By Vicky
(Rated
PG)
"At least I made one friend today," I whispered. I
got inside the school and found my homeroom. The teacher was a big bulky red
head name Mrs. Keynes. Frankly she looked like a bitch and that's all there was
to it. I just grabbed the packet from my seat that came with the school codebook
and my locker number and combination. I decided to check out my locker and see
where it was. It was right outside the damn room where Mrs. Keynes stood every
morning. I opened my locker and placed some of my notebooks inside. As I tried
to arrange it a group of boys walked past me. They had to stand right near where
I was.
"Ooooo! Look at the new girl!" One of them
said.
Another laughed and yelled, "Hey sweetie! Wanna
meet the welcome wagon?"
One of the boys leaned up
against the locker next to mine. He was a tall kid with black hair and the
weirdest looking shirt it was tie-dye. "So uh- you know how we make a girl feel
welcomed around here? We take her out back behind the football field and make
out with her." The other guys laughed and whistled. I felt my face turning red
with embarrassment.
"Knock it off guys!" a voice
yelled. "Leave her alone." Whoever that was I had to thank them I was in no mood
to deal with people like that today. The warning bell rang and we all ran into
the room. I was seated in the back of the room. I flipped through my codebook
for a little bit and then looked up to see this boy walk into the room. He was
tall and kind of on the thin side. He had blonde hair, it wasn't short but it
wasn't long either. I took a look at what he was wearing. Brown corduroys, blue
t-shirt tucked in and brown vest over it. Something clicked in the back of my
brain and my eyes stayed fixed on him. I almost started at him too long and he
noticed.
"Hi!" he said in a low tone as he took his
seat. "My name's-"
"Thomas Hamilton!" Mrs. Keynes
yelled. She had already started to take
roll.
"Present. And that's just Tom." he said with
his hand raised. Tom continued in his low voice. "So what's your
name?"
"Oh, uh-" I was stuttering. "My
name's-"
Mrs. Keynes called me out, "Janet
Henry!"
I raised my hand and said, "Present!" I
laughed nervously, "It's Janet."
Tom laughed. "Nice
to meet you." He smiled at me. "Listen sorry about my friends giving you shit
out there."
"Oh so those were your friends?" He
nodded. "You hang out with a nice bunch don't
you?"
Tom shrugged and said, "They do stuff like that
to all the new kids. So where you from
originally?"
"St. Louis."
"You moved a ways from
home didn't you?" Tom said. "So where you-"
"MR.
HAMILTON!" Mrs. Keynes yelled.
Tom stood up and said
politely, "Yes Mrs. Keynes?"
"You know there is no
talking allowed while I take role! You had me for homeroom last year." Mrs.
Keynes crossed her arms. "You don't want detention so
you?"
"No ma'am" Tom took his seat again and took out
a piece of paper. He started scribbling stuff down. He handed it to me it said.
"Can I see your schedule? I'll switch you." I handed him my schedule and looked
at his. We had the same English class 1st Period, Geometry class 3rd period,
French class 5th period, and even the same U.S. History Class in 6th period. He
had Shop for 2nd while I had a Home Economics class and 4th he had Chemistry
while I was stuck in Anatomy. I handed back his schedule and he gave me a wink
and a little smile. The bell rang about fifteen minutes later and I went to my
English class that was in the next hall. Tom came up behind me and tapped me on
the shoulder. "Shall I escort you to class?"
I smiled
my day suddenly seemed to get a little better. "Sure." I handed him my two
notebooks and we walked to class together. We started a little conversation and
I found out a few things about him. First thing, he loved The Beatles just like
I did. He was also on the tennis team the year before and he was going to be in
the drama club and he planned on being on student council. "You're a busy guy
aren't you?" I said as we came to the door. I walked through and he followed me
to one side of the room. When I sat down he slid into the desk next to me and
handed me my notebooks.
"Yep school and a band." Tom
boasted. "I'm going to be in one of the worlds biggest
bands."
"Really?" I asked. "What's it
called?"
Tom went to open his mouth then paused.
"Well..." he said, "I don't know. But whatever it is it's gonna be huge." He
opened up a green notebook on the inside cover was a crude but okay sketch of a
flaming guitar. And he had his name written like flames underneath
it.
"You play guitar?" I
asked.
He looked up from what he was doodling and
said, "No. I play bass. You play anything?"
"I just
play piano and flute." I laughed. "My mother wanted me to be in the school band
back home. I wasn't digging it."
"You look like a
band chick." Tom said.
"What's that mean?" My anger
flared back up.
Tom seemed shocked by my sudden mood
change. "Well- I- Mean- You just look like a chick that would be in the marching
band." He looked at me like I was nuts. "I didn't mean anything bad by
it."
I had to apologize. "I'm sorry. I'm just a
little touchy today. Got into it with my mother."
"I
know how you feel. Me and my old man clash all the time." He bent down to tie
his shoe. "We constantly fight about the hair thing. He about drags me off to
the barber sometimes."
The rest of my day went okay. After first period I
couldn't stop thinking about him, there were these signals he was sending off or
something. When I got to third period I was so happy to see him I got all giggly
when he walked into the room. He came in with one of the boys who were teasing
me before a fat blonde kid. "Hey Janet! This is Robbie. Robbie this is
Janet."
I gave him a mean look and Robbie said, "Hey
about earlier, we were just playing around. We didn't mean for you to get all
mad about it."
"I didn't get mad about it." I said
cheerfully. "I just wasn't in the mood to joke around this morning." Robbie
laughed and he and Tom took a seat across the
room.
Next to me was a girl wearing a green dress
with short brown hair and glasses. "Hi!" she said. "My name's Sarah." I
introduced myself. "I noticed you like Tom Hamilton over
there."
I denied what she said. "I don't like him
like that. He's a nice guy."
"Who's your favorite
Beatle?" Sarah asked.
"Paul." I replied. "What does
that-"
Sarah cut me off. "He reminds a lot of girls
of Paul. I guess it's because he's a bass player. Tom played in a band with his
French teacher. They called themselves Sam Citrus and the Merciless Tangerines."
She laughed and said, "They dyed their clothes orange." I giggled a little bit
and looked over at Tom. He was laughing with a couple of his friends. He looked
up and his eyes met mine. "I'd be careful though if I were
you."
"Why" I
asked.
"Rumor has it Tom's into pot and acid." Sarah
leaned down into my ear. "I heard he came home high after going to Boston for a
Saturday night. He was so sick he slept until Monday
morning."
I was angry with her for this. "He doesn't
look like the type that would do drugs." I didn't know him that well and I had
no clue why I said this. "He seems like too nice of a boy to do nasty things
like that."
"Did the Beatles look like boys that were
too nice to do drugs?" Sarah gave an evil smile. I decided to pay more attention
to the teacher at this point.
At the end of class Tom came up to me and put his arm
around my shoulder. "What's wrong?" He started walking with me to my Anatomy
class.
"That girl I was sitting with." I sighed. "She
said some things."
"Oh?" Tom laughed, "Sarah Perkins?
Old girlfriend. Tries to keep every female in the entire state away from me." I
laughed a little bit. "Listen. I'll see you fifth
period?"
I smiled. "You can bet on it." At lunch I
sat with a few girls I met in class. There was Bridget Harlow, she was a senior.
Karen Wilson, and Joy Short. As we ate they kept asking me
questions.
Joy popped the question I hope no one
would. "So do you dig any of the guys here?"
I sighed
and said, "Yeah. Tom Hamilton. You know him right?" The girls all smiled and
giggled. "What's wrong with Tom?"
"He's going to get
busted one of these days!" Bridget laughed.
Joy put
a hand to her mouth and said, "Tell me about it!"
I
was beginning to think that maybe Sarah wasn't lying. "Busted for
what?"
Karen patted my hand and said, "Tom's into
drugs. He's not bad into them, he can still function normally in
school."
I got up from seat quickly. I always
promised myself that I would never have a relationship with a drug addict or and
alcoholic. They had to be lying to me! I had tears coming into my eyes as I
rounded a corner and bumped into someone. "I'm
sorry."
"My fault really." It was Tom. The last
person I wanted to see. "Are you crying?"
I wiped the
tears out of my eyes. "No I'm not." Tom looked around
the corner and saw Karen, Bridget and Joy getting up from their table. "I think
we need to talk later." He gave me a hug. "I'm supposed to be in class. See
ya!"
"Bye Tom." I watched as ran up the steps next to
us. I couldn't talk to him the rest of the day. I gave him the silent treatment
in French class. In U.S. History he kept passing me note after note saying he
wanted to take me home after school. When the bell rang to dismiss us for the
day I got up to go to my locker. Tom followed me the whole way. When I finally
slammed my locker I looked him straight in the eye and said, "What do you want?"
Tom backed off a little bit and said, "I just want to
talk to you about a few things. Let me take you home. I doubt you want to take
the public bus." He led me out to a station wagon. It was one of those wood
panel ones, the ones termed "woodie". Tom opened the door on the passenger's
side and I got in. As we drove to my house he started to talk, "I can pretty
much guess people have been telling you things about me. I know you've probably
heard I'm into drugs. I can't lie to you, I am. I only do it on weekends and I
never let it get in the way of school or anything
else."
"Yeah." I said. "For now. I don't know how my
mother would like it I were friends with a
pothead."
Tom looked over at me. "Now why does she
have to know that?" He shook his head. "Honestly I'm just experimenting with it.
I don't want to screw my life up. I want to go to college and everything." We
passed an old farmhouse. "Hey hold on where do you live
again?"
I motioned for him to keep going, "About
another mile or two."
"We just passed my house." Tom
smiled. We pulled up in front of my house. My mother's car was in the driveway
that meant she was home early. "Well I guess I'll be seeing
you."
I got out of the car. "Why don't you come in?"
I asked. "I'd love you to meet my mother."
Tom
thought for a second and said, "Okay." He pulled his car over to the driveway
and followed me into the house.
"Mom I'm home!" I
yelled as I put my books down. "I want you to meet
someone!"
My mother came in wearing her nurse's
uniform. "How was school today?" she asked.
"Fine." I
quickly introduced Tom. "This is Tom. I met him at school today. He lives about
a mile or two up from us."
"Nice to meet you Mrs.
Henry." Tom shook my mothers hand.
"Oh call me Bev,"
she said. "I got off work early because I wasn't feeling well. Luckily I got
another nurse to come in a couple of hours early." My mother looked Tom up and
down inspecting him thoroughly. "So Tom how old are
you?"
"Sixteen." Tom replied politely. "Seventeen in
December."
"I have to go get a bath now," my mother
said. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Tom."
"Nice to
meet you too, Bev," Tom smiled. My mother went upstairs to get into the bathtub.
"Your mother is nice."
I answered in a flat tone.
"Nice yet over bearing." I walked into the kitchen. "You want something to
drink?"
Tom shook his head. "No I should get going. I
need to get ready for tomorrow. There's going to a drama club meeting." I
followed him out to his station wagon. "I guess we'll be seeing each other
tomorrow."
I looked down at the ground and said,
"Yeah I guess we will. Bye Tom."
Tom started his car.
"Bye Janet." He waved to me as he pulled out of the driveway. I watched him
drive down the road. Maybe moving to a new place wasn't going to be so bad after
all.
Over the next few weeks Tom and I got really close. We often came over to my house to study. Well maybe a little more than studying. We weren't dating yet but Tom always hinted that he wanted our relationship to move a little further. One day he came over on a Sunday morning, I answered the door dressed in my church clothes, I had to be at mass in half hour.
"Hi Tom!" I was so happy to see
him.
"Hi,"Tom said in a low voice. He looked down at
the ground and had his hands stuffed in his pockets. He sniffed and looked up.
His eyes were all puffy and red, I knew what he had been doing. "As you can see
this is kind of a bad time for me to be talk g to you," he coughed, "But I've
been thinking, and I really want to ask you
something."
I crossed my arms and leaned in the
doorway. "Are you thinking clearly enough?" I
asked.
"I've been thinking about this for a while,"
Tom said. "I think I've just now gotten the courage to ask
you."
I bit my lip nervously. "Yeah? Ask me what?"
Tom fiddle around with what was in his pocket. "I know
things are going a little fast but I- well since I saw you in the hall the first
day of school I knew you were someone special. "He took his hand out of his
pocket, he had a little box in his hand. I bought this about a week ago, it's
not much." Tom opened the box and inside was a little silver ring it had a
little heart-shaped stone in the middle.
I was
litterally speechless. "Oh Tom-"I gasped. "It's
so...so..."
Tom put the ring on my finger. "So do you
want be my girl?"
He looked sober as he said that. I nodded and kissed
him long and good on the mouth. All of a sudden he slipped his tounge into my
mouth. I pulled away from him. Tom looked stunned and said, "Did I something
wrong?"
I shook my head. "I've just never been french
kissed before."
"Oh," Tom laughed. "If you want to
take things slow I can do that."
My mother came out
of the front door. "Hello Tom," she said.
Tom quickly
looked down at the ground. "Good morning." He looked over at his car and said,
"I have to get going. I guess you need to get to church."He ran down to his car
and waved to me. "See you at school tommorrow!"
"Bye Tom!"I waved back to him
My mother smiled and put her arm around my shoulder. "He's such a nice
boy."
I sighed and looked at my ring, "Yeah, I know."
About two weeks later I was over at Tom';s house
on a Saturday morning. We were studying for a history test over the Civil War
that was Monday. His brother Scott had to be in the living room the same time we
were practicing his guitar.
"Scott!"Tom complained.
"Do you mind?"
Scott kept playing and yelled over the
noise, "Hey I live here too!" Tom shook his head. "You
want to go up to my room?"He looked around to look for his
mother.
"Yeah, sure."
I followed him up the steps into his bedroom. It was
a pretty big sized bedroom. All over the wall hung pictures of The Beatles, The
Rolling Stones, Cream, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix. He had a lava lamp over in one
corner that wasn't turned on. The room was pretty cluttered with clothes and
books.
"When was the last time you cleaned?" I
laughed.
Tom cleared some clothes off of a chair and
said, "About a month ago." He scooted the chair up to a desk that had some
papers on it and a picture of him and two other guys. I sat down in the chair
and looked at the picture. "Who are these guys?" I
asked.
Tom looked over his shoulder and said, "Oh the
guy with the dark hair is this guy Joe Perry. We jam together during with that
other guy's Pudge Scott. Joe's the guitarist, Pudge is the drummer. Joe's from
Boston."He put a chair down next to me and laid his hand on mine. "You know
what? We both have A's in that class why study?"
I
smiled at him, "What are you thinking Tom
Hamilton?"
He slipped me a kiss and said, "Let';s go
to Boston tonight." He got up from the chair. "Let's go right now!" I got up
from my chair and followed him downstairs.
"Can you
make up your mind what you want to do? First you want to come over to my house
and watch Saturday morning TV, then you want to study, now you want to go
Boston!" I looked at a clock on the wall in his kitchen. "All this before eleven
o'clock."
Tom grabbed some keys off of the kitchen
table. "Dad! Mom! I'm going out! Taking the car!" He grabbed my arm and we ran
out the front door.
As we started to drive Tom turned on the car radio
and tried to find a decent station. There was one coming in with a little bit of
static that was playing a new Beatles song called "Lady Madonna". Tom started
singing along with it loudly. "I love this song! I wish I could play it on
piano."
The trip was long but we finally made it to
Boston. As we pulled into a little hippie-type neihboorhood. The radio started
to play "Are you Expierenced?" by Hendrix. There were people walking around in a
daze, blowing bubbles, giving the piece sign and utting flowers in their
hair.
"Wow. Look at all those
people."
Tom parked the car in parking lot near a
barbers shop. (I was thinking it was doing a lot of good where it was) We came
up in front of a little shop selling inscense and beads. Tom bought so inscense
while I bought both him and me love beads. I put the beads wround his neck and
slipped him a kiss. Tom put his arm around my shoulder and escorted me to all
the neat places around town.
"Hey Freddie!"Tom walked
over to a tall kid with curly brown hair.
"Tom my
friend."Freddie laughed and slapped Tom a high five. "What product can I get for
you?"
I zoned out of the conversation at the word,
"product". I knew what that meant.
Tom came bag with
a little baggie of marijuana. "I was going to have some later." Then he added,
"You don't have to try any if you don't want to. I'm not going to pressure
you."
"Okay. Thanks Tom," I hugged him and we held
hands as we walked around the city. As the sun went down we came to a little
house outside of town. There was a party going on. "Is this why you wanted to
come?"
"No!" Tom yelled over Grateful Dead music.
"Freddie told me me about this party! We won';t stay more than an hour or two I
promise!"I saw Tom pull out the bag and roll himself a joint. He lit it and
started to get into the music. "If you get tired of hanging around me you can
just wander off."
I wondered around the room a little
bit, I kept bumping into people who were just staring out into nothing. I made
my way back to Tom who was still looking pretty sober. "Hey Tom could we leave
now?"
Tom looked around the room and simply said,
"Yeah."He took his joint back from some guy and we walked outside. Tom put the
joint to his lips.
"Hey could I-"I started to ask. I
was getting really curious about the whole altered state of concisnous that
stuff like that was supposed to give you. "Can
I?"
"Sure."Tom handed the joint to me and took a toke
off of it and coughed loudly. He laughed at me. I took another toke and held it.
I felt a little dizzy. We kept sharing the joint until it was gone and then we
started to walk back to the car.
"How do you feel?" Tom
asked.
I slid down in my seat and said, "Groovy." Tom
burst out laughing and put his head on the steering wheel. "What's so
funny?"
Tom stopped laughing for a second to say,
"Nothing" in a silly tone. He started laughing again. "It's pretty far out isn't
it?"
"Yeah it is."I laughed a little bit. "Ah, Shit!
I hope this wears off before I get home!" I started to giggle. "My mother's
going to think I'm nuts."
Tom wiped his eyes. "Oh you
mean Bev?" He let out a yell. "I'm going to be nuts when I get home too!"He got
serious for a second, "We should be okay by the time we get home."
By the time we got home it was 9:30. Tom walked me up
to my door. I gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I had a fun time
today."
"I did too." Tom hugged me. "Goodnight Janet.
Maybe we'll study for real tommorrow." Tom walked down the steps to his car as a
slight breeze kicked up.
"I thought we had A';s and
didn';t need to study," I said.
Tom looked back at me
and shrugged. "Couldn';t hurt to keep those A's the way they are." He slid into
his car and started it.
I walked upstairs to my room
and got into my pajama's. I looked at Tom';s picture he had gotten taken on
picture day. The picture made him look like one of those nerdy kids. He was
wearing a suit and tie, and had his hair pulled back. I laid in bed and ispered,
"After tonight I can tell things aren't going to be the same ever again."
Not long after that it was Halloween and there was
the dance at school. We dressed up for school that day. I came as Cleopatra, my
hair was perfect for it-straight and black. I spent the ten minutes before
homeroom trying to spot Tom. I was thinking o a costume that might bring out a
little of his personality. First thing I thought of was a werewolf. I found one
but it wasn't him. The warning bell rang and I ran to homeroom. About thirty
second later there was Tom! He had dressed up as a Beatle just for
me.
"Oh my gosh! Paul!" Tom
sat down next to me and kiss my hand. He spoke in a british accent, "Hey there
what's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?" I giggled, "Hey you
know I love you and I wanna hold you hand."
"Tom
you';re a dork!"I took my hand away from his. At the dance after school Tom got
the band to play some Beatles tunes, they did "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
and "Drive my Car." The slow song was also a Beatles song, "And I Love Her". Tom
and me slowdanced near the front where the band was. He kept singing the words
quietly into my ear. After that he jumped on the stage and got the band to do
"Light My Fire", which he sang. The dance was great. I got Tom to bob for apples
because I was worried my makeup would come off. When he came up out of the water
with his apple I immediatly bit on the other
side.
Tom let go of the apple and cringed. "Ew.
Cooties."
I spit out my apple. "Just playing around."
We went trick or treating that night and came back to
my house with both of our pillow cases full of
candy.
"You know what?" I said as I unwrapped a
lollipop, "I counted this. We were asked, 'Hey, aren't you a little old for
trick or treating'' twenty four times."
"Really?" Tom
said. "I didn't know." He took out something from his pocket. It was a little
pill or something.
"What's that?"I
asked.
Tom stuck the pill in his mouth and swallowed
it. "Acid. You're not ready for it yet."
"I'm
certainly not!" I said. "I heard that stuff can really screw up your
brain!"
"Only temporarily."Tom said. "I'm guessing
you're not curious about this stuff."
"Well I'm still
curious," I stuck the lollipop in my mouth, "but not that curious."
Little did I know at the time that I would become that curious.
My mother had a Christmas party that year, she
invited all of her friends from work that could get off for Christmas Eve. I
invited Karen, Joy and Bridgette. I tried to get Tom to come but his family
already had other plans. I was talking to one of my mothers friends, Andrew,
when the phone rang. I ran to answer it.
“Hello?”
A deep voice
answered on the other end, “Hello Janet have you been a good girl or a bad girl
this year?” It was Tom.
I giggled, “So how are things
at your party?”
Tom said, “It’s going good. It’d be
better if you were here.”
“Oh! That’s so sweet!” I
squealed. “I wish I could be there too. This party isn’t a
party.”
My mother came up behind me. “Janet. Get off
the phone. You can talk to Tom anytime.”
I sighed.
“Tom I have to go. Mom won’t let me stay on.”
Tom
made a kissing noise into the phone. “Okay. Merry Christmas
baby.”
I kissed the phone, “Merry Christmas!” I hung
up the phone and went to talk to more people in the room. Later that night I got
into bed. I laid down for a minute and got back up to go to my dresser. I had to
make sure it was still there. I opened up th door and pulled out a small box.
Inside was a necklace for him. It was the shape of a star and engraved in it was
: T.W.H. & J.B.H. 1968. I put it back and went back to bed.
I was awakened at dawn to the sound of something
hitting my window. As I got out of my bed I saw a snowball hit my window. I ran
over there and saw Tom and opened the window. Tom looked up and yelled, “Santa
Clause left me something to give you at my house!”
I
shook my head. “I’ll be right down!” I ran down the steps and opened the front
door.
Tom took his hood off and gave me a kiss. “I’ve
got something for you.” He held up a small box. I opened it up and saw a
necklace inside it. It was in the shape of a heart and had engraved on it:
J.B.H. & T.W.H. - 1968. I laughed and ran upstairs and got his present.
“I’ve got something for you too.”
Tom opened the box
and laughed. “We’re starting to read each others minds.” He slipped it around
his neck. “You and your Mama are still sleeping? We’ve been up for a couple of
hours now.”
I yawned, “What time is
it?”
“It’s about seven o’clock.” Tom smiled. “My
parents wanted to know if you and your mom have any plans for
today.”
I shook my head. “Just opening presents.” Tom
stretched and sighed. “My mother wants to invite you and your mother over to
dinner at four thirty.”
At that point my mother had
just come downstairs.
“Mom? Can we go over to Tom’s
for Christmas dinner?” I asked ever so sweetly.
My
mother thought for a second and said, “Sure.” She looked at Tom as if she just
noticed him standing there. “Hello Tom.”
“Hi Bev.”
Tom gave a little wave and put his hood back on. “I have to go home now and get
cleaned up and stuff. See you later.” Tom opened the door and went out into the
snow. “So what did Tom get you for Christmas?” My mother
asked.
I laughed, “A necklace.”
It was a better Christmas than usual. I got two new
dresses, a new pair of shoes, and some new sheet music. I got my mother some new
makeup and a new dress shirt. As I got ready I had trouble deciding what to
wear. I chose a scarlet dress with lace around the bottom of the sleeves. When
four o’clock came me and my mother headed over to Tom’s I knocked on the door
and Tom’s older sister Perry answered the door.
“Hi!”
she said cheerfully. “Come on in.”
I smelled turkey
cooking in the oven and I also smelled dressing and mashed potatoes. My mouth
was watering.Tom ran down the steps wearing a light blue dress shirt and a black
tie.
“Hi Janet!” I ran over to hug him. “Ready to eat
some of my mom’s good home cooking?”
I kissed him on
the cheek. “Actually I’m- ”
Tom put a finger to my
lips. “My parents are around. Jesus.” I sat next to Tom at the dinner table and
right across from his dad.
“So Janet.” His dad (who insisted that me and my
mother call him Mr. Hamilton) said. “How are things going with you and
Tom?”
I flushed a little bit. “Oh- uh- things are
going great.”
Mr. Hamilton swallowed. “That’s good. I
see you’re wearing that necklace he bought you.I was with him at the department
store when he bought. I never saw a boy spend that much money on a girl so fast.
I’d say he barely glanced at it and emptied his wallet.”
Tom leaned on his
left elbow on the table and said in a frustrated voice, “Oh
dad.”
“Tom get your elbow off the table.” Mrs.
Hamilton said. “It’s bad manners.”
Tom took his elbow
down, “Yes mom.”
Mr. Hamilton started talking again,
“So are you planning to come over for Tom’s birthday? It’s on New Years eve you
know.”
I looked at Tom. “Yeah I had planned on
it.”
Mrs. Hamilton looked at me nervously. “Well
we’re not going to be here. We’ll be at a party. So will Scott and Perry. Cecily
was staying the night at a friends. It’s good to see he’s not going to be alone
on his birthday.”
After dinner the adults talked in
the living room while me, Tom, Scott and Cecily went outside. As soon I stepped
out of the door a snowball whizzed past me. “Who did
that?”
Another one I looked up and saw Scott picking
up snow. Scott smiled evilly. “I just wanted to welcome you to the
family.”
“Scott!” Tom yelled and hurled a snowball
that got him right in the nose. “Touché!”
“Oh Tom!”
Cecily yelled. Tom turned around and got a face full of snow. I started to
laugh.
“You think that’s funny?” Tom asked. “Here
I’ll show you funny!” He picked up a bunch of snow and threw at me. We all ran
around the yard for a good hour. My mother opened the door and a snowball hit
the side of the house.
“Janet come on, we have to
leave!”
“Aaawww Mom!” I whined. “Can’t I stay just a
little bit longer?”
My mother shook her head. “Now
Janet!” I ran over to Tom and knocked him down into the snow. I kissed him on
the lips. “See you New Years Eve baby.”
“See you New Years.” He kissed me on
the cheek. “I love you.” I went home thinking about how great New Years Eve was
going to be. New Years Eve was going to be one of the nights that would change
my life.
New Years Eve came quickly for me that year. I went
out and bought Tom a pair of skates so we could go to the local skating rink
together. When I got to his house he was the only one home. It was eight o'clock
at night. When he opened his present he just said,
"Thanks."
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Tom stood up and said, "I can't
skate."
"You can't skate?" And I thought everyone
knew how.
"I haven't skated since I was eight." Tom
put the skates down.
"Here put them on and I'll show
you." I helped him put his skates on and helped him off the couch in his living
room. I took him him in the dining room, moving anything breakable out of the
way. At first we went around the room slowly, then a little faster, then I let
him go- and he fell flat on his butt. I started
laughing.
"That's not funny!" Tom yelled. "It hurt!"
"You looked so silly though." I covered my mouth and
tried to stop.
Tom got up and balanced himself. "You
think that's funny?" He started to chase me around the dinning room on his
skates. He didn't fall once.
When he got me I said,
"Hey you didn't fall. Congratulations."
Tom kissed me
on the cheek. "Hey I got some pot. You want
some?"
"Aren't you worried your parents are going to
smell it?" I pushed him away gently.
"They won't be
home until late." Tom assured me. "We can burn incense. They'll never
know."
I sighed, "Okay." Tom ran upstairs and back
down them in no time. He was already rolling a joint. He lit it and handed it to
me. I took a little toke, I coughed just like the first time. Tried it again and
did better holding it in. I got a head rush or something. "Whoa. My head's
spinning."
Tom took it back and took a hit. "Yeah I
know how that feels." He went and turned on his parents stereo. The only rock
radio station in the entire state was playing "Light my Fire" by The
Doors.
"Oh man I love this song!" I went over and
turned the stereo up halfway and it was getting a pretty good sound. We kept
listening to music and smoking pot and later Tom started burning strawberry
incense. It smelled so good. It was almost eleven thirty when Tom started
kissing me on the neck.
"Tom."
"What's wrong?" Tom started to suck on my
neck.
"Nothing."
I let him work his way up to my mouth. We fell over
on the couch in a fit of kissing, he slipped his tounge into my mouth. It was
weird for me but then I wanted to go further than that. I started to unbutton my
blouse. I at Tom who was unzipping his pants. I didn't realize until then what I
was doing. At first I wanted to stop; but then I didn't want to stop. We kept
going further until we were together. I felt new sensations all over my body and
I liked it. When it was over, I felt fantastic. Tom gave me one last kiss on the
lips. I started to button my blouse back up. Then all of a sudden I started to
tear up. I thought "Oh god! What have done?" I wiped the tears out of my
eyes.
Tom came over to me and hugged me and whispered
in my ear softly, "I love you." He sounded like he meant
it.
I moved some of his hair out of his face. "I love
you too."
The clock on his mantel struck midnight.
"Happy New Year." I kissed him on the cheek. "Happy New Year." Tom turned to the
local easy listening station that was playing, "Auld Lang Syne".
I ran upstairs to use the bathroom. As I washed my hands I noticed something on my neck. "Oh no." It was a hickey.
"I'm in trouble." I flung my hair around my
shoulders. It covered it up almost perfectly. I walked down the steps. Tom was
messing with the stereo.
"Damned thing."
He looked
up at me and smiled.
"Tom- I have to go." I said.
"I'll see you later?"
Tom came over to me and kissed
me on the cheek. "You bet." I drove home in the snow
that night thinking that would be the last time I'd have a major experience with
drugs. Boy was I wrong.
About three months later I was sitting at lunch, it
was a Tuesday I think, and cramming for the French Test the next period. Tom
came up to me and sat down. "You know what I
heard?"
I glanced up from my book. "That you're going
to get in trouble because you're not in class?"
Tom
shook his head, "No. There's going to be a huge party this week at Cathy
Marshall's house."
"I don't know about a party Tom."
I said. "I'm not a very social in a large group
setting."
"Oh come on Janet." Tom got down on his
knees in the middle of the lunch room. "Please? We'll only stay an hour. Chris,
Robbie and Alan are going too and they're bringing their not-as-pretty-as-you
girlfriends," he smiled.
I went back to my book.
"You're a brown-noser." I looked down at him. "Get up. We'll go. But only for an
hour or so."
"Thank you baby!" He kissed me on the
cheek and ran back up the steps laeding out of the
cafeteria.
I laughed quietly to myself. "We're
wrapped around each others fingers."
Saturday came and Tom picked me up at my house. I was
dressed in a new outfit I bought, red mini skirt and a matching long sleeved
blouse. We pulled up in front of Cathy's house. She was a rich girl who had
parents that didn't give a shit whether she lived or she died. She was the one
who answered the door. "Hi Tom! Hi Janet! Come on in!" There was loud music and
bubbles and a smokey haze in the room.
"Damn I wish
my mom would let me throw a party like this!" Tom
yelled.
Cathy shook her head. "My parents are gonna
be out of town for the next week. They don't know!" She went to talk to some
other guests.
"Oh boy," Tom said. "Watch what's given
to you." He took a hit off of a joint that was passed to him. "You want some?"
He smiled. I shook my head no and he passed it on to another
kid.
I bumped into someone. It was Karen
Wilson.
"Sorry Karen." I had learned over the past
few months that she was the school stool pidgeon. Karen
flashed me an evil smile. "Janet! It's a suprise to see you
here."
"Same here," I mumbled.
"Are you here with
Tom?" Karen asked. I nodded. "Well why aren't you off with
him?"
I shrugged, "I wanted to mingle a little
bit."
"You picked a good place." Karen took a drink
of whatever she had. "There's kids here from Massachusettes and I know there's a
couple of kids from New York who said they were bored and nothing better to
do."
"That's good Karen." I started to back away.
"I'll see if I can find them." I walked around looking at people I'd never seen
before and people I have but never would expect to see at a party. Ashley
Perkins was at the party. She was so spaced outwhen I tried to talk to her it
wasn't even funny. I tried to squeeze through a group of kids and tripped and
fell into some poor boy spilling his drink. "I am so sorry." I leaned over to
pick the cup up. "It's okay." He bent over to pick up the cup to. We butted
heads. I checked him out for a second. He wasn't half bad looking. A little
short, brown curly hair, dressed in hippie
attire.
"I'm Joey!" He yelled over the
music.
"Hey I'm Janet." I laughed. "I'm sorry about
your drink."
"They're free. I'll get another one,"
Joey said. "You want one?" I nodded. He came back with a drink in his hand and
handed it to me. "So where you from?"
""Around here.
I go to New London High School." I replied. "What about
you?"
Joey took a drink. "I'm from New York. I go to
New Rochelle Academy."
"Really? I have a cousin that
goes there." I was amazed I was striking up a conversation. "Danny Boyle? Maybe
you know him. Kinda tall, really thin, the glasses-
"
"With red hair. Reads Science Fiction stuff all the
time?"
"That's the
one."
Joey laughed, "How are you related to
that?"
"He's not really a freak. He's just really,
really smart."
I took a drink from cup. It was fruit
punch and I was hoping it hadn't been spiked. I looked at my watch. "I had been
there over an hour. I decided to find Tom. "Sorry but I've got to go find my
date. I told my mom we wouldn't be here more than a couple of hours. What's your
name again? If I'm in New York I might look you up."
"Joey Kramer," he said. "See ya' Janet." He grabbed
another kid that walked past him and started talking to him.
I found Tom in a corner of the room with Karen
Wilson, Cathy Marshall and Mary Blankenship. There was a red-head I didn't
reconginize.
"Tom." I said, "I'm ready to go." I saw
that he was handing out pills to the other girls. I sighed, "You better hope
you're not seeing shit on the way home."
Tom looked
up, "You want to try some?"
I thought for a second.
This was a really hard decision for me to make. But then I thought hell doind it
once couldn't kill me. I stuck out my hand. "Sure." Tom place a little pill in
my hand and I swallowed it immediatly.
"I don't
know." Karen said. "What if I have a bad
trip?"
"You'll be fine." Tom popped thie pill in his
mouth. "Excuse me I don't have a whole lot of time. I need to get her
home."
We ran out to his car and he gunned it to my
house. He was doing fifty! All the time I was praying. "Don't let us get pulled
over. Don't let us get pulled over..." Whe we pulled up to the house. I told him
goodnight and he burned rubber back down to his house. Upstairs I got ready for
bed then I started trip. At first the colors in my room started to blur
together, every little creek in my floor I heard ten times louder than usual. I
saw shapes start to float around me. It was awesome! Even though I liked it, I
made myself promise to never touch it again. There was a chance it could have
been a bad trip. I got into bed my head still swirled up in the little
psychedelic world of my room.
I had the great feeling until I went back to school
on Monday...
At school on Monday I was still feeling good. In
homeroom Tom and I behaved but we passed notes to each other asking about our
trips. The day was going great untill sixth period. Tom came into class looking
worried. "What's wrong?" I asked.
Tom slid into his
desk and whispered, "I'm gonna take you home first thing after school. No study
session at my
house."
"Why?"
Tom looked
around. "Robbie came up to me during lunch and said that something was up. And
did you notice that Karen Wilson isn't here today?"
I
laughed, "Yeah I definitely noticed." I paused, "Oh no. You don't
think-"
Tom shushed me. "I think she did I'm gonna
take you straight home. I don't want you getting mixed up with this." The bell
rang and we had to stop talking. But after school we were in no big rush to get
home.
I started to cry in the car. "You could get kicked
out of school for this! They could lock you up! Your life is gonna be
ruined!"
"Janet," Tom said. "Don't worry about me. I
hope Karen hasn't mentioned the fact that you were there
too."
I looked up at him. "You know she would. God! I
hate that bitch!"
Tom shook his head. "Doesn't about
forty percent of the school."
We passed his house and
saw a police car waiting in his drive way. "Well looks like I'm
grounded."
We were about a block from my house when
we saw a cop car pull into my driveway. I panicked, "Oh no! Tom turn around. If
you're going to busted I'm going to get busted with
you."
Tom sighed and pulled into a driveway to turn
around. "Man, you can't trust anyone on the honor society at school can you?" He
re-thought what he said. "Almost anyone." We pulled up into the drive and the
cop was sitting in his cruiser waiting for us. "Well this is it. Where's the
music at?"
"Dah duh duh." I sang in a menacing tone.
We got out of the car and the pig got out of
his.
"Well Tom." The cop began in a rough voice.
"What were you doing last night?"
Tom cleared his
throat, "Just had a good time with a few so called
friends."
The cop looked at me, "Who's
this?"
Tom replied, "That's my girlfriend Janet
Henry."
The cop looked at his notebook, "Son you and
your girlfriend place your hands behind you back." Another cop stepped out of
the car. "Place the handcuffs on them and read them their
rights."
The cop handcuffed Tom and I. "You have the
right to remain silent. Anything you you say can and..." I drifted out of
reality for a few minutes. I can't remember what happend. The next things I knew
we were in the police car heading for the
station.
"Janet." Tom whispered. "Listen. I want to
keep you out of any trouble. This is my fault. I'm going to take full
responsibility."
"You can't." I said. "I wanted
to-"
"You never would have wanted to if you hadn't
met me," he sighed. "I'm sure you mother would love to see me on her front porch
again."
When we got to the station we were put into
seperate rooms. The cop that was with me asked me questions about my
relationship with Tom and if I had done any other drugs with him. They also
asked me if I had ever done any drugs before I met him. "No. I was curious but I
never did it." My mother bailed me out and gave me the silent treatment on the
way home.
When we got home she sat me down on the couch. She
spoke pretty calmly, "Listen. I know Tom is a nice boy. He's just tied up in bad
things. I know you love you him and he feels the same way. I don't want to tear
you two apart." She kneeled down next to me on the couch. "Janet. Just- just
promise me- promise that you'll never do any drugs
again."
I looked down at the floor. "Yes mother I
promise."
The next day I had to go to court. I saw Tom sitting
in the front of the courtroom. The judge called him
up.
"Thomas, did you give the drug LSD to the
following girls: Karen Wilson, Mary Blankenship, Heather Mitchelle, Cathy
Marshall, and Janet Henry?"
Tom cleared his throat,
"Yes I did your honor." The judge asked another question. "How long have you
been doing LSD Thomas?"
"For about a year, your
honor."
The judge glanced around the room. "Have you
done any other drugs?"
"Marijuana your honor." Tom
was allowed to sit down.
"Janet Henry could you please step forward?" The
judge shuffled some papers. "Janet, was this the first time you have used
LSD?"
"Yes your honor.", I replied nervously.
"Janet." The judge began, "Have you experimented with
any other drugs?" I looked over at Tom, "Yes your honor.
Marijuana."
"When?"
I
sighed, "Back in October Tom and I went to Boston for a Saturday. I tried pot
for the first time there. I also had some on New Years
Eve."
"Have you ever done anything under the
influence of any narcotic?" The judge asked. I looked down at the floor and then
at Tom. "Janet may I remind you that you are in a court of law and you are under
oath."
"Yes- yes- your- your honor" I
stuttered.
"What?"
I was
breathing heavily. I'd have to say it in front of everyone. "I had- I had- sex."
I glanced over at Tom. He had his head hung and his father was looking at him. I
felt tears streaming down my face.
The judge shuffled
some more papers and told me to sit down. He called the rest of the girls up.
The last one to go up was Karen. "Tell me Karen what happend when you took the
LSD."
Karen cleared her throat and talked in a proper
voice.
"Your honor, I was at a party with the girls
and Tom. As I was talking to Tom and Janet, Tom pulled out a little pill bottle
and took a pill out of it. When I asked what it was he said it was a acid. He
offered me some and I refused, then he reassured me that nothing would go wrong
so I took it. Later that night when I got into bed I all of a sudden felt hot
and I saw the room on fire. I screamed and ran downstairs to my mother and
collapsed on the floor." She looked over at me and then at
Tom.
"Thank you Karen." The judge said and Karen sat
down. "This court will take a short recess while I decide on the
fines."
We all went out into the hallway. I went over
to Tom who was standing with his parents and hugged him. "Oh god this is one of
the worst days of my life."
Tom tried to comfort me.
"Same here. Don't worry though everything is going to be alright."
About an hour later we were let back into the court
room. The judge came in. "I have decided. To the following you shall pay a one
hundred dollar fine: Karen Wilson, Mary Blanken, Heather Mitchelle, Cathy
Marshall and Janet Henry." The look on Karen's face lightened the situation.
Thomas Hamilton, you shall pay a fine of three hundred dollars. Court is
adjourned." We all left out he front of the courthouse.
I ran up to Tom. "How are you going to pay the
fine?"
Tom shrugged, "I guess I 'll have to get a
job. Summer is coming up maybe I can pay off the fine by playing some
gigs."
His father came up behind him. "Come on Tom
we're going home." He turned to look at me. "I want you to stay away from my
son. You hear me? Don't call him. Don't talk to him. You
understand?"
I felt my heart break in two. I couldn't
bear to hear what he said to me. As he walked away I whispered, "No I don't."