Parents

So, its kinda late, but its the thought that counts, right? Plus I'm sure there are a lot of presents lost in the mail that won't surface until next month. At any rate, Happy Ho-Ho's, Merry New Number, and all that good stuff.

Todays rant is about over-controlling parents. I was blessed with really cool parents that let me be me and trust me to make good decisions. To me, that's what all parents should be like. Unfortunately, a lot of my friends have these super-Nazi parents that insist on controlling every aspect of their kids lives, from their hobbies, to after-school activities, even who they can and cant date. If you know me personally, which I'm sure if you're reading this blog you do, you can probably guess who I'm aiming at. So, here's how the story goes. Feel free to fill me in on what you think via the comments. Maybe I just cant see the way this guy does because I'm not a parent.

The following story is true, and as such is pretty damn long. To skip to the situation in question without reading the introduction, click here. To protect the innocence and make the story more interesting, nicknames will be used in place of real names. Thank me later.

To start off, I was a senior in high school from 2007-2008. Vector was a freshman. With that said, back in December of 2007 I met this girl (Vector), who was a friend of my best friend's (Squirrels) girlfriend (Ali). Lost yet? Good. At first we were really hitting it off. I enjoyed talking to her, and she enjoyed listening to me. After a while, I got suspicious of her though. One day, I told her I believed she was in love with me. She didn't know herself. I told her to think about it. The next day, she admitted she was in love with me. The problem was I was already in a relationship with this girl we called Peanut.

Skip forward to January 2008. Things were slowly falling apart with Peanut. In my infinite wisdom, I told her I thought it was best to just cut it. She agreed. Now that I had a gaping hole in my heart, I was a wreck. Then Vector came around. I quickly picked her up, and we were lovebirds for a long time.

One day during what I'm guessing to be February, Vector used her not-so-infinite wisdom to skip some classes during the school day to come see me during the time I help the computer programming teacher do weird and usually useless stuff. When Ali heard about this, she decided to do the same knowing that Squirrels, her boyfriend, would be there too. I didn't catch word of the plan until I saw them walk through the door, at which time I told them to go back to class. They refused, or lied, or something, and ended up staying. The next day, Ali got caught by the school administrators. We don't really know how, but we believe Ali told them the entire plan, and ratted out Vector. Vector then got hauled in too, and her parents were called. When they were, they found out about how I was the reason she skipped. Her dad didn't like that, and told her he didn't want her to see me anymore. From that point on, he has hated me for no wrong-doing of my own.

April came. I graduated. Now things were getting interesting. Since I was no longer a student at the school, how was I supposed to see Vector? Well, I talked to her on MSN/the phone, and made a bad choice. I told her that I thought it would be best if we saw other people since it seemed it couldn't work out between us. After some thinking and talking, though, I changed my mind. On June 3, 2008, I told her if she wanted, I would wait 3 years for her to graduate, and then we could resume where we left off. Sappy, right? Yea, but as impossible as you might think, I'm extremely good at keeping promises. So the waiting game began.

So, we were technically back together. We were talking for hours with eachother every night, and MSNing eachother for the better part of the day every day. Then, some time in July (probably after the 4th), a new development came. She told me about how she stayed at the school after the school day ended on Wednesdays to help out in Production. I told her I would be at the school to see her then. Weeks went by, and we were enjoying seeing eachother every Wednesday. Her parents didn't know, of course, although I wanted to try to call her dad and ask for his formal permission to date her. When I asked Vector about it, though, she said she didn't believe he was ready for that, saying he was still angry at me for what happened in February. I decided not to call him, believing she knew him better than I did.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008. Vector calls me and tells me Wednesday is her sisters birthday (if I remember correctly). Because of that, she wont stay after school Wednesday. I'm sad. She tells me it's ok, though, because Saturday, a school play is starting, and she will be working it. I tell her Ill be there. Saturday comes and goes with no problems. We had a great time. She tells me the play will be running next Saturday too. Once again, we agree to meet. That next Saturday, December 13, 2008, everything changes...

I told you that story so that you would understand this story. December 13, 2008. Vector and I are at my house watching Wall-E (she never saw it before) and generally enjoying eachothers company. Then her phone rings. Her dad is calling. This isn't exactly unusual. I tell her to pick it up, even promising to be quiet while they talk. She refuses, saying "if its important, he will leave a voicemail". No voicemail left. A couple minutes later, he calls again. I feel something is wrong. I tell her to pick it up. Once again, no. Once again, no voicemail. Then her dad and mom start taking turns spamming her phone, each time leaving no voicemail. Now I KNOW something is wrong. Her friend calls. She picks up. "Where are you?! Your parents are at the school looking for you!" her friend says. We get in my car and get moving back to the school. On the way, her parents are still calling. She is freaking out, but I'm not. I figure we can lie our ways out of it. She asks me what to tell them. Being the slick thinker I am, I tell her to tell them she was talking with some teachers in another part of campus. Just as we agree on the plan, her phone rings again. Its the school main office. Now I start spazzing out. I start thinking, is what I did illegal? Will there be police involved? Is there any chance I will get my ass kicked by angry school administrators? I don't let Vector see my uncertainty. We're quiet for a while. Then I say "I think its time to tell the truth..."

We pull up in the front parking lot. She tells me "I don't know what hes going to do." I ask "do you think he might be violent?" "Maybe...probably." I decide to keep my distance and expect confrontation. We start walking. I'm telling her "everything will be fine," just because I cant stand to see a girl scared so shitless. A man jumps out a van and runs over to us. "Where have you been?" he asks. She replies "this is Blake. We were at his house watching a movie." He says "why were you at his house?" She answers "because hes my boyfriend!" The argument lasts a couple minutes, then finally ends. I walk away with all of my limbs intact, but with a really sick feeling that this isn't the end of it.

The next day, he uses her phone to call me. He tells me we are not allowed to ever talk to eachother again. While this infuriates me because I hate when parents try to make decisions for their kids, I know my place in this fight and just answer "yes, sir."

Now, it has been nearly a month since then, and I haven't talked to her the whole time. I miss her. Ill do anything, ANYTHING, just to talk to her again. And I'm just crazy enough to do anything. Ive contemplated calling him, apologizing, explaining the situation, and trying to make things right, but after telling my dad and friends about it, they seem to think its Vectors job to fix this. What do you guys think? Are the parents over-reacting? Am I, and more importantly Vector, getting what we deserve? What should we do to fix this?