The Bad Boy or The Good Boy

Gone wild

It was the summer before my senior year, I was feeling horrible lonely, and wanted to be able to talk to my grandma because she always gave me the best advice. I wanted to get away from everything, everyone, and get out of the town.

I was given time off of work to grieve the loss of my grandma (my boss was a family friend), and I was grateful for all the time they gave me. 

We had my grandma's funeral on July 3, 1999. I refused to go to her casket, but I was literally dragged up there by my uncle, my aunt, and my grandma's sister. They told me it would help me to see her so that I could face the reality and get the grieving process started so I could continue with my life. 

The next day I was talked into going to the fireworks show that I always went to with my grandma, and that just made things worse. After the fireworks I went home, and went to bed. The next day I wound up at my dad's house because I just needed to get out of my house. Later that day I told my mom I was going to Holiday World with some friends because my company supplied tickets for me, and that I would be home later that night. I told my dad the same thing as I was leaving his house (we had buried my grandma 2 days before this so it was July 5, 1999).

I went to work and picked up the tickets, to make it believable, and took off. I was not sure where I was going to go, so I went to my friend's house and hung out with them for the day. I wound up meeting a few people that they knew, and after I dropped them off I went to their friend's house. We drove around and went to pick up some other people. They decided it would be fun to go to the river, drink some beer, and just hang out. We ended up doing this everyday for almost two weeks. I got my car stuck in mud trying to help someone get out of a ditch, so I had mud all over my car. 

Two days after I took off my mom and step dad drove to Holiday World to look for my car, and when they didn't find it they called my dad. They asked him if he had seen me since the 5th, and he told them that I went to Holiday World with some friends. They told him that I wasn't there, and that they had already talked to security and I had not been there. My dad told them that he would go talk to my friends and see if they had seen me or if they knew where I was. My mom called the police and reported me as a runaway teenager. My friends wouldn't tell my dad where I was because I didn't tell them what was going on, and told them I was going home. My dad was at a loss, so was the rest of my family, and he told my mom if she wanted results to report my car as stolen because it was in her name. My mom told him he had lost his mind, and she wasn't going to do that because it would land me in jail. His explanation was that she would get better results and faster.

I talked to my friends and they told me my mom called the police reporting me as a runaway teenager, and my dad came to their house asking questions. After they told me this I started to get worried that they would find me, so we decided to leave and go further away (we were going to Alabama). We had my car loaded down with buckets of ice and beer and some clothes, but as we were getting ready to leave a cop pulled up behind my car and read my license plate (thankfully it was just my friend's uncle). He told me I was reported as a runaway teenager, and that I needed to follow him to the jail. He called my mom and told her to meet him at the jail in Salem because he had found me and I was following behind him in my car. When I got to the jail I thought I was going to be going to jail, I sat in their library for two or three hours waiting for my parents to come get my car (and hopefully me too). When my mom arrived she had my aunt, my grandma Lois, my step dad (he drove my car home), and my little brother and sister with her. They were all really mad and disappointed with me because instead of talking to them about everything I was feeling I just took off and didn't come home. They told me how worried they were not knowing where I was or if I was safe, how irresponsible, and how selfish I was being when I left.

Band camp had just started, and of course everyone knew what I did because my mom was so frantic that she called everyone I knew to see if they had seen me or talked to me. I was so pissed because they all thought that I was some fragile little girl that they needed to protect or babysit. When school started it was the same way, so when a Navy recruiter came to the school I jumped and said where do I sign I was so ready to just get out of there and I didn't care how.

Navy physical

I turned 18 in September, and by October I was in Indianapolis at a MEPS physical. I was ready to start in a new place and start over where no one knew me. 

While I was in Indianapolis I met Brent, he was a few years older than me, tall 6'1", slim, with dirty blonde hair, and beautiful blue eyes. I'm only 5'8", curvey (weigh 165), straight blonde hair, with Hazel eyes.  We started talking and telling each other about ourselves at dinner. After dinner I walked across the street to get some cigarettes while he went to his room. We had exchanged room numbers because they did a head count at 9:30, and we weren't allowed to be in the room of the opposite s*x. Well after head count he slipped into my room and my roommate slipped into his room, we spent the entire night together making out. I had never really been in a relationship, and I was still a virgin at 18. I really enjoyed the attention that he was showing me, and we were stuck at the hip the next day.