was 20, and to be honest I did not have any clue who he was. The only thing I learned about him before hand is that he used to see me walking around town all of the time and he wanted to know who I was. Jen and I used to walk around town all of the time. Neither of us had cars, and both of our moms were pregnant, so if we wanted to get out and go somewhere, our feet were the only things that would take us there. So when I first learned who Jay was I was in school. Some girl confronted me with his phone number and asked that I call him, so I did. When I called him, he referred to me as the “walker chic” because he didn’t know my name. Jay came barreling down the road in Chris’s yellow jeep with the top down and some White Zombie blaring on the speakers. My mom was outside doing some yard work and he jumped out of the jeep, ran down the sidewalk to shake my mom’s hand. He told her he was taking me out for pizza and ice cream and assured her he’d have me home by eleven. My mom later told me, she thought he was gorgeous. And I agree on the outside he did look good, but he had nothing but looks.
Jay took me to Vinnie’s Pizza where we grabbed a few slices and then later we went to Hoffman’s for ice cream. We talked a little, but most of the conversation was about surfing and the waves, nothing that I was really interested in, but because everyone thought he was so hot, I couldn’t give him up. From time to time Jay would take me to parties and if there wasn’t a party we would hang out in his garage apartment and watch hockey. Once I finish the story about Jay, you’ll understand why I hate it now. Because Jay was much older he was free to do whatever it is he wanted, in the winter months he went away a lot with his friends to go snowboarding and then call me when he got back. I understood that he was older and wanted a life, but he never asked me to go with him, so I gave him a lot of grief when he did call. Occasionally, I still hung out with Kimm and Alice and because my step-father was so greedy about my phone use, I would call Jay from there. Well, Jay apparently had caller ID and sometimes when I wasn’t around he would call over to Alice’s and talk to the both of them. I didn’t think anything of it because Kimm was my friend since 4th grade and Alice was my friend since 7th grade, so no need to worry, right? Wrong.
In the winter of this same year, when I was dating Jay he took me to a party where I managed to get a little drunk. I had told my mom I was sleeping at my friends house, knowing that I would probably be intoxicated, but at the time it seemed that drinking around him was the only way I was going to have any fun, being that we had nothing in common. So I ended up going back to Jay’s to sleep over. I thought nothing of it, we had fallen asleep together in the past, but this time he wanted something more from me. Let’s just say, it happened. The next morning, who’s knocking on the door? My mom. She dragged me out of there and I swore up one side and down the other that nothing happened. You must also take into consideration that my mom had me when she was 16. I was completely mortified, I couldn’t believe what I had done, I wanted to tell someone, but that someone was not my mother. Instead I decided to call Alice and Kimm and tell them. They were excited for me,I guess mostly because he was just so hot, that I had to be so lucky. The more I thought about what I had done, the more I regretted it. Jay treated me like shit after that. He always wanted more and had I not been intoxicated that night I probably wouldn’t have done it in the first place. So we were still together, but I know in my heart neither of us wanted to be, but that doesn’t change anything about what was about to happen.
My mom and my step-father had a business trip to take to Atlanta and because of the stunt I pulled sleeping over at Jay’s I had to go with them. It was a weekend trip, not such a bad thing. I felt it was probably best I get away from Jay for a while at this point anyway. When I got back I called Kimm and Alice to tell them about my trip, but something was different. For some reason, they were acting weird and at that point I wasn’t really sure why, so I let it go. Later I found out that Jay had made a few phone calls to them and while I was gone had apparently asked Alice to come over to hang out. I didn’t find this out from Kimm or Alice because they were apparently trying to hide something, but you guessed it, I heard it from Jen. I confronted Alice and before I could get really angry with her for hanging out with my boyfriend behind my back she burst into tears. It took a while to get it out of her, but eventually she told me that he had invited her over to sleep with him and she thought that because things weren’t so good between us, it would be ok.
I went into a rage of fury and called her every name in the book I could think of. I got mad at Kimm too because she never came out and told me and had insisted she didn’t know that anything had happened. Maybe that is so, but at that time I didn’t care, nor did I trust either one of them. I decided to write both of them off as my friends and at that time became much closer with Jen. Besides Jen told me what happened because she had heard it from Chris. From then on Jen and I hung out every day. We would walk around town and go thrift shopping and just talk in disgust about what had happened with Jay.
After a while, Kimm and Alice stopped caring that I would give them dirty looks and call them names and they started hanging out with different people. That was fine by me because as far as I was concerned, at that time, they didn’t respect me anyway. Jay and I did finally break up, but because I had lost something very sacred to me with him, I became a little obsessed with hating him. I don’t think that most of the events that happened that year were because I had lost my mind, I think it more had to do with Jen being a little overzealous about things and I went along with it because there was no one else I could turn to who would understand what I had been through. Jen and I would go past Jay and Chris’s house and throw eggs at it and were determined to ruin their lives, since they had ruined ours.
Eventually we grew sick of that and Jay had managed to find and even younger girl from my school to go out with, her name was Leanne. Leanne was a typical hippy girl. She wore tye dye shirts and walked around like she was the best thing ever. Jen and I tried to worn Leanne what a snake Jay was, but because he had her under his spell, she took it a different way, assuming that we were just jealous girls. Maybe in some respects we were, but despite that, I know I didn't want to see the same thing happen to her. She decided to just hate us instead and daily dirty looks were exchanged between us. I hated being hated, but at the time because I was hanging out with Jen, I felt I would rather be hated than be a liar.
By the time senior year was reaching an end, Jen was to be going off to Colorado to go to school, but my mom and I had talked and decided that Jen could live with us for the summer before going off to school. By this time I wanted to ward off boys forever and had no interest in dating anyone, instead I just wanted to meet new people and flirt as much as I could without committing to anyone.
For graduation, Jen and I decided to go to the after party at the Atlantic Club. The Atlantic Club was a local place that had raqcuet ball and swimming, basically a sports club. The idea was to keep graduates from drinking and partying. Being that I was a mess during my junior year and had lost my virginity to a guy when I was drunk, I had no problem just having a sober night. Jen had recently found out that this guy we went to school with and graduated with had a crush on her, his name was Frank. Frank had red hair, kind of curly. He and a group of his friends had a band and played a lot of Nirvana, which happened to be one of Jen and I's favorite bands at the time, so we went to see them jam a few times.
After the graduation ceremony Jen and I went our separate ways for a few hours to celebrate with our own families and knew that we would meet up later at the bus. Once we got to the Atlantic Club, Jen and I had fun singing and dancing and just acting silly. Frank was there and Jen had come to the conclusion that it was her last chance to see what could happen between the two of them. By night's end Jen and Frank were planning their first date.
Since Jen was living with us, she would have to follow the rules of my house, however, she didn't often feel she had to. A few times during the summer we took the train to NYC to go shopping. One of the times, I was getting tired and wanted to leave, but she refused, so in the middle of Manhattan she walked away from me and left me standing their all alone. So instead of running after her in a city of a million or more, I headed back to Penn Station and hopped on the first train back home. By the time Jen got home, she refused to talk to me as if I had done something to her. She was the one who walked away from me.From that moment on, Jen was a different person. She decided I was a bad friend. Yes, the same friend who asked her mom to let her stay at our house over the summer so she could see where her relationship with Frank would go. The same friend who told me that Jay was doing things behind my back, was suddenly telling me I was a bad friend.
She eventually left for Colorado, still involved with Frank. We did make up before she left, but things were never the same. I decided to borrow a video camera from my aunt so I could record the events of my life and send Jen a copy. I decided to invite Frank over and others as well, so they could say things to her. Besides Frank had decided he was going to move to Colorado to be with her. Frank had a younger brother Mike. Mike still in high school, but he was a really nice guy, so he and I became friends. One of the first nights, I had the video camera I called Mike so we could venture around the area and make this video diary for Jen. After a while, Mike and I were inseparable. For some reason we got along great and I was fine with that, considering during the past year I had lost 3 friends.
Then there was April. April and I had also known each other since 4th grade, we met in Girl Scouts. During the years, April and I had many falling outs, but needless to say we always became friends again. April was a loud girl, she loved being in the plays in high school and loved to sing. She and I would hang out daily and pick Mike up for lunch almost every day. We were like the three musketeers. April's parents were always cool and would allow the two of us to sleep over. She had a basement where we each had our own couch and could stay up for hours talking and laughing. Her mom didn't care if we smoked in the house, so we all thought that was the best part. However, she hadn't always felt that way. The deal was, if we wanted to smoke, especially in the house we would have to smoke a Chesterfield, a non-filter cigarette. We did it, and then were permitted to smoke there. Besides she said she would rather have us smoke there, rather then get caught elsewhere.
Mike decided he was going to quit school because a lot of people made fun of him. He was more feminine than most guys at the school. April and I tried to convince him not to quit because we felt he would regret it later, but because he was picked on so often, he decided it would be the best thing for him to do. April and I never judged Mike, in fact neither of us really judged anyone. We had always felt that if you were a nice person, then thats all we needed. We didn't care what you looked like or how you dressed, besides most of us hated the majority of the people we went to school with. That summer I was going to be 19. Still April, Mike and I were inseparable.
A lot of time was spent at this guy John's house. John was a guy April had a crush on, so to make her happy we had no problem going there often. April was the kind of girl who never had many boyfriends in high school because most of them were mean to her for being so loud all of the time. Eventually, something happened between Mike and I where we started liking each other more than friends.
Mike and I started dating and hanging out a lot of the time by ourselves. For some reason, April was not happy with this and insisted that Mike was cheating on me. She and this girl Brooke decided to come to my job to tell me that they had seen him at the movies one night with some girl. Now, if you know Mike, you will understand that he is not the type of guy to do such a thing, espeically to me. So rather than break up with Mike, I decided that April was a liar and that we should no longer be friends. From then on, if Mike and I saw her around town, we usually exhanged obscene finger gestures.
I was hurt that yet another friend would try and hurt me like that. Mike and I continued dating for a few months, but I think we fought more than not. In fact, there was a few times when he or I would be pist off and tried to jump out of a moving vehicle. We would call each other names, and a few times he had the audacity to spit in my face. I thought that fighting was a part of a relationship, so I was always trying to work things out with him. It hurt, I had lost 4 friends in a period of a few years and I wasn't going to lose him too. He finally told me that he thought that it really wasn't working out and that we should break it off. He said he needed to figure things out and he also said he needed his space. I didn't want to hear that. I thought that we could just going back to being friends, however, that didn't happen. For a few months after that we would talk once in awhile, but things just weren't the same.
When Mike and I were finally able to be good friends again, we were both of age to go to clubs. One night there was going to be a performance at Club Abyss, by the time we got there the line was out the door and around the corner, and neither of us had the patience to wait. Around the corner, there was another club called the Colosseum. We decided since we already drove an hour, we didn't want to make it a completely useless trip and decided to go there. When we got there, they played good music and we were excited to actually be in a club. There was a guy there, blonde hair and not bad looking who was sweeping the floor, he kept looking at us, well I thought he was looking at me and later found out he was looking at Mike, we were in a gay club.
Both Mike and I were like that is weird that this guy is looking at him, and that we should go. A few weeks later, Mike and I decided to go to Seaside boardwalk. For some reason, he was acting weird and I could not figure out why. When we had got to the boardwalk, we saw this guy Dan and after we saw him, Mike was acting even more odd. He started crying a little bit and said he had to tell me something. By this time, we were both ready to leave, so we got into my car and headed back to Point. Mike kept repeating the fact that he had to tell me something, but he couldn't because he said he thought I would hate him. I told him that no matter what it was that he told me I could never hate him, we had been through a lot together and that I wasn't going to drop him off at home until he told me whatever it is he had to say. The drive itself, felt like an eternity, but in reality it was about twenty minutes. We finally pulled up in front of Mike's house and he finally told me. He said don't hate me, please, but I am gay. I hugged him and told him it was ok. I told him I didn't hate him. He said it was so hard to tell me and I let him know that I was there for him no matter what. Mike finally got out of my car and headed into his house.
I only lived around the corner, and as soon as he shut the car door I burst into tears. I couldn't believe it, but slowly the pieces of the puzzle were coming together. At first, I thought maybe I turned him gay because our relationship was so awful with all of the fighting, then I realized that he had always been feminine, he got along better with girls and we had accidentally stumbled upon a gay night club. I admit I still was shocked depsite the obvious, but I guess it was something I didn't want to believe, nor could I understand.
After that night, Mike and I didn't see each other much anymore because he was off learning more about his newly found open lifestyle and I started hanging out with someone else, her name was Christine. Christine and I were friends in 5th grade, but shortly after then, her mother and father got divorced and she moved to North Jersey with her dad. I guess after several years, Christine moved back to her mom's house and I ran into her at 7-11. I worked there at the time. When she walked in, I thought wow, this is weird I haven't seen this girl in ages.We exchanged numbers and decided to meet up at the OB diner later in the week to talk.That night at the diner we shared stories about where we had been and where we were going, it ended up being a pretty good night. In the meantime, my life at home was becoming more and more difficult and I had more problems than I can count with my step father. Because things were changing before my eyes, I knew I needed to get out of there as soon as possible. For a few months, I had been going into the WaWa in Point to get cigarettes and coffee. Kimm worked there. We had not really talked since High School., but at that point I was willing to put all the bull shit behind me. She actually apologized to me about the Jay incident and insisted she really didn't know what happened that night between him and Alice. I forgave her and we started hanging out again.Her and I and a group of girls went out clubbing all of the time. If there was a club that allowed people in under 21, we were there, weekly. We would all get dressed up and go dance our asses off.
I started confiding in Kimm again and I let her know that I was having problems at home. She knew, besides we were friends since 4th grade. She asked her parents if I could move in, and so I did. Dawn lived there too. Dawn was a girl we went to school with. Kimm had become friends with her senior year. Dawn had a daughter and she lived there too. In fact, we all shared the room. It was fun living with them for a while because we always laughed and we all loved to party. Eventually, Kimm found a boyfriend and was never there and well, both Dawn and I felt weird living in her parent's house when she wasn't even there. Dawn was already looking for a place of her own, so she could raise her daughter and get out of Kimm's parent's hair. Dawn asked me to come live with her, and I did. For about a year or so, I slept on the pull out couch in Dawn's living room. By this time, we were both 21 and looking to party. I bought a car and Dawn and I would frequent the clubs in Seaside. It worked out because Dawn's sister worked at one of the clubs as a bartender, so even if we didnt have money, we knew we could get at least a few drinks.
Kimm would come with us once in a while, and the summer before her boyfriend she did just that. We were all 21 and having fun. Eventually, the relationship Kimm had was more serious, so we didnt see much of her anymore, but instead we would be out with Kimm's sister, Kristin. Kristin, Dawn and I had so much fun. We would dance our asses off on the stage of the Bermuda Club. Once that year was coming to a close, Dawn had met someone and decided they were getting married. She told me I would have to move out, so I did. Unfortunately, the only place I had to go was home.
Now that Dawn and Kimm were in relationships and Mike was still out exploring, I really didn't have anyone to hang out with. That's when I called Christine. Her and I hung out a little bit, while I lived with Kimm, but at one point we got into a fist fight.I had a boyfriend at that time, nothing serious, but Christine had done something stupid to get me mad and the next thing you know, we are racing down Route 37 screaming and cursing at one another. Eventually, we pulled over into a deserted parking lot and started going at it. A few months went by and I was bored, so I decided to go out by myself. I figured I knew enough of the bartenders and bouncers at the Bermuda Club, so no one would bother me. Turns out, Christine was there and rather than be alone, I forgave her and we started hanging out again.
Christine and I partied a lot. She was fun to go out with because she had no problem talking to just about anybody, not too mention she had no problem asking guys to buy us drinks. I was always a little shy, until I had a few drinks in me, then I had no problem being the center of attention. Christine moved back up North to her dad’s house and just about every other night I would go up there. We used to go to a different club every night of the week. As we got a little bit bolder, we started going to the China Club in NYC. She only lived about 20 minutes away from the George Washington, so it was no problem. It cost us about 20 dollars to get into that club, but somehow we eventually ended up on the guest list and got in for free.
As I said, Christine was quite the party girl and during our time together there were a few times, we had a few close calls. At some points, I was sick of her because most of the guys she met, she ended up going home with. I was never like that, sure I liked to go out and have a good time, but there was no way I was taking home random guys. Christine didn’t care. She described these escapades as the search for the one. I called it, being a whore, but who else was I going to go out with. I didn’t want to stay home because any time I was there, I heard shit from my stepfather and to be honest I was getting too old to be treated like a child. One example of Christine’s reckless behavior is a night we went to a bar. She had met a guy there and a group of his friends, and she didn’t feel like staying out. Her father happened to be away on business so she invited these guys back to her house. I had no choice, but to go because I was an hour away from home and she was driving. We get there and I went upstairs to her third floor bedroom and locked the door. Eventually, one of the guys who she invited came up and knocked on the door, I told him to go away and he told me that Christine wanted me downstairs, so I went. When I got downstairs, there she was with this guy, naked on the floor and asking me to join the two of them. I was like no, I am not into that and went back upstairs. I immediately packed my belongings and left. By this time it was about 3 am and I had a long drive ahead of me, so knowing that my stepfather won’t let me in the house after a certain hour, I slept in front of my house in my car.
That night Christine called and apologized, and I just wasn’t ready to hear it. Instead I called Mike to see what he was doing. He said he was going to the Colosseum and asked if I wanted to go, so I went. I ended up spending a few nights of the week at the Colosseum, I figured it was safer. Christine was falling off a beaten path, I just wanted to have fun and where else, but the Colosseum could I be safe from guys. I ended up meeting a lot of nice guys there, but they were truly only interested in just being my friend. I was thankful for that. I hadn’t spoken to Christine in quite sometime, but one night at the Colosseum she showed up. She wanted to know where I had been, and somehow knew I was there. From then on, we started hanging out a lot again. I figured that there was a lot of things about Christine I didn’t like, but that wasn’t going to stop me from going out and having fun.
Then there was that infamous night. A night that I will never forget. Christine and I decided to go to a bar near her house, it was mid January, the roads were icy and it was freezing cold outside, but that would never stop us from having a good time. We goto the bar and the place was packed, the music was pumping. Immediately, Christine and I walked up to the bar to order drinks, I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea and she ordered a shot. I told Christine that I had left my money in her car and to wait there for me, I walked to the car, got my money and paid for my drink. The only problem was when I returned Christine was nowhere to be found. I looked around from where I was standing and didnt see her, but decided it would be best for me to stand there, so when she came back she could find me. About an hour went by and she finally returned, apparently she had gone in the parking lot to a guys car to hook up in exchange for a dime bag. She looked wasted and we hadn't been there that long, and I told her to slow down, instead she insisted that the glasses being used for drinks were awesome, so one by one she took one and went out to her car to drop it off. After a few trips to her car, she finally joined me on the dance floor, by this time the bar was about to close. However, we knew of a place down the street open til 3am and we weren't ready to call it a night. On our way there, Christine made a wrong turn onto a dead end street. The street was sort of on a hill and because of all of the ice we were sliding around a bit. I told her to take it easy, but because she was stuck on the ice, she was trying to turn around quickly. Well, the car finally gave way and slammed into a parked one. Nervously, she tried again to free herself from this patch of ice and managed to slide backwards into another one. She ended up getting out of the car to see if there was damage and there was so she started to run down the street, and I screamed after her to come back. She finally did, but by now there was a few people outside looking to see what the commotion was. Apparently, someone had noticed or had heard a car was hit, so they called the cops, we heard the sirens nearing. Christine finally got loose and proceeded to speed off, just as the cops were nearing the corner. She managed to get through two lights before the cops surrounded us and pulled us over. We were asked to exit the vehicle. Again, it was like 20 degrees outside, I had to pee because I had a few drinks, not to mention I am extremely frightened about what happened. Finally, after the cops searched her car, we were allowed to go back in and turn on the heat. This is when Christine turned to me to and asked me to hold the dime bag she had blown some guy for, I told her no, and suggested she put it in the glove box. She then asked that I lie to the cops and tell them that we did not hit the cars. I may have been buzzed, but I wasn't stupid. You want me to what?? I wasn't lying to the cops. Separately, the cops had finally decided to speak with us. I told the cops exactly what had happened. I let them know that I didn't know what came over her, and that I just wanted to get home. I also mentioned that there was about 10 beer glasses in her backseat that she had taken from the bar. They asked if she had been drinking, I told them I wasn't sure how much she had, but let them know she had assured me she was ok to drive home. I let them know I didnt know where she was most of the night.When I got back in the car with Christine, she asked if I had lied to the cops. I told her that I told them we didn't do anything wrong. She thanked me. The cops finally let us go after giving her two tickets and a court date. I let her know that I had to pee, and she wanted to stop behind an old abandoned building, I let her know she was nuts and that we had just been pulled over. She agreed. When we got back to her house, I sobered up a bit and finally got the chance to use the bathroom. When she fell asleep I snuck out, got in my car and headed home. That was the last time I ever hung out with Christine, but it wasnt the last time I would hear from her.
I don't know how I made it out of that situation, I guess God was watching over me, but it was an eye openig experience. One that would change a lot of things about me and the things I was doing. I wasn't an angel. I used to drink and drive, but thankfully I never hurt myself or anyone else. Once again, I started hanging out with Mike. And instead of staying at home, I would sleep at his house when it was too late to go home. One morning, his parents were awoken by Christine scratching on the screens of their bedroom window. They carefully opened the front door and she was crying that she needed to find me. She said she was worried about me and that she wanted to find out what happened to me. Mike's parents lied and said they didnt know where I was, so she left. It freaked me out, when I heard what she had done, but again it still wasn't the last time I had heard from her.
Still things at home weren't good, so I had begun talking to Glenn again in the nidst of this mess, and Glenn knew of Christine's odd and disgusitng behavior. He had experienced one night the summer before.Glenn had paged me and wanted to go to the diner since we hadnt seen each other in a while, I agreed to it, but let him know I was with Christine at some guy's house and as soon as we left there we would meet up. Just about every hour Glenn paged me, and I called him back to let him know on two occassions that night that she was in the bathroom with some guy and then later with another guy. By this time, it was nearing 4am and Glenn was furious, not with me, but wirh Christine. Finally, I managed to pull her out of there. We met up with Glenn at the diner. We ordered food and talked for a while. When we were leaving Christine said she left her smokes on the table and had to go back in, we didnt know this til later, but she actually stole the waitress's tip. Although, Glenn had given her money for the tolls to get her home.He wasnt happy about giving her money, but he didnt want to deal with her.
We finally got back to Glenn's apartment and Christine was asking if there was anyone he knew that she could hook up with, Glenn said no and eventually she passed out. The following morning, Glenn had apparently covered me up with a blanket and left her there to freeze. He'd been playing video games all night. She finally left and I apologized for her behavior. So Glenn knew the kinds of things she was capable of, but had always felt bad for me and the shit I had dealt with at home, especially since I told him that winter I had slept in my car a few times. He had a girlfriend at the time and had asked her if it was ok to give me a key to their place for times like that, she said it was ok. Before I knew it, things were worse at home and Glenn said I could move in.
I slept on the couch and I made room in the hall closet for my clothes and other necessary belongings. Eventually, we had all agreed that the place we were in was too cramped for all of us, so we decided to get a two bedroom, so I could have my own room. Glenn and I moved all of the stuff out and into the new place, basically by ourselves with the help of a few of Glenn's friends, but no help from his girlfriend.
She graduated from college and had gotten a job working nights in Manhattan, I was working at a banquet hall and Glenn was driving a truck at night. We often had people over to watch wrestling, it wasnt something I was into, but needless to say, we often had a full house. Things between his girlfriend and I weren't great, so I used to hibernate to my room as soon as I knew she was on her way home. However, when I knew Glenn was nearing home, I would awaken and we would go out on the balcony and talk for a few hours. I didn't think much of it. Things started to sour between Glenn and his girlfriend and he ended up breaking up with her.
Meanwhile, I was at work and truly never knew there was any real problem between the two of them. When I came home, she was in their bedroom packing her things. I went in to console her, even though I never liked her much. I gave her my number and let her know she would be ok.
A few weeks later was the Christmas party for my job, which I had previously asked Glenn to attend with me. I had no intentions of hurting their relationship, I just wanted someone to go with. Besides, normally I would have taken Mike with me, but he happened to be in Las Vegas, which actually turned out to be a good thing.