When I was a young kid in high school, I was a swimmer. Not
like the swimmers today who go through strength conditioning, video reviews of
stroke efficiency, and all the technological advancements of today. I was kind
of like Michael Phelps too – tall, and in great shape, but also somewhat
gangly. It didn’t help my dating possibilities that I was something of an
outsider. (I had moved to upstate NY in the 8th grade, after most
cliques had formed.) I also was not all that confidant with girls yet either. I
didn’t have any game back then…kind of like I am today!
So, I had a decent physique, but was certainly not an
A-Lister. Even now, looking back, I wonder whether I even rated a B-Lister. I
liked to swim and play baseball, but I also liked chess! And math! And Dungeons
and Dragons! I also was in the choir, and was in a theater show or two. To top
it all off, because my dad was a French professor, we also had several Exchange
students stay with us over the years (yes, I hung out with them too!) I was part athlete, park geek, part Thespian,
and partly brainy. Anyway, it doesn’t matter anymore today. The point here
really was that I wasn’t part of any “in crowd” for sure.
Like any high schooler, I had a crush. Part of the rite of
passage into adulthood I think requires some measure of unrequited love. To
preserve her identity, I’ll only use her first name: Dawn. Dawn was an
A-Lister, and definitely one of the in-crowd. Popular, liked, and quite
attractive, she made my heart skip a beat every time we had a class together.
It’s no wonder in the classes we shared I only was a B- student.
Then on a spring day, one of the classes we shared went on a
field trip together. I forget where we went, but it was warm enough to where
everyone was in shorts and t-shirts. We were all in our various smaller
cliques, roaming around when a short storm came through the area.
I’ll never forget this storm! We were all stuck easily a
mile or so from the bus, and everyone started dashing back for safety. It was a
cold rain, and with its arrival, the temperature also dropped at least 10-15
degrees, slicing through the humidity. Being
a swimmer, I was faster than many (but nowhere near the fastest), and made it
back to the bus in time to get one of the coveted bench seats toward the back.
My clothes were a drippy mess (like everyone else’s, my shirt clinging to my
body, and slightly out of breath). Students started piling into the bus, and
finding seats…then Dawn came on board. She was wearing a white shirt and some
kind of denim overalls. All her decency was intact, but she looked about as
much like a goddess as I could remember.
Being the A-lister that she was, she started toward the back
of the bus, and upon arriving near the back, saw that all the seats but one
were taken – the one next to me! She gave me the most dazzling smile I had ever
seen at the time. Maybe it was her lips wet from the rain. It could have been
the fact that her clothes were plastered to her shoulders and hips. Or maybe it
was the way her hair naturally clung to those cheeks of beauty. She was a
goddess!
Dawn shrugged her shoulders slightly and asked if she could
sit next to me. I tried to play it off as being cool, shrugging myself, and
scooted more toward the window to give her space. She climbed on in and we
talked briefly about the rain, how wet we all were, and laughed at the
situation. By then, everyone was accounted for, and the bus in all its diesel glory
rumbled to life, and we started home, the rain pattering on the windows,
blurring my already blurry vision even more.
The next thing that happened, I’ll never forget. Maybe it
was the gentle plinking of the rain against the roof of the bus or the fact that
the heater that was kicked on to warm everyone up from the drenching we’d all
just received. But anyway, the bus got quiet. Everyone started dozing off…before
I knew it, Dawn turned her sleepy eyes toward me, dazzling with the still dewy
eyelashes and asked if she could rest her head.
I leaned up against the side of the bus, and she laid her
head down against my chest. Thankfully, it was to my left, so she couldn’t tell
my heart was racing like Secretariat. Her head fell heavy against my chest and
shoulder, her lips pressed into a light smile and her arm wrapped around my
waist. For the next 45 minutes, all I could do was stare out the window at the
blurred greenery of the Adirondacks. The bus rocked along, the rain, plinked
melodiously against the roof, and she nuzzled in to me breathing peacefully and
sleepily.
Because she was in the crook of my shoulder and chest, my right
arm naturally fell down across hers and we dozed fitfully to the sound of the
rain, the warmth from the diesel engine, and the swaying of the bus. To this
day, that was the best nap of my life.
When it lurched to a stop back at the high school, we were
all still damp, but much warmer, and everyone sleepily lifted their heads. Our
eyes locked, and I think she realized the crush. I was, of course, speechless
and had no idea what to do… (what gangly, teenage outsider would?). She did –
her lips planted themselves softly against my cheek and her arm moved as she
put her hand across my abdomen. She quietly whispered, “Thanks for the snuggle
Jason, that was nice.” in my ear and stood up to disembark.
No Dawn, thank you! Believe me, the pleasure was all mine.
