Care Bear Movie

This was a prompt from a school assignment this past semester: not a recent event.

*     *     *

“Katy.”

“HI!” I smiled in surprise.

“Do you remember me?”

Jason Flores. My elementary school boyfriend. He looked exactly the same, bony and skinny, drawn face.

“Yes! Of course. Jason Flores.” I emphasized his name to prove I remembered.

“Well, give me a hug.”

I stood up from the cheap plastic chair, slightly embarrassed. I had been waiting for our pizza order to finish. My family was visiting friends and the wife and I were making a quick dinner run. Why did I choose not to wear make-up today?

“You look exactly the same.”

I blushed at his compliment, knowing seventeen years were impossible not to notice. I hadn’t seen him since I switched schools for eighth grade.

*          *          *

I blushed when I turned around and realized it was Jason who had whistled at me. Whistled, while riding his bike past my lane. He was the sweetest boy I knew but he was on the fringes of our social circle. He often wore a baseball hat over his dirty blond hair and had light skin, though his dad was Hispanic. I don’t remember the color of his eyes. I knew that he madly adored me.

          

I was finally old enough to ride my bike home from school. A blue beach cruiser. We took the same route home because we lived in the same gated complex. Back then ‘gated complex’ didn’t have the positive connotation it does now. It was simply known as “The Manor.” He lived somewhere near the front of the complex and I lived closer to the back.

He offered to ride me home on the handle bars of my bike. It sounds romantic but since we were both at the age where all the boys were skinny and short and the girls tall and getting curves, it was only awkward. I was afraid he’d realize how heavy I was and not be able to support me on the bike. I stayed on the handle bars for only a minute before I pretended I was freaked out and made myself fall off. That’s all I remember from that walk home.

Another time, for my birthday, he came to my house unexpectedly to give me a gift. It was a thick metal bracelet that looked like gold. I think he bought it from Thrifty’s. It had my name in cursive letters across it. Spelled wrong, of course. My name can never be found spelled correctly on personalized items.

After he whistled, he rode up to me and some sort of chit-chat ensued.  “Hey, maybe we can go see that Care-Bear movie sometime.”

“Sure.” Feeling too uncomfortable to continue making eye contact, I looked down at the concrete sidewalk and didn’t say anything else. I didn’t want to see a dumb Care-Bear cartoon!

*          *          *

“Well, our pizza’s done...It was nice seeing you,” I said.

“Yah, you too.”
I had forgotten to introduce my friend. “Oh, Glenda, I’m so sorry. That was an old boyfriend I had when I was in elementary school.” I told her as we got back into her car.
She smiled and laughed. “Wow, he didn’t stop smiling the entire time he was talking to you.” 

 Neither did I.