I don't remember exactly when I met Bobby, but he was the polar opposite of Kevin in many ways. He belonged to the Junior ROTC. He regularly attended church and he didn't hang out on Tuesday nights.
I think it had something to do with folk music; that and proximity. Bobby and I attended the same school. Oh, yeah, he had a car, an old Ford Fairlane. For a while the summer between Junior and Senior year I vacillated between Kevin and Bobby.
After the incident of the ring, I wasn't sure what to do. It was during a time in the summer I had definitely left Kevin for Bobby, but remained friends with Kevin's cousin, that she introduced me to the joys of small item shoplifting. The next night I had a date with Bobby. The date was to go to choir practice at his church. I guess they were letting anyone in the choir, because I could not sing my way out of an open window. I had to stand next to Mary Ellen Pooters, who had a clear alto voice and try to match her notes.
After the practice, I was excited to show Bobby my new treasure. So in the parking lot of the church, I proudly displayed my finger with the purloined ring on it. I did not expect his reaction.
Bobby grabbed my hand in what was not an admiring gesture. Instead he pulled the ring off my hand and threw it out the window.
"Oh, you are such a prig!" I yelled, stomping off to walk home. He didn't follow me, so I decided it was a sign I should go back to Kevin and a life of pizza and matinees.
Of course, I couldn't go back to church, and so had to avoid Mary Ellen Pooters at school as well as all the other church kids.
Kevin's mom was none too pleased we were seeing each other again, and I started having unexpected pangs of what I interpreted to be guilt over my behavior.
Two weeks later I was skulking around the back door to the church when choir practice let out and threw myself at Bobby. He said this was it, no more shoplifting, no more Kevin.
And I had to join the youth group and start down the road to accepting Jesus Christ as my personal saviour. Burt that's another story.
