My Teenage Dream Ended (8 page)

That evening my mom called. She said she would talk to me more when she got home from her business trip the next day, but that I was going to have to go stay at my grandparents after that. I told her I wasn’t going, but I knew I wasn’t going to win this battle.

When my mom finally got home the next day, my dad acted like he was the victim of a crime. I knew that it was a big deal to them, but Derek and I had talked before my mom came home and he had said, “Your parents are overreacting. Everyone has sex.”

I thought they were being totally unfair, but when we all finally sat down at the dining room table to discuss the situation, my dad dropped a bombshell. “Derek and his mom went to the police station and filed a report. They’re pressing charges against me for hitting Derek.”

I was in shock. First of all, I didn’t even know that my dad had hit Derek. He hadn’t
mentioned anything to me about it and he had seemed completely fine when we talked. Which was a little strange, given that it seemed like he and his mom were now trying to get my dad in trouble with the police.

My mom went on, “Farrah, do you think it’s okay that you snuck your boyfriend in here and had Michael catch you two having sex and now Michael might have to go to jail?”

I knew I couldn’t win with that question, so I kept quiet.

“You’re going to your grandma’s,” my mom went on, “Until we figure out what we’re going to do. You can stay there until school starts and you won’t have your phone and you are not going out.”

I was pissed. Pissed at them for punishing me so harshly and pissed at Derek for not telling me the whole story. I felt like I had been ambushed. I ran upstairs and called Derek. He picked up, acting like everything was great. Well, things weren’t great.

“You’re trying to get my dad in trouble!” I yelled at him.

“Your dad hit me,” Derek replied.

“Yeah, because you snuck into his house and had sex with me! It’s your fault, Derek, and now I have to go to my grandma’s for the rest of summer and I can’t bring my phone. You better not go out while I’m grounded and stuck at my grandparents.”

Derek reminded me that my parents were overreacting. He added, “But I won’t go out while you’re grounded, I’ll wait for your call. I love you.”

I said, “I love you, too,” and hung up.

LOCK-DOWN AT GRANDMA AND GRANDPA’S

My parents made it clear that I had no choice but to go stay with my grandparents. I was still furious about it and did a lot of yelling, but they wouldn’t budge.

So the next day I ended up at my grandma’s house.

My days there consisted of being bored out of my mind inside the house and being bored out of my mind walking around outside. I was allowed to go to work, but that was it. I didn’t have my phone and I wasn’t allowed to go out and party.

At the time I was working at a Hy-Vee supermarket, and one day when I was outside bringing some shopping carts in, I ran into a friend whom I hadn’t seen since he graduated.

He invited me to go out that weekend, but I said I couldn’t. I told him the shortened version of what had happened with me and Derek and how I was in lock-down at my grandparents.

My friend looked surprised. “Well, I think I met your boyfriend the other night,” he told me. He said he had gone to a party and met some of my girlfriends, who had a guy with them, who had to have been Derek. He said they had all been talking about how much they missed me and wished I was there.

While I was happy I was being missed and mentioned, I was mad that Derek went out to a party (with
my
friends) while I was stuck in Hell because of him. I had believed him when he said he wouldn’t go out without me, but I should have known better.

Back at my grandparents after work that night, I went online and, yep, there were all the photos posted from the night Derek went out with my girlfriends. The whole thing just made me burn. I couldn’t take it anymore.

I picked up my grandparent’s phone and called Derek, and when he answered I told him that I had heard that he had gone out to a party, and that I saw the photos online.

“Why are you going out when I can’t?” I asked him. “I’m in this trouble because of you!”

He said that he missed me a lot, but that he didn’t want to just sit at home. Then he told me to call him every night. I felt a little better. At least he had been out with my friends and not with other girls. And, to be honest, I don’t know if I would have been able to stay home while he was grounded.

So I stopped being mad and called him every night and just kept hoping that my parents would cool down and let me come home and go out again.

FREE AT LAST!

After three hellish weeks at my grandparents—three weeks of not having my phone and not being able to go out or see Derek—my mom called one day and told me, “We’re going to family counseling on Sunday.”

I said, “Fine,” but inside I was like,
Oh my God, my parents can’t deal with anything. They’re so dramatic.
I was sure that the counselor would take their side and that my punishment would go on and on and I was dreading the whole experience.

Sunday came and we all went to the counselor’s. I was ready to go on the defensive, but to my surprise, the whole experience was very positive. The office was serene and quiet and the counselor was actually very cool. She made me feel at ease and I had no problem talking to her. My parents, on the other hand, seemed very uptight and very angry.

The counselor wanted to hear from my parents first, so I listened while they talked. It was mainly my mom talking and she shared how they felt about Derek and me and everything she said seemed so negative. Listening to her made me feel like there was no hope. The way she was talking, I thought they might decide to send me away to a halfway house for troubled teens or, worse, leave me at my grandparents forever.

Finally the counselor said it was my turn to talk. I told her about my relationship with Derek and said that I wanted to be able to date him still. She made me feel so understood that I got brave and said I wanted to switch schools so that I could go to school with Derek.

Shockingly, the counselor was on my side! My parents were mad, but they had agreed to listen to her. She did bring up valid points of concern, such as maintaining my grades and respecting my curfew and my parents’ rules. No more sneaking around or sneaking Derek into my bedroom, but basically she said that I should be allowed to still date Derek and to go to school with him if I wanted.

Before we left the session, we agreed to some basic rules and a curfew, which meant that I would be able to leave my grandparent’s and come back home. Life was definitely getting better. I also got my phone back. I called Derek right away and told him the good news. He was happy and asked if I wanted to go out the coming weekend before school started.

My parents had given me a curfew of midnight, and I didn’t want them to get mad at me again, so when Derek picked me up that weekend I told him we had to make sure I got home in time. He totally understood. He didn’t want to rock the boat, either.

We drove out to a party at a friend’s house in the country. There was grass and stars for miles all around. We hung out in the house and drank, talking to all of our friends who were about to start college. Derek and his buddies did a couple of beer bongs, but then it was getting late and I wanted some alone time with Derek, so I said, “Let’s go outside.”

Derek told his buddies we were going outside so that no one would bother us. It was perfect! We claimed our sex life back on the hood of his car and I looked at him and all the millions of stars in the sky and I will never forget how perfect it felt.

Best of all, Derek dropped me off at home on time for curfew.

BACK TO SCHOOL

The next week we went back to school. The first few days were all about class schedules and getting school pictures taken. You have to wait in long lines for everything and there are so many students that the line for registration starts trailing outside the building.

I was excited to be starting at a new school, especially since I was going to be able to see Derek during the school day now. I didn’t anticipate, however, that us being at the same school would put me in some pretty awkward situations. But I found that out on the very first day back.

My parents were with me waiting in line to pay for registration and make sure I was enrolled in the right classes and sports. I looked up and saw Derek and his mother and stepfather ahead of us in line.
My parents hadn’t noticed, so I slowed them down to keep us from running into them. I figured that after everything that had happened that summer it would be best to keep our families apart. After Derek’s mom pressed charges against my dad, my parents wanted nothing to do with his family.

I kept my parents’ attention focused on my registration forms, but I kept sneaking glances at Derek and his mother and stepfather. From what I could tell, it seemed like they were just going through the motions of registration. They looked bored and Derek seemed like he wanted to bail as soon as possible.

I did my best to keep my parents from noticing Derek and his family, but I couldn’t keep it up for long. Eventually, my mom and dad got really quiet, it seemed like everything went quiet, and I could tell they had seen Derek ahead of us in line. So there I was with my mom and dad, pretending that my boyfriend wasn’t in the same line—pretending that I didn’t even know him. It was ridiculous, but I didn’t want there to be a scene or an embarrassing situation in the auditorium, before I’d even had my first class.

Fortunately, by the time we were about halfway through the line, Derek was at the front and then I saw him leave. The tension broke and I was relieved. It was insane to not even be able to say “hi” to my boyfriend on our first day of school. But things had escalated out of control so quickly; I didn’t even know what normal was anymore.

Once the school year started and our parents weren’t around, things got better. Derek and I shared a locker and walked to classes together. We were the hottest couple in school and all of his exes were jealous.

I loved every moment of it.

Derek would pick me up for school at 7:00
AM
on Mondays, even though our classes didn’t start until 9:30
AM.
We would go to his house, because his mom was at work (at the time she was a manager at a truck stop) and Derek would cook me breakfast. Then we’d have sex in the kitchen, or the shower, or even his mom’s room.