Summer Memories Fade: Friendship in Transition

2) The “MAGIC” Fades Then Is Gone.
The third summer we were together was a bit more hectic that the other summers we had together. I was working more hours and Allison was also working for a neighbour, but we still met up every evening we could.
Then Allison and I started grade 12. School was chaotic for me as the workload increased. I almost regretted changing from the vocational to the academic studies. Allison and I started out the school year like all the other years hoping to make good marks so we could get on with our lives afterwards.
Our parents had been socializing with each other for a while now and were best friends. I’m sure the Christmas, New Years and Easter holidays were the best ever with both families enjoying the festivities together. It was like having one big happy family around all the time.
Allison and I still enjoyed being with our friends with the only difference being Shane who had started hanging out with a rougher crowd at school. The rest of us were considering him to be less of a friend and more of an acquaintance. That was mainly because his attitude had really changed and he wanted to fit into the image his new group of friends had. He

Having my birthday meant Allison’s was coming up three months afterwards. That was the big eighteenth for her as well, and we had been anxiously waiting for it. There were a lot of loving looks back and forth between us knowing our time was coming to consummate our relationship. Our parents knew about our promise to each other and we could see they were of a mixed opinion about that. On the one hand they knew we would get physical even if we weren’t married, but on the other they knew that when we did do it we would both be adults and they had no real say in the matter. We still had our talks with the parents about birth control and responsibilities etc, which was to be expected I