Pen pal

Another blog (not my own) mentions Nazareth's Hair of the Dog album. Brings back the 80's memories- heavy. Back in the day I had this friend. Since I haven't spoken to him in over 20 years, we'll call him Shawn. Why the hell not.
I met Shawn at Youth Legislature Freshman year in high school. He was a Junior. He was from another town. He let me hang out with him and his friends. They were cool, older and very funny. We were the Communist party. Not because of the ideology, but to piss of everyone else. Kind of the punk way.
His girlfriend- or ex- or something, was part of their group. She never spoke to me, and spent the entire time with another guy, basically making out. Shawn seemed a little upset by this. He flirted. I was interested.
He went home. We started writing to eachother. Basically a letter or two every several days for a couple of years. Until he went to college, and wrote me a Dear Jane letter.

Funny though. In my Soph. year, I went north to a town near his for a conference my dad was attending. I got to tag along, because dad is pretty cool. I went to Shawn's house. Met his family. Hung out. He had made some pretty strong statements about his feelings for me by this time. I took him at his word. We went to a movie. I kept expecting something. Anything. Anything at all. But nothing. When he dropped me off, I expected a hug at least. Nothing. It was really strange. Confusing. It made me mad.

I actually broached the subject in a letter after I got home. He claimed that he was possibly getting back together with the ex-girlfriend. It was odd again. Because I pretty much knew that this was bullshit.

Then came the kiss off letter. What a little shit. The way I figured the whole thing out, after re-reading the letters, was that he was closeted. And I was the "girlfriend in Canada" so to speak. Great in theory for proving hetero qualities, but inconvenient, not to mention awkward as hell in the flesh. And I wasn't shy about what I would've liked from what I considered to be a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. (he brought up the whole relationship thing- not me...)

He gave me the Nazareth vinyl for my birthday. Along with Asia's first album. How fucking romantic. The little shit. (actually not so little- the fucker was really tall.) Anyway, a minor pox on his home. Period.