you got over the fear that the eight graders were going to kill a few of you. Our parents allowed us a little more freedom. Me and my friends got to hang out at the mall by ourselves. Charlie hated it because we spent most of our time and money in the arcade. We occasionally made our way to the music store. Charlie's favorite place to hang out was downtown New Bern. There isn't a place down there that we didn't explore. On hot summer days we would all hang out for hours at the Pepsi store or at Sweet Bears, the ice cream shop where Charlie would eventually work at in high school and where we would spend hours eating the ice creams and milkshakes that she messed up.
I think Charlie used to like walking down on the water front at Union Point. Notably when it was just the two of us. Walking down by the water holding hands. Because Charlie said it was okay for friends to hold hands. I told her it may be okay for friends to hold hands, but Colin and Scott wouldn't get this special treatment. She laughed like it was the funniest joke she had ever heard. I think she was just being nice, because my joke couldn't have been that funny.
From that first day of high school till we began to fall apart in our senior year, things were by no means easy. I remember how they shipped us out to the new high school. It was way out on the outskirts of town. I hated that place just for its location. There was a fence around the student parking lot that would have worked fine for a prison. Even if you escaped its confines it was so far out there was nowhere to go. Ninth grade was a nightmare of being thrown into the sea with sharks and learning how to swim all at once. And then something even stranger happened. Somewhere between the summer after ninth grade and the beginning of tenth grade, Scott got cool. I mean like overnight he was hanging out with some of the coolest people in school. Charlie had a sneaking suspicion that he was into drugs, and that's how he got in with them. He didn’t make us feel left out, though I think Colin kind of did because of other things that happened that summer. For one, Charlie and I started dating. By the way, Charlie is short for Charlotte. Scott wasn’t surprised, saying he always knew it would happen sooner or later.
“How do you figure that?” I asked him.
“Think about all of your girlfriends,” Scott said.
“All of them? There have been so many,” I said sarcastically.
“Okay, start with first grade,” he said.
“Amanda the Brownie Scout. She was very aggressive,” I said.
“Not as aggressive as Charlie. She made her break up with you.”
“How?” I asked.
“She gave her a choice: you or eat worms. Second grade,” he said.
“Michelle. Charlie didn't do anything to her. She moved to Alabama,” I said.
“Yeah, but she came back in third grade. Charlie threatened her.”
“Worms?” I asked.
“Spiders,” Scott said.
“Okay.”
“Third grade?” he asked.
“Courtney, but she was only my girlfriend for three days.”
“Correct. The day you two became boyfriend and girlfriend, Charlie was out sick. She came back the next day. She finds out and later that night Courtney gets a bloody lip while she and Charlie are getting their jackets in the closet after dance class. The next day Courtney breaks up with you,” Scott said.
“I thought that was weird. I mean she didn't even talk to me after that,” I said.
“She was told not to talk to you anymore,” Scott chortled.
“That's probably why I didn't have another girlfriend until eighth grade.”
“Exactly. Everyone knew that you were Charlie's property,” Scott informed me.
“Except me,” I said.
“Well you aren't the brightest bulb in the batch.” he said, flashing his Scott smile at me. “I have to go. I'll talk to you later, Mike.”
“Okay, bye Scott.
“And Mike,” Scott said.
“Yes?”
“I love you man!” he replied.
Charlie was the best thing that ever happened to me. At first admitting that I liked her was weird, because we had always done everything together as friends. You see, in the beginning I never saw Charlie as a girl. I mean she is a girl, but you know what I mean. She was one of us. I think I sort of realized she was a girl when her dad wouldn't let her sleep over with the guys anymore around fifth grade. We used to walk home from school together because every fifth grader in town went to one school, F.R. Danyus. We were in the middle of planning one of our great weekend adventures. This always brought to Colin's mind the time we got lost in the woods and ended up in the rock quarry and stumbled upon a group of coral snakes.
“The woods are out!” Colin protested.
“Okay, no forest adventures,” Scott said.
“What do you want to do Charlie?” I asked.
“No adventures for me,” she said sadly.
“Why not?” Scott asked
“My dad said I'm getting to old to spend the night with you guys.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” I asked her.
“I don't know. My mom said he was just being a dad.”
“That doesn't make any sense. Did you beg him to let you stay?” Scott asked.
“I cried and everything. Normally that works, but not this time.” Charlie shook her head.
Charlie was a sweet girl, strong and independent. Her dad loved her because she was a daddy's girl and she liked to play sports when she was young. He would stay out in the yard when we were all there. It would be the four of us for hours just playing. When I say the four of us, though, I mean Charlie, Scott and me and Charlie's dad. The good Colin always sat out of things like that. Charlie had come a long way from the kid I mistakenly thought was a boy because of the Dorothy Hamill haircut she had when we were small. She doesn't even wear glasses anymore. She has contacts now. Charlie is a beautiful red head with freckles and a smile that could light up the darkest night. She is thoughtful and kindhearted to everyone except any girl who wants to date me. Even before we started dating I noticed Charlie was a girl again at our eighth grade sweethearts dance. I was there with my girlfriend Portia. By the end of the night I was single. But there was Charlie with her red hair, braces and glasses to help me through yet another breakup. I complimented her on how beautiful she looked and her pale face turned bright red. That was the first time we kissed.
“Thank you.” She smiled, planting a kiss on my lips.
I was so thick that I didn't see she was telling me she liked me. Charlie didn't worry because I didn't date anyone the next year. How could I? Charlie always kept us busy doing something. It was then that I had an epiphany of sorts. We were hanging out at Colin's house on a brutally hot summer day. We were in the pool.
“I wonder where Scott is?” I asked.
“Where ever he is, I bet he is really hot,” Charlie said.
Colin's mom came out to get us to take a break from the pool. Colin was the first out and inside. Charlie and I were drying off when I complimented her.
“I noticed you got your braces off. You look nice.”
Charlie turned a bright shade of red.
“Thank you.” she said, eyes on the ground. And then she thanked me with a quick kiss on the lips
I thought nothing of it. I mean, girls can kiss their friends is what I thought, at least until I talked with Scott later on.
“She turned red and kissed you at the sweethearts dance. Then she turned red and kissed you today at Colin's house. Boy. I thought you were good at math but I'm going to start copying Colin's homework again.”
“You know he won't let you.”
“That's not the point,” Scott said.
“Then what is?” I really was a little behind in the boy-girl thing.
“Why don't you ask Charlie?”
I thought about that but remembered we hadn't seen Scott earlier.
“Hey, where were you today?” I asked.
“I was hanging out with Jaime McKnight.” He smiled in his coy way.<
br />
“The cheerleader?” I asked
“Yeah it was me, Jaime, and Ryan.”
“Ryan McDaniel?” I asked.
“Yes. But forget about that and think about talking to Charlie,” Scott said.
“What should I say to her?”
“I don't know. Ask her about the kisses for starters. But you have to know what you are going to say when she gives her answers.”
“What do you mean answers?” I asked.
“She could say Mike I like you or Mike I like you but not in that way.”
“What if she does like me?” I asked, almost afraid.
“It depends. Do you like her?”
“I don't know. I mean Charlie is pretty, but she's my friend. I mean I have thought about her, but thought the idea too ridiculous because Charlie wouldn't like me like that. It would be too weird.”
“Figure it out. I have to go. I'm meeting Ryan and Jaime at Taco Bell. Call me later and let me know what happened.”
“Can I come with you?” I asked.
“You have work to do. And Mike,” Scott said, as he jogged off.
“Yes.”
“I love you man!”
Anyway, Scott got popular and Charlie and I were dating; Colin kind of felt left out, as I said. Scott had like a different girlfriend every week. Colin immersed himself in school. The rest of us should have followed suit, but we didn’t. At least Scott and I didn’t. I struggled with my studies. I became known as Last Minute Larry because of all my late assignments. Scott got straight A’s with ease. I was secretly jealous of him. I don’t know how I survived the tenth grade; somehow I did. We didn’t see Scott as much as we would like to, but we saw him enough. Despite dating me, Charlie