Dave Myers is the TarheelinNashville

In the spring of 1991, my entire world revolved around Katie Coleman.

For the first time in my teenage life, I felt like I had a “Real Girlfriend”. Sure their were random hookups from time to time, but nothing with substance. Nothing like what I had with Katie.

We spent HOURS on the phone talking about absolutely nothing whatsoever. We drove around in my Mustang with the windows down, one hand on the wheel, the other one in hers, all the time singing at the top of lungs to the radio. We spent a fair amount of time in the backyard swing as well as some time parked behind Scotland Memorial Hospital.

We were one of the nauseatingly cutesy teenage couples who would argue over who would hang up first after a five hour conversation. I found myself talking about “My Girlfriend” to anybody who would listen. We had little inside jokes and sayings that were so cheesy, I think I may have purposely blocked them from my memory. They may seem repulsive now, but at sixteen, it was sugar sweet.

We would talk about the future, about our past as kids. It was almost as if it were meant to be that we were together. We discussed dreams in a way that we both knew they were going to come true. She seemed to believe in me, more than I believed in myself.

I was completely whipped. There was nothing she could say that I wouldn’t do.

It Katie wanted Taco Bell, she got Taco Bell.

If Katie wanted to listen to Q98 on the radio as opposed to Mix 96, we listened to Q98.

Every movie we watched was a movie that she wanted to watch.

Every TV show was a show she wanted to see.

She never really bossed her way around our relationship. The problem was, at that point, I was so scared that if I disagreed with anything, she might leave. That was my biggest fear in our relationship, her finding out that I wasn’t worthy of a girlfriend like her.. and her splitting. I was hopeless and spineless at the same time.

She even convinced me to take down the poster in my bedroom of the Hot Girl in the Pink Bikini with really big…

hair.

This poster was a big deal for me, as it was the Hottest girl I had ever seen (outside of Megan Alba Biel of course) Some might even make the argument that she kinda resembled Megan Alba Biel, but that was to far fetched. MAB was far to classy of a girl to pose for a poster in a bikini, (but it would have been pretty cool if she did).

This poster was so hot, that my friend Jason bought one as well. He had it hid inside of his closet door until his mother found it and made him take it down. Apparently she wasn’t a big fan of girls in bikinis with really big…hair, either.

Outside of David ‘Tater’ Turner – A Great American, Jason was one of my best friends in school.

We were both about the same height, had dark hair and wore similar clothes. A lot of older kids in school thought we were brothers at one time. We hung out together a lot in school, lived in the same neighborhood, and had pretty much the same friends. Looking back, I can see where some might have gotten that idea.

There was always a hint of competitiveness (and honestly, jealousy on my part) in our friendship. We both had pretty much the same interest, the only problem was, Jason was always a little better than me in most of them.

We both loved to act. – Jason was a far more superb actor than I was.

We both were really into music.- Jason had a much better singing voice than me.

We both loved sports. – Jason was way more athletic than I was.

He was better looking, more popular, even a little bit taller than me.

It’s fair to say I was a bit jealous, but that didn’t get in the way of our friendship.

My Junior Prom finally came. It was a disaster.

My tux arrived VERY late (as in about three hours before the prom). Because we were unsure if we were going to make it due to the tux situation, our dinner reservations got lost. Also, because of the uncertainty of the evening, Katie got a late start getting ready. Once she finally was ready, she realized that her dress didn’t fit right. It was a bit to puffy for her liking. Because our dinner reservations got lost, we had to settle for other options in regards to dinner. The food we finally did eat was horrible and made us both a little sick. When we finally did make it to the prom, a lot of my friends had already came and went. Katie wasn’t feeling well from the horrible food we had just eaten, so needless to say we didn’t dance. Everything that could go wrong in one evening, went wrong that night. We both went home disappointed and angry. At the circumstances, and the night itself. In our exhaustion after a long and horrible night, we took it out on each other. It was our first fight.

The next day, I sent her roses to her work. On the card I told her I couldn’t wait to go to her prom at her school. We would make up for all of the mistakes made from the night before. I apologized for the frustration of the evening, and all was forgiven.

Katie, her friend Jennifer, Jason and myself began to hang out together a lot. We all seemed to click as a group and had a lot of fun together. Originally, I thought Katie was trying to set Jason up with her friend Jenn but they weren’t really clicking that way. Katie and Jason seemed to get along tremedously. To the point to where my insecurities sometimes got the best of me, and I would get a bit of a jealous bone. Katie assured me there was nothing going on, and I believed her. Sometimes however, I would let my paranoia get to me, and I would let my mind wonder to places that were both untrue, and too painful to consider.

Still in the back of my mind, I wondered if eventually she would see what I knew all along.

Jason had everything I didn’t… More talent, better looks, more popularity. I was afraid she would see that, and eventually HE would have the one thing I had the HE didn’t have. Jealousy is a deeper shade of jade when you are young and in love for the first time.

One week after our horrible night at my prom, Katie’s prom night came. It was fabulous. I wore the same tux, so there were no worries about the arrival. She wore a different dress, one that she was much happier with. The food was actually edible this time around, and we got to the dance on time.

We danced. We danced a lot. Every slow song that came on, I sang in her ear. She loved to hear me sing. I knew absolutely NOBODY there, so my inhibitions were gone, and we danced like fools to all of the up tempo songs as well. She looked beautiful in her slim and form fitting lacy blue dress. Her eyes never left mine that evening. It could not have been more perfect. The last song they played that night was ‘Never Say Goodbye’ by Bon Jovi. I held her tight enough to feel her heart beat against my chest, and I swear it felt as if they were beating at the same rhythm.

A few nights later, I went to meet Katie after she got off work. It was raining cats and dogs that night, with a horrible spring time thunderstorm. We finally pulled into our spot behind the Hospital. The perfume she wore smelled like honeysuckle. The mixture of that and the smell of rain on the hot pavement made a perfect late spring/early summer scent. Our kisses were long and deep in the backseat of her parents 1990 Cutlass Supreme. We put “These Arms Of Mine” by the great Otis Redding on repeat in the cassette player. My hands were trembling in anticipation of what might come of this stormy night. With the lightning flashing all around us, and the sound of rain on the windshield mixed with thunder and sweet sixties soul music in the background, I learned for the first time what it felt like to feel both the ultimate state of vulnerability and to feel like a man, both at the same time.

She asked me earlier if I had gone that far before. I told her yes. I lied.

Afterward, I traced my fingers on the side of her face and told her that I loved her for the first time. Nothing could have been more true.

In the spring of 1991, my entire world revolved around Katie Coleman. In the summer that followed, I watched my world slip away.

What would come afterward would set the stage for a life changing experience…

Love Y’all
d