Summer love, con’t 6 – Spring ’77

“So, where do you want to go?”

Pete had this saunter-sway to his walk. Shoulders back, wide smile.

I look up from where I’m blocking down the candy. My heart grinned. “Are you serious?”

He stood me up twice. What makes today, April 23, any different?

“A hundred percent serious.”

“Do you want to see A Star Is Born?” I was ready with a suggestion.

“Sounds good.”

We talked for awhile while I worked, but the moment the candy aisle looked blocked and even, I ran out the door. Pete waited for me in his v. cool ’69 Mach 1 Mustang.

Meanwhile, none of our friends know where we’re going. They don’t know we’re “going together.” While I was getting ready, Bob Brown called. Wanted to know what I was up too.

“Nothing.” Standard 16 year-old girl answer.

When Pete picked me up he told me how nice I looked. Melt, melt. Our movie was sold out, so we decided to eat at the Black Angus.

He held my hand. Wooo! I wrote in my diary. Sometimes the simpliest things are the best things!

We talked and talked and talked. I asked him about all the mean things he said about me. He confessed they were true, but only to get people off his back. “I didn’t mean them. I had a crush on you since last summer.”

But, he’d told Kevin and Bob he would never take out a girl two years younger than he, so they hasseled him pretty bad.

Guess love got the best of him. Or a crush, or something. Or me being so stupidly persistant.

After dinner, he held my hand as we walked out to the car. Suddenly, he stopped and looks me in the eye. “I want to kiss you, Rachel.”

I started laughing.