History—Age Seventeen
- When Vera is seventeen, she rides up to the pagoda with Charlie on his motorcycle for the first time, and he kisses her gently on the lips when she pulls off her helmet. It's almost like she's his girlfriend or something.
- They watch movies together almost every Friday night that winter, and sometimes Charlie even reaches over to hold Vera's hand, which makes her feel all sorts of gooey feelings.
- On Valentine's Day, Vera comes home from school and finds that Charlie has sent her a dozen red roses, with a note that he'll pick her up at 8:00PM.
- She sits downstairs and waits for him to pick her up, but by 8:30PM he still hasn't arrived. Vera calls his house, and his mom tells her that Charlie is out. What in the world?
- Charlie finally shows up to pick her up, and he seems distracted. He takes her up to the pagoda, and she thinks it's going to be romantic, but when they get there, she realizes that a bunch of his friends are already hanging out there—including Jenny Flick.
- Vera just sits around while Charlie and all of his friends smoke and drink beers. She feels pretty miserable and disappointed, not to mention confused by his mixed signals.
- Charlie asks her if she'll go get the rest of his cigarettes from his bike for him, and she walks away. When she turns around, she sees that he's showing the other kids how to throw paper airplanes, which was always their thing.
- That's when she decides that she's going. Without saying goodbye to Charlie, she walks all the way home.
- When she goes inside, her dad notices that she's upset. He doesn't ask about Charlie at all; instead, he orders some pizza and they talk about potential jobs for Vera. He says that if she delivers pizzas, she might get the car—but Vera still wants to work at the pet shop.
- Then she ends up telling him everything that happened with Charlie that night, and he tells her that it doesn't make any sense because Charlie went out of his way to buy her those expensive flowers.