Chapter 43: Computer Dating, Part II

January-February 1979

At lunch on Monday, people started getting their sheets and there was chaos as many people discovered that their boyfriend or girlfriend wasn’t on their list, and some rival of theirs was on their boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s list. I found it amusing.

I saw Melanie laughing hard when she got her list. I walked over to her.

“Steve, I love you. Thanks!”

“You’re welcome.”

“Did you run a real sheet for me?”

I pulled it out of my pocket and said, “Your first match is a real problem, Melanie!”

“What? Oh, no! Who?”

She opened it and squealed. I showed her my list, and she squealed even louder.

Jennifer giggled, “Don’t get any wrong ideas, girl! You’re still in a wheelchair!”

We went to eat our lunches and Sarah Leonard asked if I would be interested in going to the dance with her.

Jennifer gave approval with her eyes via our connection. It was cool because nobody could possibly intercept that message.

“You’re not on my list, Sarah, am I on yours?”

“No, but I’d like to go with you. There’s nobody on my list I even know.”

“I can go with you if you want.”

“So, is that a yes?”

“Sure, why not!”

When Jennifer and I walked to class, I said, “Approval, Jennifer? Really?”

“No, that was ‘no objection’. You thought approval because you’re still looking to me for veto and control. You do it subconsciously, Steve. Work on it, OK? Have fun with Sarah, she’s a really sweet girl.”

“Yes dear,” I said with my voice dripping with sarcasm.

She smacked me gently on the shoulder and said, “You know what I meant!”

I grinned in response.

At the end of the day, Janet Owens came up to me and asked me to the dance. I apologized and said that I was already going with someone. She got a sad look on her face.

“That’s twice I lost out because someone asked you before me. What about Prom, Steve? You’re a Sophomore and I’m a Junior.”

“Sorry, Janet, I have a date already. I’m taking Melanie Spencer, a good friend of mine. Her boyfriend, who is also a good friend of mine, is at OSU and can’t come home for Prom, so I’m standing in for him.”

“Oh. I’ll never get to go out with you.”

I wondered what the big deal was and decided I’d consider it.

“Janet, if you want to go out sometime, on a date, we probably can. Maybe after the dance?”

Her face brightened, “Cool! Just ask me if you want. I’ll say ‘yes’!” and she winked.

I wasn’t surprised by that. She had the reputation as the class slut and being fantastic in bed. I was curious about her because we were on each other’s lists, even though she didn’t fit my usual type. I had no intention of doing anything with her other than going out on a date.

That evening I got a call from the photographer who wanted a picture of Beth and me with the computer. I arranged for him to come Tuesday after school and made sure Beth would be there. The article ran in the paper later that week. It was pretty cool to get my name and picture in the paper. The only previous time had been in third grade and had been in a play.

The rest of the month flew by. Melanie got the cast off her leg and wore a brace contraption that they called a ‘walking splint’ that protected her leg while she walked. She was super happy. She still didn’t have use of her left arm, but that would probably not heal completely until she had physical therapy. And that would likely take at least until the end of the school year. But she’d have the cast off at the end of February.

Jennifer, Joyce, and I had our usual dates and things were going along OK. Joyce seemed to have better control over her fears for the future. Bethany hadn’t approached me to fulfill her request.

Things at home didn’t change much, and Stephanie was managing to have breakfast with me every day. She’d swim immediately after I did, then eat with me before she showered. I gave her pages from my journal to read in her room on Thursday nights. It turned out Mom wasn’t willing to cancel their Thursday dates and decided that Jeff being there was sufficient.

I just stayed in my room the entire time they were gone, except if I needed something from the fridge. I decided I was going to get a mini fridge for my room so I could stock it with Cokes. That would limit even that need to go out. Jeff loved it because he had complete run of the house. I was waiting for him to start telling lies about what I did on Thursdays to get in trouble. There wasn’t much I could do about it, so I didn’t worry too much about it.

Kellie continued to try very hard to get me to go out with her. Kathy Will was super nice to me, saying ‘Hi’, making conversation and otherwise trying to get on my good side. It was cute, not annoying. I was nice to her, but I didn’t give any hint that I was interested in what I knew she was offering.

The YFU orientation for the month was about learning how to adapt to a new culture and a new family and the dynamics of the situation. We also were told that our family match would be sent to us in May so we could call or write to the host family beforehand.

I didn’t hear from Erin, but Cindy did talk to me a couple of times, and we managed to get together once for a pretty intense screwing session. She seemed to be very much like Mary. I hoped she’d find a boyfriend soon, but her parents weren’t letting her date yet. I laughed at that. She was screwing me, but wasn’t allowed to go on dates!

Beth and I went to Don Joseph’s house to demonstrate the programs to him and Doctor Grossi. They liked what we showed them, asked some questions, and made some suggestions for changes. I gave Doctor Grossi a list of exactly the things he needed to buy. He said he’d get them in the next week and then he’d like us to help him set things up and show his office staff how to use it. They’d do both the computer and paper at first, but if everything worked, they’d switch to the computer.

We made the changes and delivered the programs to Doctor Grossi’s office as planned. We set up everything and showed his staff how to use the programs. We also gave them some sheets to write down any problems they found so we could fix them. It looked like it was going to go well.

The first week in February brought an interesting development. I got a message from the office that the Loveland High School Student Council wanted to run a computer dating fundraiser. I took the number of their student council president and called her that night. We talked about how it would work and she agreed to my offer of a $5 charge, with $1.25 going to me and Beth and the rest to their council. This time I’d pay each of the friends who helped type in the forms.

The next week was the dance. I talked to Cassie Schneider and asked if she wanted to double-date. She thought it would be fun. We decided to go to TGI Friday’s for dinner again and then we’d go to the dance. I called Sarah to let her know the plan, and she was happy about not needing to involve parents. I knew exactly what she meant.

I told Dad the plans for the dance and he said ‘OK’. I was happy he wasn’t agreeing to Mom’s demand that she control everything. I suspected that caused problems for him, but he never said anything. I was being super careful about making sure I didn’t deviate in the slightest from the house rules. Even so, I got all kinds of negative comments from Mom.

If she complained about the way I did a chore, I redid it without argument. I had put up a calendar on the cork board in my dad’s office that listed everything I was doing and when. I updated it every day. Dad was impressed with what I was doing, but I was making no headway with my mom. At this point, there was no pleasing her, and I didn’t bother to try. I did what I did out of self-defense.

The dance was informal, so I wore nice jeans, a button-down shirt, and sneakers. Sarah was dressed the same way, as were Cassie and her date, a Senior named Jack Kingston. We had a good time at dinner and this time we made it back to the dance just before it started. I pulled Cassie aside and told her I was OK with her dropping us off at Sarah’s house as soon as the dance was over if she wanted to go parking. Her eyes sparkled, and she thanked me. Mrs. Leonard would drive me home in time for curfew.

At the dance, we found Mary and Ben, who were inseparable these days, with Larry and Jennifer. The eight of us sat at a table together and agreed to change partners so everyone could dance with everyone. Janet Owens came by and asked Sarah if she could dance with me and Sarah said ‘OK’. I warned Sarah that both Cassie and Mary would pick slow songs and were likely to plaster themselves against me. I explained I had some history with both. I called it dating with Mary and of course I said Cassie was my Sadie Hawkins date.

We danced a lot. Sarah didn’t want to sit except on rare occasions. The playlist was very similar to the Sadie Hawkins dance. For the slow songs, Sarah and I danced with arms on hips and shoulders.

My dance with Jennifer was to You Needed Me by Anne Murray. It was totally appropriate for us and we danced close with her head on my chest. As expected, my dances with Cassie and Mary were slow songs and both did as expected and danced as close as possible. When I went back to Sarah after my dance with Mary, she laughed softly, then said, “I thought you two were going to start having sex on the dance floor the way that looked with her body against you!”

“That’s just Mary’s style. Because she and I dated, she’s comfortable with me. Ben and I are friends; he knows I won’t do anything with his girlfriend so he finds it amusing.”

She just shook her head. We danced nearly every song until Janet Owens asked for her dance.

Janet’s timing was as impeccable as Mary’s. She was wearing a dress that showed off her long legs, her ample breasts, and left little to the imagination. Her long blonde hair was curled in little rings. The DJ played Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel, and she pulled me into a close embrace and put her head on my shoulder. Her body felt really good against mine and I had an involuntary reaction. The way she was pressed against me, there was no way for her to miss it. She giggled to show she wasn’t upset. Not that I expected her to be with her reputation, but reputations aren’t always accurate.

Sarah and I danced the rest of the evening. The last song was You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone, and Sarah stepped in to dance close to me. We left the dance with Cassie and Jack. I couldn’t tell for sure if Cassie was going to take Jack parking. They seemed to get along OK, but I didn’t see any real signs of attraction. Cassie dropped us at Sarah’s house and cruised away in her gigantic Plymouth Fury.

Sarah led the way inside and offered me hot chocolate, which her mom then made for us. We took it to their finished basement, where she put some records on her turntable and we sat on the couch. We chatted a bit about school and my upcoming trip to Sweden. I asked her about moving here from New York and she said that she wasn’t thrilled but her dad had applied for a new position at GE and when he got it, they had to move. Mostly she was upset at losing her best friend and being away from her brother, who was at Colgate studying chemistry. The look on her face said she really missed him.

She said she had some trouble making friends and was very happy when she met Jennifer in biology class when they were assigned as lab partners. She said that Jennifer had invited her to sit at our lunch table. This dance was her first date. She hadn’t had a steady boyfriend back in New York when they moved.

We had finished our hot chocolate, and she took the cups upstairs. When she came back down, she sat closer to me. I took that as an indication that I could put my arm around her, so I did, and she snuggled closer to me.

“Jennifer explained your relationship to me. She said it’s not the normal High School romance.”

“No, it’s not. I call her my girlfriend, but I see other people. It’s really complicated, but I’ll try to explain. She was my best friend for quite some time and there was nothing romantic between us. I was seeing a girl, but it was basically dating, not serious. The love of my life, if you will, was a Swedish exchange student who had gone back home. I was more or less just dating and messing around until I could be with her.

“The girl I was seeing started dating someone else as well and wanted to be exclusive with that guy. Around the same point, Jennifer and I realized we were falling in love and started seeing each other occasionally as more than friends. I was, I guess, playing the field and Jennifer and I ran into problems that wrecked our friendship. Then the girl in Sweden died in a boating accident, and Jennifer and the rest of my friends put aside all the problems to help me.

“So now Jennifer and I are looking at the future. I’m going to be gone for a year, so we’re not making any commitments now. Senior year might be different, but we’ll worry about that when I come home. So for now, I’m dating occasionally. I do have another girl I see somewhat regularly, and she and Jennifer know about each other and are OK with it because I’ve always told them the truth about my situation.”

“All of that is basically what Jennifer said. She mentioned that you’re taking your friend Melanie to the Prom. Is she the one you dated before?”

“Yeah. She and her boyfriend Pete are both good friends. Well, he’s not quite her boyfriend again, yet. I’m working to help them get back together. They will, but they had some problems they had to work through. He’s cool with me taking her to Prom.”

“Why don’t you and Jennifer go to dances?”

“We do, but other than homecoming, there have been two dances where girls ask guys and the computer dance. For turn-about at the Junior High, she arranged for a friend of hers to ask me. It’s a long, complicated story and you can ask Bethany. She’ll probably tell you. It was very much the right thing to do. For this year’s Sadie Hawkins, Cassie Schneider asked Jennifer’s permission to ask me. Like I said, it’s a complicated relationship.”

She sat there, considering something for a moment.

“I asked Jennifer about the reputation you have with girls at school and she said that it’s basically true.”

“Don’t believe all the rumors you hear. I’m sure there are exaggerations and wishful thinking mixed in. I’ve heard at least one rumor about me and a girl who I’ve never even talked to!”

I wasn’t sure what she was getting at, or working up to.

“I know. I asked you to the dance because you seemed like a nice guy. I was right, you are. Everyone seems to like you, your friends say you’re always willing to help out and be there for them. I was totally intrigued by the whole computer dating thing, too. I figured you would be going with Jennifer to this dance, but she told me that you guys agreed to go with people on your sheets.”

Well, not quite true. Jennifer had given me freedom, and she had asked Larry who didn’t participate in the match-making. Sarah continued.

“When I got mine, and I didn’t know anyone at all, I decided to ask you before anyone else could, hoping you would say yes. I’m glad you did. I had a good time tonight. All your friends are pretty cool and I enjoyed getting a chance to dance with Larry, Ben, and Jack. Thanks for helping me meet some new people.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, pulling her just a bit closer.

We sat in silence for a bit and I saw from the clock that I needed to get home soon.

“Can we get your mom to take me home? I need to beat curfew by at least ten minutes for safety reasons.”

She turned her head to me and it was clear what she wanted first. I gave her a soft kiss on the lips. It tasted like peaches!

“Thanks for a fun evening!’ I said., “I really enjoyed it.”

“Me too!” she replied with a smile.

We walked upstairs, and she rode along when her mom drove me home. At my house, she got out of the car with me and walked up to the door. I took her hands and gave her another soft kiss, which she returned.