Freque Factory - Senior Year

Freque Factory

Senior Year

   By the time we started our senior year of high school Monique had her driver's license.  She also had the primary use of an old Ford Falcon station wagon.  I had finished all the requirements, but my father was unwilling to stop being the only driver in the family.  No car was available for me either, and he wasn't willing to pay for my auto insurance (or the increase in the insurance of the family car) if I was able to get a car.  So I shrugged my shoulders, chalked it up to parental foolishness and got myself an official ID card instead.  Mostly I got around by walking, riding the bus, and rides from friends.

   Monique and I put a lot of miles on that old Ford Falcon.  Besides school and our homes, the most common places we drove to were Brian's house and where ever Freddie was living.  Usually Freddie's place was where we'd meet Brian.  Freddie moved around quite a bit, so it was always interesting.  One time he spent almost a year living in a place Vincent Price had previously lived in.

   It was at one of the homes that I finally met Freddie's older brother.  It was clear where all the family good looks had gone.  The guy was movie star-model-rock star handsome.  We nicknamed him "Too Cool," since clearly he knew he was.  Mostly he didn't acknowledge our presence.  I was offended at first.  Later on I was grateful.

   Too Cool may have been good to look at, but he was not a nice person.  When I first met him he was supplementing his money from dad by running a string of prostitutes.  I'm not making this stuff up.  His whores were high class and expensive, but he kept them submissive with drugs and violence.  His girlfriend was a high fashion model.  Together they would fly down to South America about once a month.  They would use the trip to smuggle cocaine out.  Surprisingly, they were never caught.  Too Cool developed a major cocaine habit.

   We usually drove out there to go dancing or to hear some music.  Susan would sometimes come out with us, since she was quasi dating Freddie by this point.  They were never serious about each other, but it was convenient.  Unfortunately, we often had to wait to go out while the guys took care of a drug deal.  Brian and Freddie had moved up to a higher class of drug dealing.

   Quite often Monique would get mad a Brian for the delay because it usually meant that we weren't going out.  So a trip clear out there for nothing.  We both learned to stay out of the way during the delays.  I didn't really want to know about their drug dealing and neither did Monique.  Sometimes Too Cool would be there as well.  Monique eventually became friends with Too Cool's girlfriend (eventually wife).  That friendship lasted many years.

   A pattern developed.  Monique and Brian would get into a fight and separate.  No more trips out to Hollywood for a while.  She'd start dating other guys.  Eventually Brian would come begging back, promising to stop using and selling drugs.  Sooner or later she would start going out with him again and the whole cycle would start all over again.

   We did have adventures in Hollywood besides being with Brian.  One time Monique tried out to be a contestant on a tv show called "The Dating Game."  She didn't get picked.  They asked me to compete as well, but I said no.

   Another time we went out to this Teen Expo in Hollywood.  Susan's dad had just visited and left her with over $200.  She paid our admission and we had a lot of fun.  Susan and Bette, of course, gravitated towards the rock musicians.

   Our friend Joanne had graduated from high school the year before.  She was attending the local community college.  She was still dating Jim sometimes.  He was working legit jobs sometimes, selling drugs sometimes, and still trying to commit suicide to hurt his family sometimes.

   That November Joanne's father died of a massive heart attack.  Totally unexpected.  Her family rapidly fell apart.  Her brother was already out of the area attending college.  I'm not sure how he financed it, but he eventually became a lawyer like his dad.  Joanne's mom retreated into some pretty deep depression.  When the dust settled, the family found out there really wasn't much money available.  So Joanne left school and started working.

   Some new people joined the group.  One of the most memorable was a guy we called the "Bad Penny."  He was such a slime ball.  No morals to speak of.  Betty dated him for a while, but even she dropped him.  Sometimes Bad Penny would vanish for a while.  We'd all breath a sigh of relief.  Probably in jail for drug charges or something.  Monique developed a superstition that if anyone mentioned his real name, Bad Penny would show up again.  It did seem to be true.  Even Freddie avoided Bad Penny, though he would use him if a deal was especially sleazy.

   It seemed like a lot of things were changing.  My parents were having another rough spot in their marriage.  The last time they didn't tell me about it until they had pretty much worked through it.  As long as it didn't effect me too much, I pretended not to notice, which was what they wanted me to do.

   It being senior year, that fall I visited local colleges and started filling out college applications.  My parents had always said that if I could get in, they would find a way to help me go to college.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to study (or be when I grew up), but there were some good local colleges that I would have enjoyed going to.  I said "would."  As I filling out applications one night that fall, my dad interrupted me, asking me what I was doing?

   In retrospect, it had to have been a very difficult conversation for him.  My dad sat down and carefully explained to me that they didn't have the money to send me to a 4 year college.  They could help me with a local community college, but even that I would have to mostly pay for myself.  I was devastated.  I still point to that conversation as the point in which my childhood ended.  I was emotionally wounded all over again when, a year later I found out that my father had been spending money on a mistress for the last 2 years or so.

  That was the first half of my senior year of high school.  It had already been pretty strange.  I had no idea how strange it was going to get.