Blog challenge · Daily Prompt · Mi Vida Loca · nonfiction · writing

Daily Prompt: Tainted Love

JackieP

Ever been dumped by a boyfriend or girlfriend? Was it a total surprise, or something you saw coming? Tell us your best, worst breakup story. Never been the dumpee, always the dumper? Relate the story of a friend who got unceremoniously kicked to the curb. Change the names to protect the innocent if you must.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us RELEASE.

Well, Daily Prompt, where was this on Valentine’s Day? Kidding!

morguefile.com

I’ll tell you about the first time I was dumped. Ah, it still has a small pin prick of a hurt left, even after so many years.

I remember like it was yesterday, his golden hair, blue eyes, and sweet smile. He was a god to me! An Adonis in all his glory. He’d smile at me and I’d melt into a puddle of girlish dreams.

He was an older man, I was still a child. I know this now, but then I felt my heart beat fast when in his company. His name was James, he was nineteen, I was thirteen. And he stole my heart, then broke it.

He lived across the alley from me and the first time I saw him in his Air Force uniform, I fell in love. Completely, hopelessly, delightfully, and frightenly in love. I was playing softball in the alley with my friends, I was the pitcher. I remember throwing the ball and having a friend hit it with a resounding whack! Off it flew into a neighbor’s yard. Yes, it was Jame’s yard and that’s when I met him.

He was helping his mother pick plums off her plum tree in their backyard. He was in uniform, smiling and laughing with his mother. His head thrown back, laughter erupting like a geyser out of his golden throat. His blonde hair ruffled by a caressing breeze. I stood there, silent and in awe that such a being existed in my world and I had never seen him before.

It was in that instant that I fell in love.

Our ball in the meantime had landed at his feet. He stopped laughing and looked down at it and then at me standing outside the gate.

“This your ball?” He asked me smiling.

I could only nod my head shyly. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he bent down and picked up the ball. His mother, who in past times had yelled at us kids in the neighborhood to stop being so loud, to stop stealing her plums, (we did steal them too, as they were the juiciest, plumpest plums anywhere!), to stay out of her yard! His mother, started to berate me for playing ball in the alley. I heard him say softly, “Mom, don’t, they are only playing.”

Wonders of wonders! She smiled and hushed, I remember being awed that he could quiet her with a few soft words. In fact, I had never once, in all the years that we lived across from her, I had never seen her smile. Yet, there she was, doing so! I don’t know what surprised me the most, the twinkle in his eyes, or the sight of old Mrs. Holden with a smile on her face!

He sauntered over to the gate and opened it. Stepping out into the alley next to me. He held out the ball and smiled his beautiful smile. I took the ball and felt my heart thundering in my chest.

“I’m James, you can call me Jim. Who are you?”

I managed to get out of my closed throat, “Jackie.”

“Can I watch you guys play for a while?”

Staring at the ground like a ninny, I muttered, “Sure.”

I turned and ran back to my friends. Feeling nervous and shy like the young school girl I was, I continued playing with my friends. Soon I heard Jim’s voice behind me.

“I can show you a better way of throwing the ball. It’ll put more of a spin to it, harder to hit.”

I turned quickly and almost hit against his solid chest. I could feel my face turning beet red as it was wont to do in situations like this. Damn my shyness! But being the kind guy he was, he never mentioned red faces or shy eyes. He stood behind me and put his arms around me and showed me how to hold the ball in my fingers and to give it a slight twist just as I let it go in my throw.

From that day on my summer break from school turned magical. Every day for weeks I would talk to Jim and he to me. We’d laugh and tell jokes and have fun. Then one day my older sister showed up. She is two years older than me. So at 15 she was closer to Jim’s age than me. They began to talk and I noticed how Jim could not take his eye’s off of my sister. I died inside. Crushed. Knowing there was nothing I could do.

So yes, my Adonis threw me over for my sister! The pain, the humiliation. He gently told me I was too young for him. That though he enjoyed my company, he wanted to date my sister!

So there you have it folks. My first true heartbreak. Oh, they didn’t last long, my sister and Jim. Just the summer. She broke it off with him! So I suppose we both had our hearts broken that summer.

 

 

 

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39 thoughts on “Daily Prompt: Tainted Love”

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  4. A very sweet story yes….which makes me all the wary for admitting I once broke up with a girl for wearing the wrong coloured socks in my youth…

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    1. Well I can see that, I mean the wrong colored socks would just be awful! They could ruin a man for life! Or a woman. So, tell me, what color were they?

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        1. oh noooo! The wrong colored brown? How dare she! I can see why you would dump her. hahahaha! I tried to say it with a straight face, but just couldn’t.

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  5. I think we all one of these Jackie. I was 13 and I thought Brenda Dorn was the most beautiful creature on earth. But being the shy and bashful boy I was, and still am, I was always too frightened to speak to her. So I was spared a dumping in that regard. But my first girlfriend as such, Helen, made up for that one day when she dumped me, I was devastated, my world collapsed in around me and all life as I knew then ended. Yours is a good post though, good thing you can remember so clearly then again you are a young lady still.

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    1. I’m a young lady? really? oh wow got you fooled! hahaha! Young love, especially the first love is very clear in most our minds. I smile now how foolish I was, but back then I just hurt so much. Ah, glad I’m not quite that young anymore.

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  10. Your writing is becoming so strong. I was holding my breath as I read this – such a sweet, yet heart-wrenching story. Sad though it may be, it’s a great memory.

    I wasn’t allowed to date until I was sixteen, and I was so interested in just having fun, that I don’t recall being smitten with boys when I was younger. I had neighbors and cousins and siblings to spend time with. Once I started dated? I dumped them all! 😉

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    1. What’s with all my typos lately? “Once I started to date.” or “Once I started dating.” The typo curse has struck hard in the past two weeks. I suppose it could be the Fuzzy Navels I’m drinking tonight. 😉

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      1. Hmm the fuzzy navels just might be the culprit LOL. It’s ok Maddie. Thank you for saying my writing is getting stronger. means a lot to me. I never did date when I was younger, too busy reading and staying in my shell. Ah, but that first love. How sweet it was. Short lived, but sweet. 🙂

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  20. I think some of us are just that bridge-to-the-next-one. And this tale, it plays out all summer everywhere, from age 11 to 81. Love that you shared the details … he might today lament the one who got away!

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  22. That really takes the cake, being thrown over for your sister. Do you speak to her these days.:) Not sure I would. I want a plum now. Fine job of putting your heart on your sleeve there. Gives me something to think about. I’m much older so the thoughts have further to go. 🙂

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    1. Oh I didn’t hold a grudge. My sister and I used to be really close. We aren’t any more but that might be because I’m so far away. 🙂

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