Ok, I know that no one believes that teenagers can really be in love. But I know the truth. I've been in love and I know that anything is possible. You see, it all started in January of my freshman year...
Amanda was my best friend. We had met earlier on in the school year, around October. Pretty soon, we told each other everything. (Ok, let me clear up now, just in case you're wondering, my big love wasn't with Manda. I love her dearly, not queerly.) Anyway, she told me of her infatuation with John, an eighth grader she had met through a friend. Ironically enough, I was currently crushing on his brother (one of my best male friends), Drew. We had little inside jokes going about how we could date brothers and grow up and get married, but we weren't really serious. The following Friday night, we went up to the local skating rink to meet this latest obsession of hers. I remember thinking that John was cute, but not fine. Definitely not one to fanaticize over. If only I knew how my feelings would change. A few days later, Amanda conned me into calling John to see how he really felt about her. We ended up getting deep into conversation, talking for more than two hours, and becoming friends. I think he went out with Amanda once maybe, twice at the most. Two weeks before my fifteenth birthday, he asked me out. Now let me say here that my mom is incredibly overprotective. She was against this whole thing from the beginning. In fact, the only reason she let me talk to him at all was that I convinced her there was nothing between us: he was my best friend's boyfriend. So she immediately vetoed any relationship when she found out. Did I listen though? Of course not. One Sunday, I told her I was studying at a friend's house, when instead, I snuck out to a nearby gas station and met him. We walked around for a while, stopping at a McDonald's where we shared a soda(diet, just for me). Finally, we ended up at a local lake with a fountain in the middle. That lake holds so many memories for me...it's where we had our first kiss. Surprisingly enough, my mom never found out about that secret rendezvous. As far as I'm concerned, she never will. A little more than a week later, I had my "birthday party". It was a disaster from the beginning. I wasn't in the mood for a big thing, so it was only a few of my closet friends going to the movies. It was me, John, Amanda, and two of my other best friends. We saw this retarded Disney movie("Jungle 2 Jungle") and for some unknown reason, my mom decided to stay for the movie with us. Well, it's kind of an unwritten law that when you see a boring movie, you have to make out. I mean, there's nothing else to do! Well, my mom wasn't too happy when she caught us. (Actually, she didn't catch us....Laura, one of my other friends there, opened her big mouth when we got in the car..."Could you breathe while you two were making out?") My mom was incredibly mad. I was forbidden to ever talk to him again. We(me and John) decided it was in our best interest to just end it then. I was devastated. I cried for days after that, just moping around the house. Ok, I admit part of that was just for show, to get back at my mom, but I really was upset. The next day I called Amanda's house and he picked up the phone. I was so pissed! Turns out, he followed her to the mall, where her mom took pity on him and invited him back to the house. Later I found out he kissed her! Of course, she didn't tell me this till months after the incident and when I asked him about it, he responded with, "Well that was so long ago...it shouldn't matter anymore". In the meanwhile, I was heartbroken. Just when I'd finally gotten over him, he started called again. Once again, I fell in love. One night I was sprawled out on the living room floor doing my Spanish homework when the doorbell rang. Guess who it was? If you guessed John, then good for you! My mom actually saw him, but she kept quiet. We went out for a walk, and once again ended up at that lake where we first kissed. We laid in each other's arms for hours and just stared up at the stars. I was grounded for that, but it was well worth it. My friends didn't exactly feel the same way. This is when Amanda told me about their kiss, but I didn't care. I was in love. We went out for a few weeks, but it just wasn't the same the second time around. We never went anywhere and he didn't even bother to call! We decided mutually to break up. When I told Amanda, she was like, "Well, it's for the better...he was cheating on you with a bunch of other girls anyways. That's what Drew told me today." That's when I got mad. When I asked Drew (John's brother that I had previously been crushing on) about it, he backed up what he had told Amanda. He was really sweet about it though...he held me in his arms while I cried. I didn't even care that I was sobbing in the middle of the hallway. All I knew was that John was scum. I spent most of fourth period in the bathroom, in tears. I called John that night and screamed at him. In retrospect, I guess I should have listened to his side of the story. At the time, I didn't even want to hear his voice. He never even bothered to find out why I was so mad. A little more than a week later, I saw him at the skating rink and decided to give him a chance to explain. Need less to say, he denied it all. He wanted to know why I believed his brother over him. What reasoning would Drew have for lying to me? He knew how devastated I was, and I don't think any one in their right mind would deliberately hurt a girl in that kind of mental state. Of course, I could be wrong. All I knew was that Drew was there for me and John wasn't. I listened rationally to what John had to say, and before the night was through, we had agreed to be friends again. We go to the same school this year. I wouldn't exactly call us friends, but we do talk occasionally. Recently, he helped me out with a big project I had to do on sexual harassment for English class. I never did find out which one of them (John or Drew) was telling the truth, but I've pretty much decided it doesn't really matter. It's all in the past. Like the Lion King says, the past can still hurt. I sometimes get a little misty-eyed when I see that lake or when I see John all over some other girl, but I've grown out of that stage in my life. Even though I'm way over John, I can still recognize the importance of my having him in my life... he was my first true love.
