Tuesday, May 24

10:45 pm
Living Room

Hmm.  Think I'm about to get myself in trouble with my ex-wife.

We don't often disagree on parenting issues.  In fact, I think the last time we didn't see eye-to-eye was when we just had 2 kids and then she told me I was an idiot and we were doing things HER way because she had to deal with the fallout.  I didn't listen, went against her judgment and I paid for it later.

Since then I just pretty much let her make the decisions and I back her up.

But this time I just don't think I can do it.  There's a teenaged heart on the line.  And I'm a hopeless fucking romantic.

Jess and I had a great long talk last night.  Went out for pizza, played pinball, just hung out.  And he really opened up to me, told me everything going on in his "fucked up life" as he calls it.

Of course his life ain't even close to fucked up, but he's the one living the teenaged angst, not me.  So I just shut up and listened until he asked me what I thought.

So after the DC Beer Bust Dorothea promptly grounded Jesse.  Big time.  No afterschool activities, no phone, no TV, no computer except for homework, monitored by her, and no going out with friends.  Jess of course thought that was totally unfair since he was honest and up-front about his fuck-up, and he accepted responsibility.  Hence his attitude toward Momma last week.

Well obviously Dorothea couldn't ground Jesse from school, especially since she saw his expulsion coming.  And it was in the Hallowed High School Halls where the most recent drama began to unfold.

Seems Jesse got invited to the Prom.  He told the Girl he wants to go but he's grounded because of the beer thing and he doesn't think his Momma will back down.  Girl said she'll wait until the last minute, for him; if he can't go she'll go solo.  And no, Girl isn't Bridget.

Girl -- I think her name is Kaylie?  Keely?  Kelly?  Katie? K-something.  And no, not Katie.  I'd remember that one, ha ha.  Something with a Y in there somewhere.    Anyway -- Girl is a friend of Steph's but not one of her Posse.  Jesse says she's smart and pretty, but he's not at all attracted to her.  In fact, he thinks she's kinda fake.  But he wants to go to Prom with her anyway.

When I asked him why he wants to go to Prom with some girl he's not really into he gave me a line about it being some kind of a big honor for a Sophomore to be asked to Senior Prom, he doesn't want to hurt her feelings, blah blah blah.

But I saw right through that bullshit.  He wants to go because Bridget will be there.  With somebody else.

I listened and pondered and asked Jess a few leading questions, then finally got the truth out of him.  Turns out Bridget's still going to Prom with her ex-boyfriend, the one she broke up with after the fiasco out here a few weeks ago.  They're still double-dating with Steph and Brendan.  Jess said Bridget and her ex are just friends now; they're no longer a couple.  But I could hear the doubt in his voice when he said it.

I asked him how he knew Bridget and her ex were nothing more friends and he said she told him so, on the field trip.   I didn't let on that Cate filled me in on their hand-holding at the Kennedy Center, and he didn't tell me.  He just said they had a great time and Bridget was nice, more friendly and attentive to him than she's been since the night they were here together.

He actually said his favorite part of the entire field trip was sitting on a bench in Lafayette Park with Bridget, looking at the White House across the street and just talking.  Just the two of them.

Poor Bastard.  He wants to pull a Lloyd Dobler, make the Grand Romantic Gesture.  He's hoping that somehow him going to Prom and just being in the same room with Bridget will bring them together.  You know, like some old John Hughes movie, with the band playing the right song.... God, the thought of that makes me grin.

He's a natural-born Romeo, my firstborn son.  Just like his Daddy.

Maybe we should have named him Romeo instead of Chucklehead #2.  Well, I was in my cowboy phase when Jess was born, poor Kid.  Ha ha.

Anyway, Dorothea immediately said N-O when Jesse tried to ask her about Prom; didn't even listen to his entire question before shutting him down.  But Jess has been holding out hope that if he got his act together and did really great this week with the tutoring and volunteering and studying for finals and his attitude, maybe she'd give him a break.  And he has been doing really great.  Awesome, actually.

To Jesse's credit, he didn't ask me to intervene on his behalf.  Not sure if that's because he doesn't think I will or because he doesn't think it will do any good.  After all, his Mother has been making all the parenting decisions since he was in diapers.  I know he sees that, especially now that Dorothea and I are no longer married.

But my heart went out to him during that talk we had.  He just looked so sad and defeated.  Beat down by unrequited love.

I remember those days.

And now I think I gotta try to help My Boy.  I'm gonna take one for the team, tell Dorothea to give Jess a break and let him go to Prom.  She probably won't like it, may even bitch at me about it and tell me I'm being too soft-hearted, a wussy disciplinarian, or too stupid to see that Jess is playing me.

But I know he's not.  I can see it in his eyes.

I'll call her tomorrow.