Sorry it's been a while. My summer sagas continue....
The Summer of 1994 was the summer after 7th grade. It was my last year of middle school, and that May I began dating Curtis Dutton. Curtis and I played in the school band together. He sat in front of me and used to torment me about everything. I used to find it annoying, but that all changed the day he asked me to "go steady." I then became elated with Curtis Dutton.
That summer, Curtis and I went as a couple to our first boy-girl party. I was very anxious to attend because I knew my friend Michelle had planned to play spin the bottle. I had never kissed anyone and I didn't want my first kiss to be infront of everyone! I was even more worried because I really wanted the bottle to land on Curtis--what if it didn't?!
We arrived and things seemed very mellow. Curtis and I parted ways and began to schmooze with our respected groups of friends. The guys played basketball, while the girls watched and giggled.
Everyone asked feverishly about my new relationship. They all recalled how he held my hand at the school dance. Then "real" questions started flying....
"Did you guys kiss?"
"Have you frenched him?"
Luckily the guys decided to take a break from the "big game" and started talking to us. I thought maybe Michelle had forgotten about "spin the bottle." Maybe this party was going to be okay after all. Just because I was Curtis's girlfriend did not mean I HAD to kiss him, especially in front of everyone. We all began to wander to the back yard to eat. Just as I was about to roast my hot dog, Curtis took my hand and brought me to this large circle of people. With hot dog and stick in hand, I thought, maybe he was bringing me over to a better fire to roast my weiner upon......
"Alison, it's your turn," said michelle with a grin as wide as a jack-o-lantern.
I dropped my hot dog and my palms started to sweat.
"I can't chicken out," I thought to myself. "I will be the laughing stock of Junior High."
I took the ketchup bottle from her hand, put it on the ground, clenched my eyes shut, and spun. When I opened up my eyes, I saw that everyone except Curtis had backed out of the circle so that he was the only one standing there. Everyone had huge grins on their faces.
"Okay Alison, it landed on Curtis, now kiss him," Said a voice from the crowd.
Everyone waited in anticipation. My stomach began to turn. We both stepped forward, looked into eachother's eyes, leaned forward and......
SMACK! We bumped heads.
Snickers began to wrestle throught the crowd like "The Wave" from a baseball game. Between all of the snickering and laughing, Curtis grabbed my hand and said, "Let's try this again." He leaned forward and kissed me.
As the sun set and the sky looked down upon us, Curtis and I sat by the gleam of the fire for the rest of that evening, arm and arm, dreaming of the year ahead, without a care in the world.