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By Jon Date: 2003 Feb 06 Comment on this Work [[2003.02.06.10.04.29776]] |
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The day I injured my knee in a homecoming football game was the worst day of my trendy kid highschool life. I had made the touchdown but I fell the wrong way. They say you don't feel any pain at first, but I sure as hell did. My time as a jock was over. I was declared a hero and I was glorified. But friends fade faster than glory, and I sooned learned who all of my real friends were. I hung out with the kids in honor classes and by the end of my first semester junior year I had a solid 4.0 GPA. I got a job at Bath and Body Works, a lotion store, my junior and senior year in high school. My friend knew a friend blah blah blah who got me the job. I was the only male employee out of thirty and the only time you would be able to find a guy in there shopping is when he was either with his girlfriend or looking for a gift. My friends thought I had hit the jackpot, but I sure as hell didn't. The first year was hard for me. Here I was a former jock with a knee injury surrounded by objects and scents I didn't understand and women who seemed to be way out of my league. However, after that first year everything just flowed. I understood the difference between salt scrubs and rubbing oils and not only did I understand their uses I used them on a daily basis. I developed my feminine and sensitive side during those two years. I wrote poetry. I became a semi-romantic. My boss introduced me to the writings of Pablo Neruda, I thought they were cheesy at first until the day Stacey walked in the store. She was a love sonnet brought to life, I swore I could see the words written on her face. I asked her if she wanted to try on some lotion and we started talking from there. She wrote her number on my hand and I remember rushing to the break room looking for a pen because the damn lotion I had on my hands was smearing her number. My time with Stacey made my senior year in high school an enjoyable one. Sure I was a former jock who had fallen from glory, but with Stacey in my life I didn't give a damn. No one is popular after high school anyway. I loved Stacey, I don't know how else to say it, but I loved her. Completely. Romantically. Platonically. At my graduation she told me she was going to the University of Washington. I wanted to say congratulations, but we lived in Southern California. Washington could have been China, it didn't matter all that mattered was that she would be going to a place where I could not follow. Or so I thought... |