Me & this dude right here used to have so much fun together. I was 16 & he was 18. If my memory serves me correctly, he had just recently moved to Romulus, Michigan, a small town, from Ypsilanti, Michigan, another small town. There’s roughly 20,000 people & 36 square miles, one junior high & one high school. So small that me & 2 other girls in my senior class were all pregnant by the same boy. Yeah, that small. But that’s a whole ‘notha conversation.
I’m not sure how we met or where, all I know is that we did. He was the perfect gentleman. When I would go to his house to visit, he would walk me home & then walk back by himself. He carried my books in school. Took me fishing with his family. We even went to the movies to see The Five Heartbeats downtown at The Ren Cen in Detroit. His aunt took us. She would always take us places.
Though he was classified as one of my favorite boyfriends, our fling lasted only a few months. You know how they say that girls like BAD GUYS & that good guys finish last? Well, there’s possibly some truth to that, unfortunately.
The reason why our budding teenage love was short lived was because of the on-again off-again shit show of a relationship I had with this dude (click the hyperlink to read that blog post) smh, who was the complete opposite of Tony (the young man in the picture).
He cheated on me incessantly AND got a girl pregnant while we were together. He & I got together when I was 14 years old, in the 9th grade, & were off & on until my 12th grade year.
After a while, I got tired of crying & wondering what the hell he was doing, so I started giving him a taste of his own medicine. I’d break up with him & start seeing other folks. Well, tried to anyway. The streets were talking. Now, this was before social media. This was the early 90s. It’s not like I was flossing folks around but, somehow, he always found out.
No one stayed around long because he would threaten, intimidate, & even fight dudes who even looked like they were interested in me. Crazy, right? That ninja was in deez streets knocking women up & had the nerve to be in his feelings about what I was doing. Pot…kettle.
Tony was different. He treated me lovingly, with respect. I felt that he truly cared about me. Sadly, I wasn’t used to that. He & I were public (hence the pic). I was done creeping around & doing shit in the dark because of my ex, who tried his best to bully Tony too, but it didn’t work. He didn’t run off. He was willing to put in the work…but I couldn’t handle the pressure.
The pressure from my ex that is. He was relentless. He wouldn’t leave me be. He wouldn’t loose me. After a while, I eventually broke up with Tony & got back with my ex. We ended up staying together for 2 more years before I broke it off…
I only saw Tony maybe 2 or 3 times after that. We were cordial. We talked briefly about our past. He told me that he used to really dig me. I told him I know & that he was a really good boyfriend to me. I was young & didn’t know any better.
Thank you Tony for showing me how a young girl was to be treated. You’re still in my conversations 30 years later. You’ve impacted me more than you could ever know.
Get your rest 💜
Phette Hollins 