I didn't really start becoming social until after I graduated high school and moved in with my parents full time. I got a job babysitting the kids next door to them and it was just more practical to live with them (even though I hadn't ever really lived with them full time). The neighbors did have internet though and I spent a lot of time on that computer.
That's where I met M. At the time I was a member of matchmaker.com back before there was a dating website on the corner of every cyber street (much like Starbucks in the real world). He and I chatted for a little while, probably a month before we actually met in person. But when we finally did meet (which was awkward to say the least) we began spending a ridiculous amount of time together, mainly in the evening hours. He would pick me up in this little bitty white car (kind of looked like a clown car if I'm being honest) and we would drive around doing all kinds of stupid things. I don't even remember half the stuff we did.
M happened to live with his best friend J, the guys rented out the basement bedroom of J's moms house. That's where we usually ended up. Get your mind out of the gutter! I was only 18 years old! We usually watched movies until the wee hours of the morning, or sometimes we would just fall asleep.
This happened to be one of those nights.
I came walking through my parents front door just as the sun was coming up and my dad was getting up to leave for work. Him and my mother both flipped out on me. Telling me they had called the number I gave them but that no one was answering and they wanted to know where I really was. I told them that J's mom worked nights at the post office and that she was usually up all night on the phone to someone on the weekends. They had call waiting but more often than not, she didn't answer the other line at night.
Which to be fair, sounds like a lie to me now. I probably wouldn't believe my kid if they came up with something like that either. But I had never lied before. I am admittedly not a good liar. People can usually see right through me when I'm trying tell any kind of a fib (so I just don't).
They didn't believe me though. And in true parenting fashion they gave me a curfew for the first time in my life. My grandparents had only ever told us that we needed to call them and let them know where we were if we were staying out late. My parents (having never actually parented before) didn't take this approach. They just decided I was lying because that's something they would have done at my age (never mind the fact that when they were 18 they had a two year old me).
I was understandably annoyed with this reaction because I really was telling the truth. I had actually woken up at their house and saw her still on the phone when M and I would be leaving to take me home. Later when I went back to M's house J's mom had told me that she heard someone on the other line but didn't click over. Which kind of annoyed me.
If only I'd been a teenager today when all my parents would have had to do is text my phone or look on G+ to find out where I was.
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