Antonio smiled back and then we exchanged phone numbers. We were pretty much inseparable from that day forward. I remember my friends were a bit skeptical about us getting together at first because of his dating history; they didn’t want me to end up getting hurt like the other girls he’d been with. But eventually, they saw how we were together and that he really cared about me. He immediately became best friends with Leslie’s and Kyla’s boyfriends, Terrence and Brian.
Four months later we made it official. At my request we kept our relationship secret. No one knew, but our closest friends. I told Antonio that it was because of how strict my father was and I didn’t want anything getting back to him. He bought my excuse, not knowing that it was a total lie. The real reason was that I didn’t want people to look at me as another girl who’d been conquered by Antonio. I remembered all too well how I’d once looked at those girls and I couldn’t bear the thought of being compared to the many victims he’d left scattered along the edge of the road.
We had all summer to develop our relationship without the stresses of school and I was admittedly a little nervous our first day back. We weren’t going to keep up the charade any longer; everyone would know about us. I was unsure of how things would change once we were back in the company of our peers, dealing with all the he say, she say. That I knew of, there were no rumors flying around yet. Everything was going well and our bond seemed to grow deeper every day.
Surprisingly, my parents liked him too……..even Daddy. Dating is never an easy feat for the only daughter of a protective father, but even so, he was going a bit overboard in my opinion. Anytime a new boy would start calling the house, my father would watch me more closely for a while. My guess was that he was looking for changes in my behavior, signs that I wasn’t as innocent as he’d once thought. Eventually his rudeness would deter my suitors from calling, prompting me to invest in a cell phone that summer. Although Daddy liked Antonio for the time being, I wasn’t sure how long that would last.
Anyway, Antonio earned Daddy’s trust enough that he agreed to let us go to the Homecoming dance together. He even gave me an extension on my curfew so that we could go out to eat afterward with the rest of our friends. Honestly, my father’s sudden willingness to let me breathe was a little unnerving. He’d managed to hold on so tightly all these years that I didn’t know if I could even enjoy myself with the newfound freedom.
Leslie’s light tap on my shoulder interrupted my thoughts. “Excited about tomorrow?” she asked despite the fact that she already knew the answer to that question.
“Very.” I replied. “I just have a lot to do.”
Leslie looked down at her plate and managed to take a bite of her pizza before speaking. “I can ask my sister to do my hair if you don’t think you’ll have time. She won’t mind.” I looked at her and forced a smile. As helpful as that would’ve been, I couldn’t do that to her. I’d seen Leslie’s sister’s attempts at being a stylist before and there was no way I’d let my girl go to the dance looking crazy – especially not when there would be pictures involved.
“No, I’ll be there.”
She smiled.