Friends First
Monday, Oct. 13, 2003, 19:32
Ever since the first day that I noticed boys, my Mom always told me that you have to be friends with them first. It was in my teen years especially that she would say "Cheri Lynn you have to be friends before you can be lovers.....and by lovers I mean boyfriend/girlfriend, NOTHING more. You are just 15 after all." Yes, my Mother used my middle name when she was mucho serious, but I would shrug off her warning and say "Friends? Phooey on that..he is way too cute to be just my FRIEND!!" I mean who was she kidding? Who wants to be just his friend, while the cute cheerleaders are kissing all over him in the back of the Pep bus? Not I, so I always jumped in with both feet and fell madly in love. They were always whirlwind romances, full of sparks and magic and his name written all over my notebooks. Things were wonderful for like three weeks, three months at the longest and then he would just move on to someone else. The passion was gone, fizzled out like a wet firecracker.
It was in the 9th grade that I met a boy who really knocked my socks off. He was tall, cute and looked so hot in those football pants. He was the Quarterback on the freshman football team. "Go Baby Eagles!!" We were undefeated that year...State Champs in fact, and it was all because of my beloved TC (OK not totally his doing, but you know I was in love) Anyway this love affair was like any other, I saw him, fell in love with him and asked him out, he said yes and it was the beginning of another romance that movies are made of. He and I walking to class,him carrying my books, kissing at the locker....everything was perfect for about a month....then BAM, he was over it and liked someone else.
I was confused, hurt,angry all those rolled into one. We didn't talk for a couple months and one day he told me that he was sorry, but we would be better friends than partners. I agreed because heck, I was in love with A who would turn into my "High School Sweetheart" in later years. TC and I were extremely close as friends, we skipped class together, got drunk together, he fixed me up with his friends, I introduced him to mine, I cried to him when one of those friends broke my heart and he always reminded me that he loved me and thought that I was hot even though we were just 'friends'.
Looking back on that and reminiscing, I see now that Mom was right. I treasured TC then and still do today, some 20 years later. I even think that if he were to ask me to marry him, I could only say yes, because he means that much to me. I wouldn't marry my high school sweetheart, I wouldn't remarry my ex husband, I don't think that I would even marry the man I dated 6 months ago. But TC is different, more special than any of those others. I can only believe it is because we were "friends", and I mean true friends first. Thanks Mom, it only took me 20 or more years to realize you were right. Please don't anyone tell her I said that ;) And thanks M for being a friend and urging me to slow down. Although you are extremely YUMMY, Smooches.
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