I hadn’t heard him right and screamed back, “You what?”
“Will you go steady with me, Cath? I love you!”
Maybe it was the adrenaline high of the game that made those words come out of his mouth, but I wasn’t letting him take them back. “Yes, yes I want to go steady with you! I love you too!”
He gave me a friendship ring that I wore on a chain around my neck proclaiming that Jame and I were “steadies.”
That night I vowed to love Jame Patterson forever and ever.
Chapter 7
The sobs were choking me. I couldn’t breathe.
How could he do this to me? I felt so blindsided and raging mad!
How dare he talk about the ONE THING I vowed never ever to talk about again. It was in the past. It WAS the past.
I don’t know how much time went by before I could stand up again, but I walked upstairs in my zombie state and fell into bed.
Chapter 8
31 years ago - Our Lady
of Sorrows High School
Tragedy struck in June at the end of ninth grade. Maddie’s parents were sending her off to a six-week sleep away camp three states away from me!
I was inconsolable. School was ending in two days. The best year of my life was coming to a close and I had this foreboding feeling that terrible things were unfolding.
Strike one: Maddie was leaving me for six weeks. Gone would be our daily Notebook exchanges, lunchtime catch-ups and weekends-as-sisters.
Strike two: My mother got me a job as a maid at a Pleasantville motel. (“It’ll be good for you! Your first job! You’ll make money to spend on whatever you want!) I was to be stuck each and every day in yucky Pleasantville, changing sheets and cleaning toilets for the stupid visitors to our crummy town.
Strike three: Jame broke up with me.
I could tell by the look in his eyes that this ‘talk” he asked for after school wasn’t going to be good. He walked me over to the baseball dugout; one of our favorite make-out places, but I didn’t feel that same happy anticipation. In fact, it felt like a funeral.
“Cath, my parents want me to break up with you for the summer. You’ll be in Pleasantville working and I have to go to all these basketball camps and we’ll never get to see each other,” he said fast without even taking a breath.
“What? What do you mean?” I sputtered, my heart starting to crack into pieces.
“My Dad wants me to concentrate on basketball this summer, and he says that I haven’t been doing that. So I have to break up with you.”
“But why?” I cried, not even realizing he had already told me why twice.
“I just have to, Cath. Sorry.” Jame at least looked a little upset.
“So what about after the summer, when we come back to school?” I was grasping at any hope now. This couldn’t be the end of Jame and me. It couldn’t!
“Well, we’ll see in the fall, OK? I gotta go now. My Dad’s picking me up to go get new sneakers and a ball for camp. You can keep the ring. Have a good summer, Cath.”
And the love-of-my-ninth-grade got up and walked away.
That day I vowed to hate Jame Patterson forever and ever.
Chapter 9
It was no use. Jame had gone and done it. He exploded the neat little package of a life I had built. I had my wonderful compartmentalized routines and habits that did not include a heartbreaking ex-boyfriend and a secret from my past.
The bed felt lumpy and hot all night, so I finally got up at 4AM, trudged down to the kitchen and made a huge pot of stand-your-hair-up coffee.
I would not think about Jame being here in my house last night. I would not think about how STUPID I feel that I thought he was going to come through with an apology and maybe even a hint that we might get back together again.
I did lose my mind with that idea. How could I? This guy put himself ahead of anyone else, left me high and dry and took off for Texas. Had my
“Will you go steady with me, Cath? I love you!”
Maybe it was the adrenaline high of the game that made those words come out of his mouth, but I wasn’t letting him take them back. “Yes, yes I want to go steady with you! I love you too!”
He gave me a friendship ring that I wore on a chain around my neck proclaiming that Jame and I were “steadies.”
That night I vowed to love Jame Patterson forever and ever.
Chapter 7
The sobs were choking me. I couldn’t breathe.
How could he do this to me? I felt so blindsided and raging mad!
How dare he talk about the ONE THING I vowed never ever to talk about again. It was in the past. It WAS the past.
I don’t know how much time went by before I could stand up again, but I walked upstairs in my zombie state and fell into bed.
Chapter 8
31 years ago - Our Lady
of Sorrows High School
Tragedy struck in June at the end of ninth grade. Maddie’s parents were sending her off to a six-week sleep away camp three states away from me!
I was inconsolable. School was ending in two days. The best year of my life was coming to a close and I had this foreboding feeling that terrible things were unfolding.
Strike one: Maddie was leaving me for six weeks. Gone would be our daily Notebook exchanges, lunchtime catch-ups and weekends-as-sisters.
Strike two: My mother got me a job as a maid at a Pleasantville motel. (“It’ll be good for you! Your first job! You’ll make money to spend on whatever you want!) I was to be stuck each and every day in yucky Pleasantville, changing sheets and cleaning toilets for the stupid visitors to our crummy town.
Strike three: Jame broke up with me.
I could tell by the look in his eyes that this ‘talk” he asked for after school wasn’t going to be good. He walked me over to the baseball dugout; one of our favorite make-out places, but I didn’t feel that same happy anticipation. In fact, it felt like a funeral.
“Cath, my parents want me to break up with you for the summer. You’ll be in Pleasantville working and I have to go to all these basketball camps and we’ll never get to see each other,” he said fast without even taking a breath.
“What? What do you mean?” I sputtered, my heart starting to crack into pieces.
“My Dad wants me to concentrate on basketball this summer, and he says that I haven’t been doing that. So I have to break up with you.”
“But why?” I cried, not even realizing he had already told me why twice.
“I just have to, Cath. Sorry.” Jame at least looked a little upset.
“So what about after the summer, when we come back to school?” I was grasping at any hope now. This couldn’t be the end of Jame and me. It couldn’t!
“Well, we’ll see in the fall, OK? I gotta go now. My Dad’s picking me up to go get new sneakers and a ball for camp. You can keep the ring. Have a good summer, Cath.”
And the love-of-my-ninth-grade got up and walked away.
That day I vowed to hate Jame Patterson forever and ever.
Chapter 9
It was no use. Jame had gone and done it. He exploded the neat little package of a life I had built. I had my wonderful compartmentalized routines and habits that did not include a heartbreaking ex-boyfriend and a secret from my past.
The bed felt lumpy and hot all night, so I finally got up at 4AM, trudged down to the kitchen and made a huge pot of stand-your-hair-up coffee.
I would not think about Jame being here in my house last night. I would not think about how STUPID I feel that I thought he was going to come through with an apology and maybe even a hint that we might get back together again.
I did lose my mind with that idea. How could I? This guy put himself ahead of anyone else, left me high and dry and took off for Texas. Had my
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