I’m From West Hartford, CT – Video Story.

by Peter Paige

I’m Peter Paige. To say I’m from West Hartford, Connecticut is a little bit of a misnomer, I was born in West Hartford, Connecticut but I’m from a lot of places. I envy people who can say a statement as simple as “I’m from Driftwood.” But that’s not me. The summer after my freshman year of college I went to do summer-stock in Manteo, North Carolina which is on the outer banks and the day we all moved in – a summer rain shower came along and we were out on the deck dancing in our underwear, which I don’t really know why we were doing that but it seemed like the right thing to do. We were nineteen. And I looked down and this guy is moving in. He’s probably 6’4, blonde, looks like Apollo. He’s like a god. I mean, he’s ridiculous to look at. And I can’t stop staring at him, and he’s moving his stuff in and out and there’s a girl helping him moves things – a young woman. They’re moving things in and out and keep walking past. And I see him look up at me, maybe once, maybe twice. And I kind of wave hi. And he sort of nods back and at one point one of my roommates comes over and is like ” Who’s that?” I said, “That’s my next boyfriend.” And he was like, “Yeah, I think that’s his girlfriend.” “Whatever.” I’m telling you, something in me knew. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, I don’t know what, but something in me knew from the second saw him. So it turns out that was his girlfriend and I spent a fair amount of time with him over the rehearsal process which was only like two – two in half weeks or something. And we got to know each pretty well and we became part of a little group of four people who hung out a lot. His name’s Terry, by the way. So I spent time getting to know Terry and I really enjoyed it but I had kind of let go of the idea that we were going to date. Kind of, let it go. He was straight. He had a girlfriend. Wow, and that was kind of weird, I had got a hit off of him. Whatever! Whatever! I just kind of let it go. At one point I realized I’m sitting alone, with Terry on this beautiful deck, looking out over, what is almost dawn, it is almost sunrise and we’re sitting there – we’re shooting the shit talking about something, I really don’t remember what and at one point Terry says to me, “You know, Peter, I dig you.” And I was like, “Well thanks, I dig you too man, that’s sweet.” And he goes, “No, I DIG you, DIG you.” So this kind of perfect moment in the quiet of predawn beach in North Carolina – I leaned over and kissed him for the first time and I’m sure the alcohol had something to do with it – but it was perfect. It was this perfect kiss with Apollo.

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