I remember when I was at least 13 or 14, I believe I had my first love, I was in an arcade playing Pacman after my mother was passed and I stole a few bucks from her to go play. I saw a boy who came up to me, I looked over at him with these glasses that made my eyes pop and not in a good way, I had these Braces and frizzy blonde hair that was not very attractive, these denim jeans, neon shirt and Chucks, it was supposed to be an average September Afternoon for me, I had curfew and hardly any friends so the Arcade was mostly all that I had, well there was the library, but I hated reading books,"H-Hi" I looked over at him as I was chewing my gum,"Hey" I said softly to him, he asked for my name and I told him my name, I asked what his name was,"M-My name is Rodney" This handsome blue eyed boy with brown hair who almost had a mullet, but it suited him in a good way. Pretty much after that, what I remember was that we talked for a while, we had a few things in common, we liked the movie Halloween, we were planning to watch a Wes Craven classic called A Nightmare On Elm St, but our parents wouldn't allow it, so they had to pay for us. We were friends then and when I went to school, this girl came up to me for help about Math and Science since I have a decent knowledge in those subjects, but when we got bored of talking about numbers and whatnot, we actually got along, we talked for a bit, we talked about boys and I think for once in my life, I was actually feeling like a real teenager and not a walking stiff with headphones and constantly playing either The Eagles or a Grease Soundtrack because why not, we actually talked about the classics of William Shakespeare, Stephen King, Louis Armstrong and whatnot. This girl's name was Juliet named after Romeo and Juliet, she does kinda get it every now and then, we did have a sleepover together, she came over with a duffle bag and sleeping bag for one weekend, we had a makeover,"Have you ever tried putting makeup on or at least feathering your hair?" I looked in a mirror and hesistated,"N...no"
"You mean your mother has never tried to dress you up at all or anything?" I shook my head lightly and she chuckled,"Dude you are missing out a lot, you can tease your hair, you have the perfect body to wear crop tops, of course with this gorgeous neon green tank underneatth and this purple off the shoulder crop top, try it on" I grabbed it slowly and I changed into it, I looked into the mirror and I tried to pull the crop down to hide my stomach that was covered by the tank top,"Don't, stop you look amazing, you see boys love it when a girl's confident and especially with clothes like these and these jeans could totally go with your top, believe me, wear clothes like these and you'll have boys fighting over ya"
"Have you ever had boys fight over you?" She sat on my bed,"Oh tons" She grabbed a cigarette, I saw it in the reflection,"Juliet what are you doing?" She took a puff,"Everyone is doing it now, go ahead try it" I shook my head,"No, no I'm sorry, but try to keep the smell out" She scoffed lightly,"Don't worry, your mom is not even gonna know that I even smoked in here, trust me my mom doesn't even know"
I changed into my PJs,"Now tell me, have you ever been with a boy?" Juliet asked me and I wasn't so sure by what she meant by that,"What do you mean?" She shrugged,"You know, relationship, kissed a boy….had sex with one?" I instantly said no with the last one,"So you've kissed a boy?"
"No"
"Have you been in a relationship with a boy?" I didn't answer that and she was in complete shock,"Seriously? You've never been with a boy in general?"
"I'm not pretty enough, I'm not pretty like you" She shook my head,"That's ridiculous, but with all that aside, do you have a crush on a boy in our school?" I nodded as she glowed up,"Who is he? What's his name?"
"His name is Rodney, he's in our grade, we met in the Arcade" She described the Arcade and I nodded,"Hm mmm we got to talking, he was a sweet guy" She made a teasing face and I slightly nudged,"So you like him?"
'Y-yeah I do, but I don't know if he likes me back" She took another puff,"One way to find out, you tell him" My heart jumped by the sound of that and I took a deep breath,"Tell him?"'
"That's how it starts, you like him and if he likes you back then see where you guys go from there, this could be your 'screw it' moment" She said as she took another puff and I rhad my hand for the cigarette, yes I was nervous to try it, but like she said: this could be your 'screw it' moment' and as soon as I took a puff of that, my entire breath was filled with nicotine, she told me to take a deep inhalation and when I did, I coughed and I opened the window to spit,"Don't worry you're doing hell of a lot better than me, I puked" I was amused by that and when I inhaled from the cigarette filter, it felt like the world was at ease, like I didn't have to worry and that if I ever did feel out of place like I've been for a while now, I can always come back to this to help me feel better,"So how does it feel?"
"It feels….awesome" She nodded,"Welcome to the other side" She said my name and I nodded,"Do you have his number?" I pulled it out of my underwear drawer because I knew that my mother wouldn't bother going through it unless I have something between my mattresses which I normally have nothing at all,"You should do it, if you like him then go for it and if you get shot down, he missed out on a pretty cool girl" I patted her on the back and I grabbed the house phone that was in the hallway and I made sure that the cord was still in place when I brought it into my room."Okay here's the gold here, call him"
"I don't know"
"You can do it, come on, look I know how it feels, but look at it this way, you ripped off the band aid than letting it scab just for you to pick at it and it'll hurt even more than before" Then my screw it moment came back when she said that to me and I called him,"Hello?"
"Hi, is a Rodney there?"
"Yes there is, may I say who's calling?" I nodded and I said my name, his mom went and got him,"Hello"
"H-Hi, um there's something that I think I should tell you"
"Okay what is it?" I looked over at Juliet and she did a little hand signs,"I like you" I hung up and I whimpered, she said my name,"Why did you do that?"
"I panicked, I'm sorry, as soon as I said it, I freaked" The phone rang again and I answered while my heart was pounding,"H-hello?" He asked for my name and I took a deep breath,"Yeah, I-I'm here"
"Uh I think our phones got disconnected and last I heard was I like you" I nodded as I said yes,"I-I do like you"
"Uhhhhhh, I don't know how to put this, but I think I like you too" Again my heart was pounding like crazy, I felt so lightheaded and I gasped lightly,"Really?"
"Yeah I was actually gonna tell you on monday before we went to class, but do you wanna be my girlfriend?" I did the thumbs up and Juliet was smiling like crazy,"So see you on Monday or tomorrow maybe?"
"Yeah tomorrow definitely, bye"
"Bye" I put the phone ont he receiver and we squealed,"See what happens when you make the first move?"
"It's…." A rush, like I was floating in that room when Carrie discovered that she had telekinesis
Later on that night, Juliet was sleeping next to me and we started talking,"So you're now dating Rodney Casboro, huh?" I nodded as my heart jumped at his name,"Yeah, I am, it's pretty crazy" She looked over at me,"Have you dated before?" I shrugged as I looked up at the ceiling,"You poor poor girl, you have never been with a boy before?" I didn't answer and she asked this question,"Have you even kissed a boy?"
"No, I haven't even hugged a boy"
"Oh dear God, you have a lot to learn kid, especially with a boy that looks very similar to Johnny Depp from Nightmare on Elm Street"
"Johnny is kinda hot in that movie"
"Now tell me…." She turned over facing me,"If Johnny Depp ever came up to you with a chance for a weekend with him, would you go for it?" I smiled,"Why would he do that?" She slightly groaned,"Come on you're pretty, he's hot and this is a theoretical question, would you go for it?"
"Yeah, I would without a doubt"
"What about if he had sex with you?" Yeah now that question was what made me draw the line, so I didn't answer,"You wouldn't, with a hottie like him?"
"I'm scared of that"
"There's nothing to be scared of"
"Well have you done it before?" When I asked her and she didn't answer as well,"No, not really, but I have friends who are older and they did it with guys" I believe after she said that, it did assure me that maybe sex isn't gonna be so bad, like it's gonna be great, possibily more than great.
She also began telling me about a couple weeks back, she actually saw Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and others, a crew shooting a scene over in New York, I took another puff,"Of course they would shoot a movie or show over in New york, its either Chicago or Los Angeles"
"Yeah but they had this ghost sign and I think that they'll be there for quite a while" I blew smoke and asked,"Wasn't Harold a playboy joke editor? The name sounds familiar" She shrugged,"I dunno, maybe and Bill was in Meatballs and I think Caddyshack"
"Oh yeah he was" Then we got to talking about film and music