On Boys: Pete

Pete was the first Big Lie I can remember. I employed a working definition of a Big Lie as something that would get me in trouble, a lot of trouble, if my parents found out the truth. I was only 11 at the time, so my parents were the most common recipients of my lies. I met Pete at a church camp that I attended every summer. Like many such camps, this one was staffed with teenagers and college students who had good intentions, but a decided lack of life experience that would lead to practical out working of said intentions in the lives of those they led. I know this because I worked there for two summers later in life, but that is another story.

I told my parents that Pete and I were just hanging out at Wild Waves and that we were good friends. I told them he was a Good Christian Boy that I met at Good Christian Camp and they believed me. In truth, we were hiding in the maze at Wild Waves testing the limits of our sexuality without actually doing it. Because Good Christian Kids don't do it. When we got kicked out of Enchanted Village/Wild Waves for "inappropriate conduct in a family setting" we moved our experimentation to movie theaters, malls, and of course, our bedrooms. We retained this arrangement for almost 10 years, through boyfriends and girlfriends, Pete getting kicked out of his public school for sexual harassment, even through Pete finally doing it with a friend of mine. At my house. On my trampoline. The last time he called I told him that we couldn't hook up because I was engaged to be married. But I had to think long and hard before I uttered those words.