Chapter 9

Life went on of course, especially teenage life with a first summer romance. As the summer moved on so too did the weather; Utah summers could definitely get hot. Granted, Utah didn't have the humidity of other states but it could definitely get a dry heat going on. Utah was and is definitely a state that has a very prominent four seasons, hot dry summers, the changing of leaves that comes with the fall, the cold and snow of winter (skiing too, of course), as well as the spring rains and the plant life starting to come back to life.

Dating life with Nicole and I was going well so far. We were spending time together at work as well as after work, though in the couple weeks following our 'first' date we hadn't been able to have a day off together. Like most teenagers in our situation though, we did try to make the most of the time that we did have together. Nicole and I made it a habit to find where we were working and swing by for at least a minute on breaks if they weren't spent together. There was also the time we'd spend after closing for the night. We made the most of the time after work we did have. We mixed it up a little, not always just going out to make out (ok, or a little more, too) but also going for a late night dessert whether it was at Denny's or something else. Nicole and I had also made the logical step (to me at least) of agreeing to be boyfriend and girlfriend. I had asked her officially about a week after our first date and she'd just rolled her eyes at me before agreeing. She had thought it was funny that I still looked nervous about it when I was asking her that and yet hadn't looked nervous when I'd asked her out the first time.

Denny's was a popular stop after work for those of us that worked at Lagoon. Since we usually got off late it was an easy option since it was still open and relatively cheap. It was also nice because there was one both to the north as well as to the south, so depending on who was going and what direction they lived in would determine which one was chosen. Since it was summer, it made it easy for most of the people to stay out late, not needing to get up early in the morning most the time giving us some freedom. Along with that freedom Nicole and I had still made use of the time we could sneak off together and have a little fun.

Things had settled into a fairly comfortable rhythm for the most part. It was still something of a surprise to me that I had a girlfriend as I still felt like I was the shy nice guy most the time. I definitely wasn't going to complain about it though. Since it was still summer and I would have till the fall before any races would go again I'd also relaxed my running. Instead of running 5-6 days a week and averaging about 40 miles a week it was down to 3-4 days a week and 12-15 miles a week just to keep a decent endurance base going. When I would go out for a run it was either on a night I wasn't working (which was rare) or a morning run. The Utah heat was bearable for a run of course, but if I didn't have to suffer the heat then I wouldn't. I was the type of runner that as soon as I got a decent pace up my sweat level was high anyways, so it never seemed like a good idea to accentuate that by running when it was hot.

The way the work schedule went I almost felt a little detached from my parents and family. They had their class that had them gone before I was awake most mornings and I'd be gone to work before they got home. My two sisters had fairly busy lives of their own, while neither one of them were working yet they had the social life of a teenage and almost teenage female at 14 and 12, respectively. Things at home were kept pretty quiet as a result of most my family being gone when I wasn't working. A lot of the time I'd fill the quiet by playing music. One of my favorites for that summer was a new Bon Jovi CD called Cross Road. It had a couple new songs on it, but most of the songs were of a greatest hits type that had been pulled from several of their older albums. The disadvantage to music like that was I had a CD player in my room, but for running or in the car all I had was a tape player.

When I got bored at home sometimes I'd still go in to work a little early and just hang out before I had to start my shift. It made it a little easier knowing people there and also that there were other kids who'd do the same thing sometimes. There was also Tenille and Tonya. They both knew I had a girlfriend now of course, but that still hadn't kept us from maintaining the playful friendship that we had. I also couldn't help but admit that it was also nice just looking at either one of them. They were both similar in appearance as well as personality, which probably helped explain how they had become best friends like they seemed to be. It helped me I think that I'd known Tenille for a little while now, since we had gone to the same junior high after all. As the summer had gone on I'd found out that Tonya lived fairly close from where I was, almost due east actually, just at the foothills of the mountains and on the east side of Highway 89. This actually put Tonya living closer to me then what Tenille did, but with the way the school boundaries worked Tonya's house was far enough east that it put her going to Farmington Junior instead of Kaysville Junior with Tenille and I.

I still wasn't sure what it was about my personality, I could act relaxed and normal around the girls when it was casual stuff. That had been coming in handy and even getting stretched a bit with the summer job at the park. Obviously with Nicole but in addition to her with also Tenille and Tonya as well as a couple other girls that I was friends with that worked there. There was even a girl named Chelsea that had talked about setting me up with a friend of hers if I broke up with Nicole so that we could go out on a double date. Nicole had seen how I was around some of the other girls and recognized that it wasn't me trying to get with someone else, just how I was around people that I thought of as friends.

There was something a little different though, Nicole and I had started quick and things seemed to be slowing down a little. What had previously been an hour we could steal together at the end of work, whether it was to get a shake or to go to the park had started to become some nights where she had to go straight home instead. Given my limited experience with relationships I took what she'd said at face value, that she had to get home because her parents wanted her home at a decent time. As far as I knew, things were going good, we just didn't have as much time to spend together as we'd had. Our days off hadn't been matching up together but we'd still spend breaks together and would talk whenever we were working games that were close together.

It was on a Wednesday when I'd realized that Nicole and I would hit a month of our going out the next Friday. Obviously for most a month wasn't much, but for me it was a first and I wanted to do something, even if it was just simple. So that night at work I'd asked her to see if her parents would let her stay out after work Friday night so that I could take her for a late dinner somewhere. Thinking back on it now, if I'd been paying a little more attention at the time I would have noticed a slight frown as her initial reaction before she covered it up with a smile and said she'd talk to her parents.

The next two days would go relatively quick. I actually had them off, but didn't really have much planned, so a lot of it was just relaxing. I'd started each day off with a run, the route I'd do varying but each one covering about 5-6 miles in distance at a steady pace. I'd been running for four years now and had gotten to the point where I enjoyed it. Going for a long run gave me time to just relax; I could listen to music and just have a relaxing run. It was also good for having time to think things over when I needed to do that as well. I also recognized that I wasn't a talented enough runner to do well without working on it. So my runs during the summer also helped make sure I had a decent base for when the fall came and the season started. There were always people who'd finish their summer without having done any running and would have to be starting from scratch. With my talent level I couldn't afford to do that and didn't want to do that anyway. I'd done well as a sophomore runner but I wanted to do better.

One thing we did do that was a little different than normal was a family dinner on Thursday night. It was normal for us to do family dinners on Sunday nights, but lately I'd been working each night, so had been missing out on those dinners. We were a close family as a whole, and between my parents, my two uncles, and my grandparents everyone was within about a five mile radius. Since it was a Thursday we decided to go to a restaurant that was usually crowded on a Sunday night: the Timbermine. It was in the mouth of Ogden Canyon, about twenty minutes north of us, but was a family favorite as they had great steaks. I had a usual I ordered there - the prime rib. Family dinners were basically a time for everybody to kind of catch up on what was going on.