This is an excerpt from book five of my serialized coming-of-age novel Meeting Dennis Wilson.
Spring 1976; Quaker Valley, Pennsylvania (“Like Gettysburg, except nothing happened here”). A rainy day ride prompts narrator Brian Pressley to tell the story of his girlfriend Christy Kelly, her big sister Kathy, Kathy’s ex-boyfriend Paul, Paul’s little sister Liz, their best friend Margo, and a Penn State Swimming Sweatshirt.
See the bottom of this post for more information on Meeting Dennis Wilson.
Liz hadn’t always loved Christy, nor Christy Liz. Before Kathy started seeing Davy, she’d dated Liz’s big brother Paul, and not only did it not end well, but when they broke up, Paul accidentally (or “accidentally,” depending on who you asked) gave Kathy a stylish PENN STATE SWIMMING sweatshirt that belonged to Liz. When Kathy got the post-breakup box of stuff (because there was always a post-breakup box of stuff… or, as I learned once with Christy, a bag…), she looked at the sweatshirt and said “This isn’t mine! Why’s he giving me this for? I don’t want this!”
“I’ll take it,” Christy said, figuring that the STOCKER written in indelible ink on the collar tag was for “Paul” and not “Liz.” But when she wore it, innocently, to school the next day, Liz confronted her. “Where’d you get that sweatshirt?”
“Kath gave it to me. She got it from your brother.”
And Liz, according to Margo, “lost… her… crap. ‘That’s MY sweatshirt.’ Which, of course, what did Christy know? You know? ‘No… Kath said it was Paul’s and he gave it to her!’ And so the sweatshirt drama went for the next two weeks, every time I’d see one or the other of them: Liz with ‘It’s mine and she should just give it back,’ and Christy with ‘I don’t know what she’s talking about. Kath gave it to me.’ Yeesh!”
Finally, Margo got so tired of hearing them both –“of being pulled into the middle of it against my will”– that she got them together at Pizza House, and over a small pie, she played arbitrator. “Look, woman,” and for a moment, neither of them knew which one Margo was talking to, “the tag says STOCKER on it. Right? Kathy assumed it was Paul’s, but Liz says it’s hers, so… you should give it back.” And before Christy could let out a “But–” Margo looked at Liz. “But Liz, look: Paul did give it to Kath. Right? So maybe you ought to talk to your brother and find out why he’s giving away your clothes to his ex-girlfriend. Right?”
Liz smiled. “I have a better idea…”
The three of them left Pizza House together and went over to Christy’s house, up to the bedroom that Christy and Kathy shared, and Christy showed Liz which dresser was hers and which was her sister’s, and which bottle of perfume atop that dresser was Kathy’s favorite, and Liz said, well, was Christy sure, she didn’t want to waste that, but Christy said, “Believe me… she won’t think it’s a waste…”
…so Liz grabbed the bottle and aimed the atomizer of Kathy’s Amarige de Givenchy perfume right at the collar of Liz’s-through-Paul-to-Kathy-to-Christy Penn State sweatshirt and spritz spritz spritzed… then, for good measure, aimed some at each of the cuffs (“Do sweatshirts even HAVE pulse points? Let’s pretend they do!”) and finally at the XL right in the middle of the chest: spritz spritz spritz spritz spritz!
“It smells so pretty,” Liz said as she set the perfume bottle back on Kathy’s dresser. “I can’t believe Paul would want to give this away… can you?”
And so she and Christy went over to Liz’s house, up to Paul’s bedroom, and stuffed the sweatshirt in the bottom drawer with his other sweatshirts and sweaters… “no, maybe in his underwear drawer… or his sock drawer… no, maybe with his t-shirts… or his jeans…”
By the time they left, according to Christy, “Paul’s room smelled like the perfume counter at Gimbels. No, correction: it smelled like Kath. And Liz and me have been buddies ever since.”
About Meeting Dennis Wilson…
“Today marks the day that I officially add Meeting Dennis Wilson to my ‘Favorite Coming of Age Books’ list. I adore John Green and his work [and] I fell in love with this book just as easily as I fell in love with Paper Towns or An Abundance of Katherines. Meeting Dennis Wilson can easily be compared to a teenager who’s just coming of age: awkward, quirky, hilarious, and loads of fun to be around.Meeting Dennis Wilson is incredibly comical, sweet, and ultimately feel-good.” (The Literary Connoisseur)
Meeting Dennis Wilson is available in both softcover print and Kindle editions, in either seven serialized installments or as an omnibus edition gathering all seven books.
To read excerpts from Meeting Dennis Wilson, click here.
Max Harrick Shenk, writer 
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