First Boyfriend

**Editor's Note: Mom had some great stories for Valentine's week in her "Falling in Love feature," if you are new you may enjoy reading more about falling in love in small-town Utah here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7.  Thanks for reading.**

I had my first real boyfriend when I was 14 years old. It was summer and I was getting ready to start my freshman year at our local high school. Don was from a little town down the road so he went to a different school. He was older than me by way more than my parents were comfortable with. He had just been elected student body vice president and he was starting his senior year. 

 We spent a lot of time together that summer, most of it just driving around in his big shiny blue car. She was his pride and joy and her name was Betsy. His father owned a garage so they had fixed her up together and she was definitely beautiful. I wasn’t much into cars. At 14, the only thing I could drive was Grandpa’s tractor and I wasn’t very good at that. Don had a sidekick named Corey. Corey was also a senior and he was the student body president (it was a small school!). 

Mom is clueless about the model of car for my own amusement I decided it was a 58 Plymouth.

 

I worked at the local Taco Time in the evenings and Don would often come down when I got off at 10:00 and we would drag Main for a couple of hours before he would take me home. Corey took a shine to one of my co-workers, so they were often with us. One night Corey came down in his own car and Don was in his beloved Betsy. They picked us up from work and we started following each other up and down Main Street. After half an hour of that we both pulled onto a side road. Corey’s car was about 50 feet in front of Don’s. Deb hopped out of Corey’s car and ran back to where I was sitting. Then Don slid out of the driver’s seat and leaned against his car to talk to Corey. Even though the car was huge, I slid into the driver’s seat to make room for Deb. 

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 Everything in the car was chrome and shiny. Like the little girl I was, I pretended to drive that beautiful car. Deb and I giggled until somehow, I knocked the car out of gear. It started rolling…I started panicking! I didn’t know where the brake was and I didn’t know how to stop the inevitable…Corey’s car was getting closer and closer and I wasn’t getting any nearer to knowing how to stop Betsy. Don was starting to fall apart, but he seemed glued to the spot where he stood. He just kept saying, "Step on the brake! Step on the brake!" Deb was making me so nervous, making stupid suggestions. It never occurred to me to turn the steering wheel so that I could miss that stupid little car that was in my way. We just rolled closer and closer. 

 

Finally, Corey sprang into action. He raced around the car, threw himself over Deb and into the passenger’s seat. My heart was pounding in my chest…that car was less than ten feet away! Corey grabbed at the emergency brake and pulled it. The brakes ground to a stop and threw us all into the dashboard. Don finally shook himself from his trance and pulled open the driver’s side door. "Move over!" he suggested a little too roughly. I slowly slid over to the passenger's side of the car. Corey rolled out of the car and onto the soft grass, breathing heavily. Deb slipped away into the darkness and climbed back into Corey’s car. My heart was still pounding in my chest, but this time I wasn’t afraid about a car accident. 

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Don wasn’t nasty enough to break up with me that night, but his visits became fewer and fewer. Our relationship had definitely taken a U-turn. But how can any girl compete with Betsy? She had the perfect shiny complexion and matching twin exhaust pipes. She was his first love and I had crossed the line.

Perhaps Besty should have been called Christine...