? 

The first years trying to maintain a friendship simultaneously with Maxine and Sissy was also very rocky. Sissy really did not want me around. I was just there for her utter amusement. I was there so that she could laugh and ridicule me anytime she pleased. Sissy tried her hardest to get Maxine to ditch me and be her sole companion. But Maxine would never budge. She made it known loud and clear that regardless of how many other friends she may have, I would always be her best friend.

Then, I guess out of necessity if nothing else, Sissy changed her strategy. She started to be super sweet to me while Maxine now became the object of her ridicule. Sissy was relentless. She tormented the poor girl to death. Maxine however seemed to take it in stride at least for awhile.

Unlike the unhealthy trio with Brenda, Renee, and I, I was not the first one to leave this triangle ??“ Maxine was. Although she never severed her relationship with me she no longer wanted to be in Sissy??™s presence and Sissy never wanted her around anyhow. It worked out that I would have to divide my time between the two of them. And as bad as it might sound today, Sissy was the most exciting one to be around. Maxine and I were both very shy teenagers that never did much. Neither one of us had a boyfriend yet. We were just destined for the life of an old maid!

Now Sissy was still loud but she did have a personality that invited immediate friendships wherever she went. She was much more outgoing than either one of us. I found myself drifting closer and closer towards Sissy and further and further away from Maxine. It wasn??™t deliberate it was just that Sissy was more fun!

Maxine and Sissy were both 16. I was the younger one (15). Sissy was actually the first one of us to have a real boyfriend. Up until that point Maxine and I had a few failed attempts at finding one. You may also remember the story Adonis, where Maxine tried to pair me up with my Adonis and I tried to pair her up with David. What a fiasco that turned out to be! But Sissy did it. She had a real boyfriend!

Maxine was not surprised. She said she knew all along that Sissy would be the first to have a boyfriend. I was jealous ??“ that is right green with envy. Why was it that Sissy was always the lucky one? I had wanted a boyfriend since I was 11 and now I was 15 ??“ a real old maid!

At first I never seemed to meet this boyfriend of hers although once or twice she took me to meet him and he never showed up. I was beginning to wonder if this boy even existed but I knew in my mind that Sissy would never lie about that. Then she started taking me over to meet his siblings and they all confirmed the existence of this elusive Mark.

Eventually I got to meet him. And I was in awe! He was magnificent. He awakened hormones in me that I never knew existed. Adonis paled in comparison to this ???Hunk???. We spoke for awhile and as in future encounters to come Sissy would wait for just so long then send me on my merry way claiming that she needed some alone time with her boyfriend.

Sorry Maxine as much as I loved you, I would have given the whole world to steal some moments alone with Mark. And as fate would have it I did have the opportunity to do just that.

One time when Sissy was carrying on a private conversation with one of Mark??™s siblings, Mark took me aside and asked me for my phone number. I asked him why he wanted it and he responded that he was going to surprise Sissy with something and he needed my help. I was thrilled, Mark was going to have my phone number - things were looking up in my favour.

I waited and waited for his call but it never came. I spent all my nights home pining over him thinking that every time that the phone would ring it would be him. I was smitten - no doubt about that. It was 1970, and a song was playing with the following lyrics; Let it please be him or dear God it must be him, it must be him or I shall die ??¦ This song captured the true feelings of my heart and the torture that I was going through waiting for Mark to call every night.

Finally I decided that I was going to take action into my own hands. If he wasn???t going to seek me out then I was going to go after him. I decided I would befriend his siblings and since they lived on the same street as Sissy, I would go and visit them when I knew that Sissy would not be around. Then I could possibly get to see Mark when he finally did come home.

Towards the end of the summer after pinning over Mark the entire summer long I got to actually see him without Sissy around. I asked him about the phone call he promised me and the surprise he had intended for Sissy two months earlier. He looked like I was talking in a foreign language or I was crazy or something. He then said ???yeah right???. He then told me to come and meet him at his house on the Sunday while Sissy was in church because we were going to go somewhere. I asked him why he hadn???t called me before this and he mumbled something about not knowing that he was supposed to.

The alarm bells did not go off. I still was smitten by him and all that I could think of was could this really be a date that he had planned for us? Was this surprise for Sissy really an excuse to see me?

I was about to find out that such was not the case. Mark met me on the Sunday with a gang of his male friends. We went over to some house that belonged to an old man that he knew. I did not feel good about this meeting at all. I was afraid.

I was wondering what these guys had in store for me. I was anxious to leave and Mark told me to calm down - this old man was his friend. He took me here because he needed to talk to me in private. The old man got up and locked the door and that made me even more worried that this was not a good place for me to be in. I think if Mark had pledged his undying love for me at that moment it really would have sent me over the edge.

Rather than profess his love for me which was what I had secretly been hoping for all summer long, he talked about Sissy. Asking me questions like did Sissy really love him, what did Sissy say about him to me, did she ever see other boys behind his back, how would she feel when she found out that he was seeing me today and would she be jealous?

By the smile on his face at that point it was obvious even to stupid love struck me that he had used me as a means to get Sissy jealous! And I didn???t have to tell her about the encounter he had all these witnesses with him that certainly would.

It was now clear to me why he never called me since that would have been too private and nobody would have known about it! He would never tell her himself because she would have known what he was up to but if his friends told her she would believe them! I felt so stupid and so humiliated. This was the first time in my life that I had ever felt used! I left there never to see Mark again.

As I suspected Sissy found out about our encounter. I expected to be the recipient of her fury for daring to see her boyfriend behind her back. I rehearsed several speeches that I would give in my defence when the showdown occurred but it never happened. Instead she said in front of her mother and I that she could not believe that I would ever do that and in private to me she said that she was not worried at all. Did I think she was stupid? Mark would never want me! He just wanted to make her jealous but it didn???t work. She had nothing to be jealous about, she said, as she laughed in my face.

Spurned by Mark and insulted by Sissy ??“ that really was a summer to remember.

Carol Roach

winterose@videotron.ca,

Carol Roach is a published writer and newsletter editor.?  You can purchase her book: Picking Up The Pieces: A Woman's Journey at www.publishamerica.com, or www.amazon.com.?  You can also go to your local bookstore and order it there as well.?  If you are interested in other stories feel free to join her newsletter: Storytime Tapestry at: storytime_tapestry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, or email her directly at winterose@videtron.ca and she will be glad to accomodate you.?  Carol enjoys email and responds to every inquiry.

May your day be blessed

Bob Johnston