College Relationships

Seeing My Very First Girlfriend Again

(Roxanne, my very first girlfriend ever in my life)

"Max? Is it really you?" She reached her hands out to touch my face, which I let her.

"Yes, Roxanne, it's me," I said. "I promise you."

Then Roxanne broke down into tears and embraced me. "Oh, Max! I've missed you so much!"

I embraced her back as she cried her eyes out. "I've missed you too."

We hadn't seen each other for more than eight years and yet I never forgot her and I missed her so much. I was very pleased to see her again and I was very pleased that she hadn't forgotten me either and that she was very pleased to see me too.

"Oh, Max," Roxanne said, after fifteen minutes of crying. "I'm very sorry I dirtied you."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Roxanne," I said. "I'm just glad you're okay. Are you with anybody? Any family or friends?"

"No, Max," she said sadly. "I'm all alone and I have no place to go."

I was very shocked to hear that. "All alone? No place to go?"

"Yes. And it's a very long story."

Then I looked at the sky. It was starting to get dark, which meant I had to return the ATV back to the resort. Then I had an idea. I turned back to Roxanne. "Listen, Roxanne. I'm staying near this resort. Why don't you come with me? That way you won't be alone anymore."

Roxanne thought about it for a bit. Then she said, "Okay, Max. I'll go with you."

Then we rode on the ATV back to the resort. Because Roxanne had never rode on one before, I was driving it as gently as I could. As we drove back to the resort, being with her again reminded me a lot of the day when she had to leave me.

I remember the day that she and her dad had to leave for Texas. It was a mild Saturday afternoon in February 1997 and I was heading to the supermarket to buy some groceries. I was passing Roxanne's house and I was shocked when I saw it. It was on fire! Then I was more shocked when I saw Roxanne was still in her bedroom! It was like she wasn't aware of the fire.

I waved to her to catch her attention. When she saw me, she opened her window. "Hi, Max!" she greeted.

"Roxanne, get out!" I yelled. "Your house is on fire!"

She always believed me because I never lied to her apart from the time I lied about Powerline and my dad being in a band together before Powerline's glory days. As I waited for her to get out, I used my phone to call 911 for the fire service to come.

After I finished reporting the fire, I saw Roxanne still in her room.

"I can't get out, Max!" she yelled to me. "I can't go downstairs! The stairs and the whole first floor are on fire!"

I looked down and saw it was. I looked around to see what I could do to get Roxanne out of the house before she got burned alive. Then I saw a bed mattress truck pass by and, when one of them fell out of it, that gave me an idea. I quickly grabbed it and managed to put it close enough to Roxanne's burning house.

"Roxanne, aim for the mattress!" I yelled.

"What?"

"Trust me! This is the only way you can get out of your house!" Then I got my arms ready to catch her in case she fell off before she could aim for the mattress.

Roxanne climbed out of her bedroom window and held onto it while she aimed for the mattress. Then there was an explosion in the house made her fall and scream. I managed to catch her into my arms and that made us fall onto the mattress. Then we got up and ran to the other side of the road to get far away from the fire as much as we could.

"Thank you so much for rescuing me, Max," Roxanne said, as she hugged and kissed me.

"No problem." Then I gasped. "We forgot about your dad!"

"No, we didn't," Roxanne said. "He's out shopping."

Soon the fire service arrived and immediately went to deal with the fire. I stayed to comfort Roxanne as we watched them. Then her dad arrived in his small green car.

"Sorry, Roxanne, but I think I should go before your dad accuses me of burning the place and endangering your life and gives me knuckle sandwiches," I said.

"No, Max, wait," Roxanne said. "I won't let him do any of that to you."

Then I heard some growling. I turned to see Roxanne's dad hovering above me.

"Daddy, stop it!" Roxanne snapped at him. "Max didn't start the fire. He called the fire service and saved me from being burnt alive."

But Roxanne's dad didn't stop growling at me until the fire chief grabbed them. The fire was out, but the once-beautiful house was now nothing more than a pile of hot ash and rubble. According to their investigation, the fire crew believed that the fire was caused by the cooker in the kitchen. They found flames coming out of the cooker and they must have caught the kitchen curtains and that was how the fire spread across the house. Roxanne's dad was making his sausage casserole and left it to cook in the oven while he went out to buy beer, while Roxanne was in her room doing her homework.

So now Roxanne and her dad had nothing except each other and their car. They always had been poor, but now they were completely broke and homeless. They had no home, no money, no food, no clothes apart from the ones they were wearing now, no TV, no books, no photos of each other including Roxanne's mother who had died from a car crash when she was three and none of Roxanne's achievements in school survived. Everything they had then had now gone up in smoke. They had no insurance and Roxanne's dad didn't have a bank account and he had no savings or benefits and he had been unemployed for more than a decade. They only managed to live in the house, thanks to the money Roxanne's mother left them in her will after she died.

As if that didn't upset Roxanne now, she and her dad had to leave and move to Texas, because it was their only hope. As if she didn't lose an awful lot that day, she had to lose me as well. I was just as upset that she had to leave as she was. I didn't want her to go, but I couldn't stop her because she and her dad had no choice. Before she left Spoonerville, I gave her some money. About two hundred dollars. That was three months' worth of how much I earned from the sports shop I worked at when I wasn't at high school. She was glad that I was thinking of her, but she was still reluctant to take it because she didn't want to take advantage of me, but I insisted in case she and her dad needed emergency food or gas for their car. I also gave her one of my old hidden travel wallets for her to hide the money under her shirt so the money would be safe from criminals and her dad wouldn't waste it on buying beer.

Then the time came for me and Roxanne to say goodbye. We gave each other one last hug and kiss before she had to get in her dad's car and drive off to Texas. I was very sad about my forced breakup with her. Even though my heroic deeds that day was in the paper the next day and all my friends at school and everyone in Spoonerville praised me for being a hero, all I remembered I from that very sad day was losing Roxanne. Not just how I almost lost Roxanne in her burning house, but how I really lost her when she had to move away. For a few days, I was miserable and I didn't have a girlfriend until I discovered that Lisa got cheated on by Chad and I started to comfort her and that was when I started my relationship with her.

Despite all the relationships I had, and they were all wonderful and special in their own way, I never forgot about Roxanne and I was very worried if she forgot me and why she didn't write to me to let me know about her life in Texas (but I learned why and I'll explain about it in the next chapter).