{Not much sex here, just a heads up.}
Gary was nearly 38 years old by the time he finally decided that he hated women.
Not hate in the idea of refusing to enjoy sex with one of them from time to time, but he was sick and tired of being told one thing and finding out that the truth was quite different.
Way back in high school, he really liked Shelly Martin. There wasn't any sex of course, it was holding hands and two straws in the milkshake, always Chocolate because Shelly liked that best of all.
Gary really enjoyed the holding hands part. They also went to the school dances in the gym that were held at lunch break once a week. He could actually hold her in his arms, although the few inches apart had to be maintained or the teachers would get upset.
Then one evening they were underneath the bleachers during a football game and they were holding hands and talking quietly.
It was pretty dark behind there, but he could see her face in the reflection of the lights on the field. Her hair smelled of shampoo and there was a hint of a perfume.
She looked so pretty, he pulled her closer, she stopped talking and smiled up at him. Nearly hopelessly unsure of himself, he leaned in for a kiss, hoping. She leaned forward also. It was one of those pressing together of the lips that is magic when a boy is in his teens.
She giggled, then she kissed him again. That was all it was, but it was really a big deal to Gary.
It was daydreams all that night and the next day, which was Sunday. Sundays around their house meant Church, so Gary dutifully climbed into the back seat and off they went like always.
After, he asked his Mom for three dollars, he wanted to walk over to Shelly's house and see if she would go down to the ice cream shop with him for a soda. It would be his treat, with three dollars he could buy each of them one, a Strawberry one for himself and a Chocolate one for her. That way she could have a whole one all to herself.
Then maybe, just maybe she would let him kiss her again later on.
There were some of the guys from school at the ball field, playing catch. Like always, the game was progressing to the point where the ball was coming in hot. That was fun, watching them catch the ball and then shake their hands to ease the sting, then fire one back.
Gary stopped to watch for a short period.
That was when he spotted Shelly, she was behind the back of the bleachers. He started to head that way, then he realized she was talking to Jack Branston, one of the upper crust jock types.
As he watched, she leaned in for a kiss, and it was a very long one, nothing at all like the one Shelly had given him the night before in almost the exact same place.
Gary ran all the way home, went to his room.
"What's the matter, honey?" His Mother called out through the bedroom door. She had instantly noticed that he was upset.
"Nothing!" He answered. She left him alone, figuring whatever it was, he would get over it.
He didn't, not really. He was completely crushed by what he had witnessed.
Gary never told Shelly what he had seen, and he also refused to talk to her.
"You haven't talked to me for days, what's wrong?" She asked him as he was opening his locker a few days later.
Gary closed his locker door and walked away, not answering. After a few attempts, she gave up and paid no attention to him at all.
Then several days later he saw Shelly in the halls holding hands with Jack.
At the end of his junior year, the big discussion was Junior prom night. Shelly shocked him by coming up to him as he was opening his locker and asking him if he wanted to take her.
"No!" He said, before he could even stop to think.
She got a mad look on her face and walked away.
Gary didn't even go to the Prom that year. It was much later when he heard that she had broken up with Jack and went to the prom by herself.
+++
A quiet and boring Summer went by, then the last long year of school. Gary managed to make a "B" average, his Mother was pleased with that.
"It's going to be a little bit hard to make ends meet for college but I can send you money and you can get a job, nearly anyone will hire a big strong good looking man like you." She told him, touching his hair like she did all the time.
When it came time for the Senior Prom, he wasn't going to go but his Mother encouraged him. He had not been out on a single date all of his Senior year so he had no idea of who to ask.
"It's the one night in your life you don't want to miss, honey. Please?" She insisted.
So Gary asked Charlette Webb, she was kind of heavy and wore thick lens glasses, but she was nice and besides she lived right next door. She was one year younger so she wasn't even in his class.
Charlotte was not one of the popular girls, she was mousy and kept mostly to herself.
She always wore the silliest looking clothes, sweaters and heavy skirts, colors that didn't match.
Her Father was a policeman and he was raising her by himself.
Plain described her pretty well, and she was a bit of a bookworm, always getting straight "A's".
Gary had never really paid any real attention at all to her except to say hello. One time when it was really hot out she had invited him to use their swimming pool, so he went over there.
She wore a full body bathing suit that made her look huge that day. It had a built in fringe around the bottom and heavy seams with stitches on the bodice.
Charlotte looked funny in that outfit.
But they talked sometimes and she was nice, he liked her and she was just a friend, someone he knew. Her Father was right there and he watched them like a hawk, but he did always treat Gary nicely.
Gary was floored when he saw Charlotte that night of the prom. She had on a blue frilly evening gown, the tops of her breasts were on display which embarrassed him a little bit. Somehow she appeared far more slender than he thought she was.
Without the heavy dark framed glasses she appeared completely different.
His hands were shaking as he pinned the corsage on her, his face flaming. Gary carefully turned his fingers outwards towards the cloth like his Mom had shown him.
Charlotte's face turned pink as the back of his fingers barely brushed her bare flesh but she never moved. He got the corsage pinned on, but it was a little bit crooked, her Father reached in and fixed that.
On the way there in his Mom's Ford Fairlane Gary complimented her on how nice she looked, mentioning that he had never seen her dressed like that.
"My eighteenth birthday was three weeks ago, so Dad said I was an adult and can wear pretty things now. He even picked this out for me." She looked down with a blush but a smile crossed her lips.
"Where did you learn to dance so well?" He asked her at one point. She was like a feather, every motion he made she made somehow. His own efforts were pretty terrible normally, but with her it was easy. His mind flashed back to trying to dance with Shelly Martin, he usually had to give her a push to get her to move the direction he wanted to go and sometimes even that didn't work.
"My Dad taught me, he loves to dance." She smiled at him.
Gary knew of course that Charlotte was being raised by her Father. He didn't know anything about her Mother.
He did understand that, he was being raised by his Mother, no Father had been around since he was six. He had only seen his own Father a few times, and got a card at Christmas with a few small bills, and also on his birthday. Never a letter, never a note.
