High School Heartache - Part 6

Purple Paisley Guy (continued)

Since he lived so far away, we never got to see each other. The letters continued over the next few years, but our communication became fewer and farther in between. He dated and so did I, but we always ended up talking at lulls in love. When I finally graduated high school, I took a road trip to his hometown while he was home for Christmas break from college. I'm not sure what expectations I had for this visit, but they clearly weren't in line with his. Upon seeing him, for only the 4th time since our original meeting, something felt different. I no longer had those romantic notions towards him. Possibly because I had just come through a really rough relationship earlier that year and possibly because he had changed also. I just knew things weren't the same. I returned home, dazed and confused and ready to leave him in the past. And then I got the shock of my life.

A couple of months later, I received a phone call out of the blue from Purple Paisley Guy. He went on and on about how much he missed me and loved me and couldn't imagine life without me. HUH?!?! And then, he proposed. (I'll wait while you pick your chin off the ground) He was ready to head to the jeweler to buy me a huge diamond ring and wanted to know what I thought. Hmmm, what did I think? Oh my, where to begin?

First of all, letter writing and mix tape making, does not constitute a proposal-worthy relationship in my book. Secondly, we had been in each others company only 4 times in the past 4 years and the last get-together, frankly, wasn't all that great. Was his brain not functioning? Was he so caught up in this harlequin romance novel that he couldn't see the forest for the trees? Apparently so. I politely declined his lovely offer and explained that I just thought we wanted different things in life. I think I actually heard him cry. I felt like crap. And so, that ended the chapter that was the Purple Paisley Guy. Or did it?

Several months later, I ended up meeting my (now hubby) and well, obviously we got married. The week before my wedding, I had this overwhelming urge to call Purple Paisley Guy and let him know of my impending nuptials. I don't know why, so don't even ask. It took some major tracking down, but I finally got him on the phone. I couldn't believe it. Surprisingly, he didn't slam the phone down upon hearing my voice on the other line. I think a small part of him hoped that I was crawling back to ask for forgiveness. Alas, I instead sprung the news of my wedding. I was met with silence. And then he informed me that I was the 2nd former "girlfriend" in a week to call him and tell him about wedding news. He was not amused.

Then, he sprung some news, that didn't exactly amuse me. He informed me that he had written a book and I was one of the main characters. He was kind enough to change my name, but I was clearly identifiable. Oh brother, this is just what I needed. Some jilted ex-boyfriend to paint a not so rosy picture of me, for all the literary world to stumble upon. We bid our farewells and never spoke again. And to this day, I still check Google and amazon to see if he has published anything under his name. So far, nothing.

I did discover, recently, that he is married and actually living not too far away from my little brother. Isn't the Internet a wonderful thing?

The summer of 1990 (between freshman and sophomore year) yielded a rather hilarious story that I'll revisit next. He was blond, a slacker and he rode a motorcycle...he was Tom.

{to be continued}