Lainey's Story

32

Even though I knew what he was going to ask, I still felt my heart rattling around in my bony chest.

"You wanna make it official?" Shane asked.

I grinned, "Likeeeee...Facebook official?"

He rolled onto his back and laughed, "If that's official to you, then yes. Facebook official it is."

I sat up, grabbed my phone, and changed my status from single to "In a relationship with Shane Hollenbeck", eager to brag about my new man. Other than my ex Jonathan who wrote "Have fun with that one Shane," all the replies were positive and encouraging. everyone seemed happy to see that I wasn't with Bitch Ass anymore and was actually with a good guy.

I'll be honest, it was hard for me to believe that he wanted to be with lil ole me but you know what? I wasn't going to question it.

The rest of our trip to Lincoln City was great. We hit up the casino and came out over a thousand dollars ahead so we celebrated by getting dinner at the buffet there. Crab legs, shrimp, prime rib...ate like royalty. I had like three cups of ice cream too...which I immediately regretted when we got back to our room.

I was so fucking embarrassed to be in the bathroom, blowing my guts out. Like I didn't even fart in front of Krist for a while, let alone have frigging explosive diarrhea. He was so sweet about it offered to go get me some immodium and told me not to be sorry about it since everybody poops. Which, I know it's natural but we were still in the cute phase. Shitting isn't cute.

The following day, he suggested instead of going home we head down to Newport for a night and then go home. I had never actually gone but really wanted to go to the aquarium and also take pictures in front of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. For those of you who aren't familiar, that's the lighthouse used in the movie, The Ring.

We stopped at the lighthouse first and went exploring. It was a sunny day, maybe like 50 degrees but the coast temperatures always feel warmer to me for some reason.

Shane and I decided to walk the hiking trails before anything else since I was dying to see the seals and possibly some whales. He was super sweet about humoring me. Being around Shane was legit good for my mental health. He was pretty even-keeled all the time so the predictability kept my mind and ease. Like I never had a boyfriend who was willing to walk all over just so I can see some seals without bitching or picking a fight.

I mean, Krist occasionally would be cool with things but he was so moody and emotional, even when we were sort of clean. And Jonathan abso-fucking-lutely not.
I know it's not totally relevant to this part of my story but I do mention friggin' Jonathan a bit but don't go into much detail other than him being the sorta grown, well-grown-aged, meth-addicted version of Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons.

He wasn't my first boyfriend but he was my first long relationship and the first guy I lived with. We got together my Senior year of high school, I was seventeen and he was nineteen. He was a tenth-grade drop-out and hung out at the skatepark that Madi's man, Deangelo kicked it at.

The three of us, Madi, me, and Deangelo, were down there one day when Jonathan came up to us and macked on me hard. Like...looking back...I don't know what I saw in him. He wasn't all that cute, he looked like a grimy Slim Shady wannabe with pick marks on his face and scuffed-up shoes.

But I was basically a kid and he had drugs. I guess I thought he was cute at the time.

Back then I did drugs when I could and had been experimenting for about a year and a half at the time but was by no means an addict. Jonathan already was using pretty heavily which to me, was so cool. Not even kidding, I legitimately thought the amount of dope he could smoke at once was so hot back then.