When I was 15, I skipped school, stole my Dad's car, and went to meet some girls in person for the first time. And of course... NOTHING WENT RIGHT!!
I had gotten my license exactly at 15 years and 8 months. But Pops wouldn't let me take his car alone. At the time, he worked 12-hour shifts at his job, 7am to 7pm, and he always brought his lunch with him. So, my idea was to get a friend to drop me off at his job's parking lot in the morning (after 7am) and come back to get me in the evening (before 7pm). I was gonna have a nice and fun day in my Dad's car... and he was never gonna know what hit him!... Unless he was meticulous about checking his gas tank... because I had no intention of putting gas in it. It all started off so smoothly!...
I stole his spare car key prior to the day I planned for my joyride. I got a Homie to agree to skip school with me (not the friend that was dropping me off/picking me up). My Homie and I used to talk to girls on the "Chatline" and in some cases, we'd meet them in real life. *SIDEBAR: The Chatline was a telephone social/dating service.* <DISCLAIMER: I'm not admitting any of this with pride.> Okay, so the girls we were planning to meet this time from the Chatline were from Petersburg. Our parents weren't gonna drive us to Petersburg to meet up with some girls we met on a telephone social/dating service. And we couldn't think of any kind of excuse that would get our parents to drive us down there. **SIDEBAR: For my non-local friends... Petersburg is about 20miles or so south of where I grew up: Richmond VA.** Okay, so the girls said they could meet us at Southpark Mall in Petersburg during school hours (they were skipping too). My homie and I said "Bet!".
So, I got my friend to drop me off at my Dad's car probably around 11ish or so. I got in and drove off and headed to pick my Homie up. We called the girls and said "We're on the way!" We asked them to describe their outfits so we'd know how to find them once we got there. We got to Southpark Mall and walked around, but we never told the girls we were there and we didn't describe our outfits to them. So... we saw them... and oh boy they looked NOTHING LIKE how they described on the phone. Not complexion, not shape/weight/height/size, not hairstyle... nothing was how they described. But their outfits were spot-on.... so we knew it was them. We didn't say anything to them. We just walked around the mall for a little while, as it was our first time at that mall. We crossed paths with the girls a few times, but tried not to make eye contact. They called a couple times, but I just didn't answer the phone. And finally... I guess it was maybe the 3rd time we crossed each other when walking around the mall... one girl was bold enough to stop us and say "Hey, Are you Jaye and <Homie's Name>?". We said... "Nah." and we kept walking. But I know they knew it was us. But after that... we just left and came back home. **If you must know... we didn't talk to those girls again.**
Okay. So... getting Pop's car back. I dropped Homie off and hit my friend (driver) up to let him know to pick me up from my Dad's job soon. On my way to Pop's job... maybe 3 blocks away... as I was crossing an intersection going maybe 40mph, a stupid squirrel dashed across the street. I freaked out and panicked and swerved to avoid it. And sure enough I ran into the median strip and "Boom" blew the driver side front tire! There were no cars near me and I wasn't hurt. But at that point of my life... I knew absolutely nothing about cars... in fact, it's probably safer to say that I knew less than nothing about cars. I had no idea what to do about the busted tire. I just pulled over to the right side. I was soooo sad, nervous, scared... cuz I thought Pops was gonna kill me. This was during the time when he'd punch me in the chest if I did or said something he really didn't like. So I just knew he was gonna flip out and I was never gonna be able to drive again. But... because I didn't know what to do myself, and the fact that I was so close to his job... I called my Dad. I confessed that I stole the car and that now I was stuck on the side with a busted tire. He took off from his job, had a friend drive him to me, and he put a donut on it. Then he had me return him to work and told me to go to a tire shop to get a used tire. He was totally cool about everything (to my surprise). All he asked me to do was pay for the tire and for gas. After that, he actually let me drop him off at work every day so I could drive to school. I had no idea how such an irresponsible act led to him trusting me. But I didn't complain!