The Boys of Summer

(A true love story, interlaced with music)

“And a little voice inside my head said, “Don’t look back,  you can never look back,” I thought I knew what love was, what did I know? If those days are gone forever, I should just let them go.”

     Her name was Candace Shalen Easley, a petite blond girl I fell in love with when I was a junior. We were in a class together and after I found out she was transferring, even though I had yet to speak with her, I put my name on the Transfer list as well. I did it just so I could be with her.

“But I can see you! Your breasts keep shining in the sun! You got the top rolled down and the radio on, and I can tell you, my love will still be strong, after the boys of summer are gone.”

     After much hesitation, I shyly approached her (I was much more timid in those days) we eventually became friends, and I would walk her to her next class. I slowly began to collect the details of her life. Her mother had just married an 83-year-old man for money, her stepsister was 45, her step-nephew was 15, her dad was in prison on drug charges, but even before that, she only had a few pleasant memories of him.

     She was more intelligent than any girl I’d met before, with the ability to recite any C.S. Lewis story phonetically.  Her whole life was a crushing hurricane of chaos. I could tell she desperately wanted a champion, a white knight who could understand her. Someone to never abandon her. I wanted to be that man.

“I can see you! Your breasts keep shining in the sun! I see you walking real slow, and smiling at everyone, and I can tell you, my love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer are gone.”

     I never made my move, I was too afraid of loosing what little I had. So I stood by, as I saw guy, after guy, attempt to make her happy. In my senior year we had no classes together, so we stopped talking. I became a forgotten acquaintance to her. At lunch I would see her by the flag podium. The guy she was with would change every other month, but she would still be there, with arms wrapped around who ever he was. These pretty boys were just that, “boys”, they had never been forced by the world to feel the pain she had, I alone understood her, and I alone would have made her happy.

     But I knew, I would never get my chance.

“I can see you! Your breasts keep shining in the sun! You got your hair cut back, and sunglasses on, baby, and I can tell you, my love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer are gone.”

     In the end the Boys of Summer won, I graduated, and went on to live my life. While I may think about her less, and less, I don’t feel I’ll ever forget her.

     She was my first love, even if she never knew it.

“And I can tell you, my love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer are gone.”