Freshman Year - Part 4, Troy

Cayuga used to hire small name local bands to come to campus and give concerts. These were considered really big events by students and well attended. One of these was during a time I was really looking for a boyfriend (when wasn’t I?). I had no party clothes to speak of, just my everyday jeans and shirt. So that was what I put on for the concert. I didn’t feel special at all or that I would stand out in any way. I didn’t own any make up; so I wore none. Heck, I didn’t even have curly lashes like Janice. I did not own a blow drier for my shoulder length hair. What chance did I have to meet anybody? So, there I stood bathed in the deafening “music”, scanning the crowd for “men”. They were really far and few between at Cayuga. As I was standing there, someone came up behind me and asked me to dance. I turned and it was this really cute black guy. So I said, “Sure.”

I had not noticed him before on campus. But he was around five foot eight, with an afro and very attractive. He really knew how to dance. We were doing the bump and I was just trying to keep up with him, as my dancing skills are not that great (can you say major white man’s disease?). He must have noticed because we only danced one and then he turned to his other two friends, a girl and a boy, standing there waiting and motioned the girl to join him in the dance. Man, she could move for a white girl.

She had short black hair, but was plain and stocky. The young man had curly dirty blond hair and blue eyes and was okay looking. He was tall, but his face looked kind of boyish for my tastes. We all went down stairs together in the student union for refreshments and introduced ourselves.

The young black man said, “Hi. My name is Troy. These are my friends Colleen and Timothy.”

I replied, “Hi. I am Sue.” We got to talking and it turned out that Colleen was from Sullivan County in the Catskills and Timothy was from Long Island. Troy was from Spanish Harlem, born of Puerto Rican and African American parents. Just like that I had found a small click of friends to be with. Troy was magnetic and very bright and handsome and I hoped to date him. Certainly, Colleen was no threat to me there. Besides, Colleen just seemed to have a heart of gold. I really like that in a friend. She couldn’t possibly think that Troy was going to date her. He did seem to be focusing in on me.

At one point during our chit chats it came up that he was a government sponsored student. I said, “Oh, you mean like the Equal Opportunity Students here at Cayuga?”, and he indicated that yes, that was indeed the case. There were a whole bunch of EO students on campus. As a matter of fact, there was an entire floor of one of the dorms devoted to EO students.

Late one night, Troy walked me back to my dorm room. When we got there we were alone. He stepped in ahead of me and neither of us turned on the lights. He put his hands on my shoulders and drew me closer to him. Our mouths met and he kissed me. His tongue came out and rubbed quickly back and forth over my lips, but when I opened my mouth, he withdrew and smiled. Then he turned and left without a word. I was totally confused. He was my boyfriend, just really prudish? I just didn’t know what to think. But in general I was pleased, because he was really hot and he was mine.