Melissa + Erik

I cannot believe this on so many levels.

Erik was my boyfriend in early high school.  He was cute and he was cool and he was a red head and he was a year older than me and and regardless of the fact that he treated me far too well, I treated him like crap.  I still feel bad about it.  I think it's pretty clear that I treated him poorly since I didn't have the decency to write this on anything like the paper bag cover of my world history book, I wrote it on a clothespin.

But not just any clothespin!  The dorkiness of this deepens when you learn that we used clothespins to hold our music down during outdoor band rehearsals and performances.  At first I assumed this was from marching band, something near and dear to both Erik's and my hearts, but then I remembered we had flip folders.  So it must come from graduation practices outdoors, or even the performance of Pomp and Circumstance at the big event itself.

Alright, that all seems legit, but here's the thing:  Erik and I never dated during a graduation.  So either I was pining for him and wanted him to be my future boyfriend, and thus secretly declared my affection on this clothespin for all surrounding clarinet players and third trumpets who sat behind me to see, or it was the FOLLOWING graduation, which seems unlikely because I'm fairly sure I had moved on to another doomed high school relationship by then.  I'm sure I will find Chris's name inked on something like a plastic orange spoon.  I'll keep looking.

Erik, I'm sorry I treated you so badly and wrote that we should be together on my music paperweight.  You always deserved better than that.