Forward--

When I was 17, I met a man outside of a bar called The Spot. I was wearing a bright colored smock type vintage babydoll dress that was wild blue and very psychedelic. It was also a maternity dress and was shaped more like a tent then a dress (well probably really, it was meant to be a shirt. And when my thin arms wouldn't fit through them, I took them off and made it sleeveless). Underneath it I had white polyester shorts that peaked out from under the hem of the dress. I wore some sort of black shiny shoe. I had black horn rimmed glasses and bright red hair that matched my lipstick. It was 1991.

I was at The Spot because it was all ages night and there were bands playing and it was across the street from my Alateen meeting that my mother forced me to go to (though years later she will admit to never being an alcoholic and just really needing friends, but till that time she dragged me around with her to meetings and picnics) every Tuesday night and the only joy of sitting through those meetings was knowing that afterwards I could go to the bar and hear music.

My friend, Tom, had a little crush on me at that time, and I was sort of interested in him too. But, he had just started dating a woman ten years older than he and I and decided that was the way to go (and he was right, they are still together today), so he introduced me to Kent, the drunk drummer of his band. Who was also had just finished school at WSU and had a degree in creative writing and wrote poetry.  We wore the same type of glasses, and had dark brown hair and big brown eyes. He was a little shorter than me, but at that time I didn't care so much about those things. He was wearing cut-offs and a green, yellow and red  tie-dyed shirt with the outline of Africa on it and penny loafers that had a hole in the left toe.

We were immediately attracted to each other and he would change my life for the worse in a matter of months, but what did I know. I was 17 and sweeter than and native.