Do You Remember? - The Summer Obsession

Do you remember?

The summer before my Junior Year, I got really close to this girl. She's nothing to me now, but that summer, we did so much together. Sophmore year had been really dramatic, and we were both a part of all that drama. But we were ready for a fresh start.

Sophmore year at San Mateo: we both lost relationships that we really valued, or that once used to mean something to us, and we saw our friends cry and our friends hate. And you'd think it's just teen angst, but we had psychological problems with our friends -- maniac depression and mild schizophrenia.

So that summer we went to summer school at Capuchino. And everything was new: the high school experience, the friendships, the type of people we connected with. And me and her, we were really feelin' good that summer.

That summer, her parents split -- not a divorce, but her dad just left and her mom disappeared a lot because she worked in the airline industry and flew around a lot. And I knew she wanted out. Me too -- I wanted out too.

So I told her, let's just leave our school and what "friends" we have left and let's go live north and change schools and nicknames and just be new people. And she said ya let's do it!

But our time at Capuchino ended, and August rolled around and class scheduling and the first day of school rolled around and we still hadn't applied for a transfer. And then our first summer homework assignments were due and our textbooks were checked out and eventually the first school dance rolled around -- it was in the quad, DJ dance under the stars -- and I made tight with new friends and I was feelin' good where I was.

But she wasn't. And she really withdrew from the world and got scared to talk to me or even my cousin who she was best friends with. And eventually -- she was just gone.

She came back for the beginning of senior year, and I thought Hey where have you been all this time? but then a few weeks later, she disappeared again.

I found out she transfered schools to Wisconsin -- and started gettin' into drugs and smoking and alcohol. But from hearsay, she was feelin' good there.

"Feelin' Good"

I wonder what it would have been like if we both really did transfer schools together and went north, and did what at the time she had been to scared to do alone.

Do you remember? We said we'd run.
Away together, holding on to one another.

_{Next: Nothing but Your T-Shirt On}