I guess it really was like a million-years-ago that we dated. So young and in love. My father used to call it "puppy love". I never thought it was. I called it "true love", but I guess he was right, in the end. After all, high school romances are supposed to be just that, right? High school romances. They are what get you ready for the next thing - college romances, where you meet your future husband, or at least I did. Well, back then, I didn't think that high school romances were that. I thought it was true love, until it ended.
I remember the first time I laid eyes on him. It was my best friend, Karen's, sixteenth birthday party. For her party this year, her parents let her do something different, and "very adult", as they called it. They let her rent out the penthouse of the Sheraton that year. When we were younger, she would hold sleep overs for a birthday party, or when we were a little older, her parents would rent a band to come and play at her party. I'll never understand why they let her do it - why they let her rent out the penthouse of the Sheraton, but for me, it was the beginning of the wild teenage years. Many nights and parties of drinking, drugs, and sex.
I was younger than Karen, almost by a full year even though we were in the same grade. I was always playing catch up with her, and not just with chronological age, but in important events as well. She went through puberty first. She had a boyfriend first. She got kissed first. She got drunk first. She had sex first. No matter how hard I tried, I was always two steps behind. I envied her.
Anyway, we were at her birthday party at the penthouse, and people were just starting to arrive. I had gone earlier with her first because she'd asked me to. Most of our close friends were the first to arrive. Our friend, Amanda had brought someone with her, though. She told us that he was her cousin who had just moved to Newport Beach from Palm Springs. Amanda said his name was James, and that he was in the same grade as most of us.
When she introduced us, we hit it right off. He told me to call him Jimmy, and I told him to call me Keeks. I never really liked the nickname, just like I never liked it when my dad would call me KiKi; however, it seemed less formal than Kirsten did. Jimmy was taller than me, naturally, but he was not overly tall, in comparison to myself. He had shaggy dirty blonde, curly hair with hazel eyes. He was cute, I'll be the first to admit. We didn't seem to have a lot in common, other than that we would be attending the same school. He was into sailing, and other outdoor sports. I, on the other hand, was considerably more girly. I enjoyed shopping, and much less active things of the sort. However, under the surface, we had a lot in common. Both of our fathers were self-made millionaires, we had siblings, and politically, we were on the same bent. We were both conservatives, just like most of Orange County.
This also happened to be the first time that I had ever seriously drank anything before. I mean, I had had sips of wine before on holidays, or at family gatherings, but this was the first time I had ever seriously drank anything. After our good friends arrived, the party kids came, with a year's supply of alcohol. This was the first time I had ever been to a binging party, really. I knew what they were, I had just never actually been there. Everyone was drinking. Karen was practically drinking straight vodka, then again, she had been to ragers like this before. Jimmy could hold his liquor, as well. He was much more experienced in these matters, as I would come to find out.
I started out light, like with a screwdriver, or margarita, something like that. However, with my incessant need to catch up with my friend, I tried to drink straight hard liquor by the end of the night. I never really knew what happened that night, and I guess I never will. When I woke up, I was still there my girlfriends. We had all passed out in different places in the penthouse. Everyone else had left by the time we woke up.
Jimmy and I didn't start dating right away. He still had a girlfriend back in Palm Springs, and they were going to try and makes things work through a long distance relationship. They were never really serious. I mean, how serious could teenage romance be at fifteen or sixteen-years-old? Clearly, I was naive. In fact, he had only been dating her for three months when he moved to Newport. Therefore, we were good friends, instead. We were in a lot of the same classes, which were rigorous Advanced Placement math classes. I never actually liked math, but I was good at it. Jimmy loved math. It was his best class. We became study buddies. He would help me with the stuff I wasn't quite grasping, which in turn, would help reenforce his abilities. Sometimes Dad would invite him over for dinner, or to go sailing with him. He really enjoyed Jimmy's company, at least more than any of my other friends. He was the first real friend that was a boy that I had. Dad liked that. Actually, he liked the fact that he didn't have to worry about what Jimmy and I were doing behind his back. This was comforting to him, which made him like Jimmy more.
Eventually, Jimmy and his girlfriend drifted apart, and broke it off. I can't say I didn't see it coming. He saw it coming too. This is when we started to date. I was sixteen by this time and we were both sophomores in high school at The Harbor School. Jimmy was on the water polo team, and I was a cheerleader. Things were good for us. He was my first really serious boyfriend. I was not his first serious girlfriend. After school, we would get together and hang out and make-out. Of course, we were still study buddies, though. School came first. Especially to our parents.
However, the weekends were our time. This is when we would go partying with our friends. It was almost ritual now that every Friday and Saturday night, we would go out and get wasted with friends. By now, I was drinking so much, that I could drink vodka straight, and not notice it for a long time. I guess you could say I built up some tolerance. Usually, I would tell my parents that I was sleeping over to some girl's house. Naturally, they believed me. After all, most parents believe their children, until they catch them.
Things continued like that for a long time. Most of our relationship, in fact. Of course, our relationship grew as well. No longer were we just holding hands in the hall and quietly making out sometimes. Jimmy and I had gotten closer over time. A year later, and we were now considering sex. It may have seemed like we rushed things to some, but to others, we went too slowly. For ourselves, it was just right. I was nearly eighteen. We were going into senior year when it happened - I lost my virginity to Jimmy Cooper.
My parents had gone away for the weekend, and the only ones left home for the weekend was Hailey, my seven-year-old sister, and myself. Sometimes, Jimmy would help me babysit for her. This was no exception. My parents were fine with it, but only because of their belief in the plutonic state of our relationship. Their beliefs were far from the truth. That night, after Hailey had gone to bed, Jimmy and I did the deed. Granted, it wasn't the most romantic or appropriate place to do it, considering we were babysitting; however, there was no taking it back. I was then a woman. This changed the state of our relationship for it's duration. I
It was no longer plutonic at all. We tried to be alone every chance we got. This continued all through the rest of high school, and into college, where I attended Berkeley and he attended U.S.C. He was at U.S.C. for accounting, and I was at Berkeley for art history. I would go over to his school and spend the night. He would come over to my school and do the same. This is what kept our relationship together through the distance. That is until it happened. The unthinkable. I was 19 and pregnant.
Until then, I always thought I was invincible, only to learn I wasn't. Things began to race through my head when I found out. What would I do? How would Jimmy react? What about my parents? What about his parents? What about school? I sat down and thought about it. I had to tell Jimmy. I still didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew that I had to tell Jimmy. I called him up and asked him to come over as quickly as possible. It was urgent. I suppose that I will never know, but I always wondered if he knew in the back of his mind what the bombshell would be.
When I told him, he fell apart. He never thought this would happen either, only to have it happen. We talked about what to do, and decided that having an abortion would be the best thing. We never talked about it much. In fact, I really only remember the one conversation on it, but it was the decision we made.
Two weeks later, I went to planned parenthood alone, and terminated my pregnancy. Things between us were never really the same. There was this distance between us after the incident, which we never got passed. Eventually, we broke it off. Partly because Jimmy was having an affair with a minor named Julie Anderson. She was only fifteen or sixteen at time. The other part was because we could not get past that one speed bump. I suppose, if we had wanted to, we could have, but I don't think we ever really wanted to. We got separate lives. It was soon after that, that I met Sandy, my husband.