December 8, 2022 • 19 mins
For Jesse, Tori has always been the one that got away.
Credits
This Heavyweight short was hosted and produced by Stevie Lane, along with Mohini Madgavkar and Jonathan Goldstein. The senior producer is Kalila Holt. Production help from Damiano Marchetti.
Special thanks to Special thanks to Emily Condon, Alex Blumberg, and Sanya Dosani.
The show was mixed by Bobby Lord.
Music by Christine Fellows, John K Samson, Ben Alleman, Aaron Paul Low, Michael Charles Smith, and Bobby Lord.
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Stevie Lane. Hello, it's fair to say that you know
me as something of a storyteller.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I would say that's fair.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
No, I spin yarns. But you know, I have to
say sometimes I get a little tired of it.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
What gets tired? Is it just your mouth?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Sometimes this storyteller longs to be a story listener. Now
I understand you have a story for me to listen to.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I do you just have to open up those years?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I shut my big fat yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, we're going to give your mouth a rest.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Today's have you wait?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Short Jesse and Tory right after the break, Hello, Hello,
Our story today begins with a man, a man named
Jesse James.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes, this is he.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Right off the bat, Jesse James and I have something
in common.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I appreciate this is he.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
But every time I say it, like to my friends,
like this is she, they're always like, you're an asshole?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, which you know.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I hope you don't think I'm calling you an asshole.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
No, of course not. But I am an attorney, so
I am, in fact an asshole.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Jesse, not in fact an asshole? Is here to tell
me the story of his first love. He was in
middle school twenty two years ago in West Virginia. As
a kid, Jesse had a big personality, was always kind
of the class clown. But in sixth grade he was
going through a hard time.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
My dad he had got deployed in Afghanistan in the
wake of nine to eleven, and my best friend Keith
had moved away. I was kind of looking for stuff
to grab onto. I was kind of rootless, didn't have
any real close friends.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Then one December day, a new girl showed up in
his science class.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
She had a particular smile that was really great. It
was more like a smirk, like she knew something that
you didn't.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Her name was Torri. She was from Ohio, Tall, with long,
dark hair. Jesse had a crush immediately, so to get
her attention, he devised an elaborate plan. Since his best
friend Keith had just moved away.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
I declare that I need a new best friend, so
I hold a contest. I ask for written applications.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Okay, but not really.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
No, I did. I'll set up a contest. I'll rig
it so she wins, and we'll right off into the sunset. Wow,
are you impressed with the brilliance of this plan?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Brilliance wasn't necessarily the word I would have chosen.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
But uh, I think there may have been a talent portion.
Now I'm certain there was a talent portion. There's no
way there wouldn't have been.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Jesse made a questionnaire, Tory took one home and filled
it out. Jesse says she really aced one particular question.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
If I was hanging off the side of a cliff
with one hand, you know, slipping, what would you do?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Wow? High stakes?
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, And I remember that she wrote nothing. It was
like she saw through the ridiculousness of it and it
was like a wink.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Hmm.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So it's like you can do better than that.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Jesse's plan worked. He and Tory became best friends for
the next few years. They sat together every day at
lunch and on the bus ride home after school from
their separate houses. They call each other up on the
phone and watch movies like Misery and Sixteen Candles all
night long. Jesse would show off for Tory, play piano,
(04:09):
entertain her with his impression of Sean Connery. Tory didn't
even know who Sean Connery was, but she laughed anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Jesse was in love.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
On the day of Tory's thirteenth birthday, Jesse decided to
make his big move. They were going to the movies
to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Do you remember the movie? Oh?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Yeah, I could never forget. It was The Day after Tomorrow.
There's bad movies, but it's bad in a special way.
But whatever. I wasn't even watching the movie half the time.
I was more looking at Tory, thinking about what do
I need to do to be able to put my
(04:50):
arm around her. I did the old classic yawn, but.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
To a surprise, Tory shrugged me off, and I thought, hmm,
maybe I've miss read some of this.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Jesse was confused.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
He'd been trying to show Toy in many small ways
how he felt about her, and she seemed to like him,
but she kept shooting him down. Jesse recalls one day
in school when he saw Tory carrying a big bouquet
of balloons, balloons from some other admirer. He thought of
all the other guys who might actually be putting their
arms around her at the movies. He was jealous, wounded,
(05:34):
and afraid of being hurt, so he pulled away. No
more watching movies over the phone, no more sitting on
the bus together. Jesse began treating Tory like any other
girl in his science class. To fill the Tory sized
hole in his life, Jesse, now in eighth grade, threw
(05:56):
himself into the school musical. He was playing the lead
in the music Man, and rehearsals were a welcome distraction
from Tory with a capital T and that rhymed with
B and that stood for broken hearted. On the night
of the show, everything went great and Jesse was riding
high until he came out to take his bow from
center stage. Jesse saw Tory sitting smack in the middle
(06:18):
of the front row, beaming at him, and then she
held something up for him and all the school to see.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
She had made a sign on a large piece of
poster paper, and it said, Jesse, will you go out
with me?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
In the romantic comedy version of his life, this would
be the moment when Jesse would leap from the stage
and swoop Tory into his arms. But instead, I was
so embarrassed, Jesse froze. It was everything he'd wanted, but
all he felt was fear. Everyone in the art auditorium
(07:00):
was looking at him expectantly, and he had no idea
what to say. He was just thirteen years old, an
age when even a kiss on the cheek from.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Your aunt might make you blush?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Was he really supposed to profess his love for Tory
for all his friends, family, and classmates to see. The
applause died down and the lights came up. The audience
filed out, and the rest of the cast went backstage.
In Jesse's memory, it felt like he and Tory were
the last two people left in the auditorium, all alone.
(07:32):
Tory was still holding the sign, Jesse, will you go
out with me? But Jesse couldn't even meet her gaze.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
He walked off stage and left.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
I couldn't face my fear. I can be honest with
myself about how I fell the I very very very
much loved her. I didn't even understand the full shit scope.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
After the music man, Jesse and Tory didn't talk about
the sign.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
In fact, through the end of middle.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
School then high school, they didn't talk at all. They
were in separate classes and avoided each other in the
halls until four years later, at the end of senior year.
Jesse recalls it was right around graduation. Tory's younger sister
was a friend of a friend of Jesse's, and so
one day, by chance, he found himself hanging out with
(08:28):
a bunch of people at Tory's house. He walked by
Tory's room and, seeing her, stopped in the doorway to
say hi. They began chatting casually, and Jesse sat down
on the carpet. It was bizarre, after years of no
contact to suddenly find himself right outside her bedroom. They
weren't talking about anything serious, but to Jesse it felt sacred.
(08:52):
It suddenly hit him he was still in love with Tory.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
It didn't really make any sense to me. Why because
it's over and you shouldn't still feel anything like that,
But I did.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Jesse resolved to tell Tory how he felt, to finally
rectify the mistake he made in ignoring her. After the
music man and with high school coming to a close,
it was now or never. The night of graduation, he
went over to her house, but before he even got
to the front steps, he saw Tory and her boyfriend
at the time standing outside on the lawn yelling in
(09:31):
the middle of a big fight. There was no opening.
For the second time. Jesse said nothing and left. It's
not unusual for your first love to make an impact,
but for Jesse, his first love left a crater. It's
been twenty years since The Music Man. Jesse's dated other people,
(09:55):
was even engaged for a while, but he's never stopped
thinking about Tory.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I tried to convince myself that kids think that they're
in love all the time, it's no big deal, But
subsequently I never felt the same.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Jesse has a scar in his palm that Tory gave
him with her fingernail by accident. He looks at it sometimes,
grateful to have proof. He says that he and Tory
were ever close.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
In twenty nineteen, I was in West Virginia talking to
my best friend over a can of cors Light or two,
and I had narrowed down exactly one regret, only one.
If you could go back in time and change one thing,
(10:49):
I knew what it was, don't freeze. After the music
Man performance, tell Tory, I felt, yes, just tell her something.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
He was so dear to me.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
He was.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
My best friend.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
This is Tory, she's an artist now living out West.
I call her to ask how she felt about Jesse.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
But he meant more to me than that. Also, he
was really my first love.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And so Tory remembers all the same moments of their
relationship that Jesse does science class, the long late night
phone calls, the balloons, which, as it turns out, were
not from some middle school casanova, but from her dad,
and of course she remembers going to see the day
after tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
For the record, I did not hate it.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Tory says that when Jesse put his arm around her,
she might have shruckd him off, but secretly she was thrilled.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
In my mind, it was like I was going to
have more chances somehow, like he had made a move,
and I confirmed that he liked me, and then we
could go forward from here.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It never occurred to Tory that she was sending Jesse
mixed signals until it was too late.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
I had been too reserved with my feelings. I had
held them too close, and I lost him. And I
felt like, if only I could show him the extent
of my feelings, he would come right back. And I
think to myself, this needs a grand gesture.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And so Tory made a sign.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
It was all caps in black sharpie on a white
poster board. You know, I had to catch attention.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Which it did from everyone, it seemed, except the person
she wanted it to.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Other students. All my classmates see me and Jesse won't
look at me. I thought, wow, I fucked up. And
from that day Jesse and I did not speak.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Tory moved on, She made other friends, dated other people,
like her boyfriend. Senior year, Tory remembers the argument they
were having on her front lawn the night of graduation,
and who.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Shows up with Jesse And he's standing there on the driveway.
I don't know what he wanted to say. After graduation,
I move all over the United States and I get married.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
It is devastating I find out that she was married.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Why is it because on some level you still had hope.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
It was even more complicated than that. It was that
I didn't feel like I was good enough for her,
but this guy definitely wasn't.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Over the years, Jesse and Tory would occasionally exchange messages
on social media. They talk about jobs and moves and relationships.
Two old friends catching up. Jesse tried not to think
about what might have been. Are you confident that if
you had had the chance that night, graduation night to
(14:22):
talk with her things would have been different?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Timing is everything. When Tory was ready to declare her
love for Jesse, Jesse felt ambushed. When Jesse was ready
to be honest with Tory. She had moved on. It's
like Tory and Jesse have been playing a decades long
game of phone tag. Last December, Jesse and Tory were
(14:55):
both home in West Virginia at the same time. By
this point, they were in in their early thirties. Tory
was divorced and Jesse's engagement had ended. Jesse suggested they
meet up. They spent the whole evening together, Jesse playing
songs for Toy on his guitar, making her laugh the
way he used to. There was a feeling of expectation
(15:16):
in the air, a subtext to everything said, and yet
still the whole night, Jesse couldn't bring himself to confess
his feelings, never mention the music man. When it got late,
Tory went home. Once again, they'd missed their moment. This
(15:42):
is the point in a normal heavyweight story where I'd
step in to create that moment. I'd get Tory and
Jesse together and awkwardly nudge them into a conversation twenty
years overdue. They'd say the things they didn't have the
words for when they were kids, and I'd say something
stupid like, Jesse, can you do your Sean Connery impression
for us. But in this story I don't have to
(16:04):
do any of that because at midnight that night back
in December, after Torri got home her cellphone, rang.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
I told her everything that I had meant to for
the past twenty two.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Years, which was what.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
That was really shitty of me to do what I
did to you in eighth grade. I apologize for that.
I don't know if this is obvious, but I love you.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
It was one of the best moments of my life
to catch you up to speed for what's happening now.
We are getting married in December this year. It will
be our twentieth anniversary of when we met.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Oh my god, is there something that's almost frustrating that
it had to take this long.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
Yes, we had many conversations about why did we why
did we play this game? And I think we both
had a lot of growing to do. And I think
if we hit stay together, I think we would have
had a whirlwind relationship. It would have been crazy highs
and lows. Maybe, but I don't think we could have
stood the test of time. This is our time.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
The wedding data set, but there's not yet been an
official proposal Tori says she's going to make Jesse a
sign on white poster board with big black letters written
in black sharpie that says Jesse, will you marry me?
And this time Jesse won't freeze. This time He's going
to tell her Yes, Jesse, can you do your Sean
(18:05):
Connery impression for us?
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Well, let's clear it up.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Much rain at the moment.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, she's quite lovely.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Did you eat anything for breakfast?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
French toast?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
This Heavyweight short was produced by Moheemy mcgouger and me
Stevie Lane, along with Jonathan Goldstein. Our senior producer is
Khalila Holt. Production help from Domiana Marqutti. Special thanks to
Emily Condon, Alex Bloomberg, and Sonya Desani. Bobby Lord mixed
the episode with original music by Christine Fellows, John K.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Sampson, Ben Elleman and Bobby Lord.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Additional music credits can be found on our website gimlipmedia
dot com slash Heavyweight, Follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight
or email us at Heavyweight at gimlipmedia dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
We'll be back with a new episode next week.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
This Heavyweight short was produced by Mohemy mcgowker and Me Jonathan,
oh my god,
Stevie Lane. Hello, it's fair to say that you know
me as something of a storyteller.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I would say that's fair.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
No, I spin yarns. But you know, I have to
say sometimes I get a little tired of it.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
What gets tired? Is it just your mouth?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Sometimes this storyteller longs to be a story listener. Now
I understand you have a story for me to listen to.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I do you just have to open up those years?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I shut my big fat yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, we're going to give your mouth a rest.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Today's have you wait?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Short Jesse and Tory right after the break, Hello, Hello,
Our story today begins with a man, a man named
Jesse James.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes, this is he.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Right off the bat, Jesse James and I have something
in common.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I appreciate this is he.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
But every time I say it, like to my friends,
like this is she, they're always like, you're an asshole?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, which you know.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I hope you don't think I'm calling you an asshole.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
No, of course not. But I am an attorney, so
I am, in fact an asshole.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Jesse, not in fact an asshole? Is here to tell
me the story of his first love. He was in
middle school twenty two years ago in West Virginia. As
a kid, Jesse had a big personality, was always kind
of the class clown. But in sixth grade he was
going through a hard time.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
My dad he had got deployed in Afghanistan in the
wake of nine to eleven, and my best friend Keith
had moved away. I was kind of looking for stuff
to grab onto. I was kind of rootless, didn't have
any real close friends.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Then one December day, a new girl showed up in
his science class.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
She had a particular smile that was really great. It
was more like a smirk, like she knew something that
you didn't.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Her name was Torri. She was from Ohio, Tall, with long,
dark hair. Jesse had a crush immediately, so to get
her attention, he devised an elaborate plan. Since his best
friend Keith had just moved away.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
I declare that I need a new best friend, so
I hold a contest. I ask for written applications.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Okay, but not really.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
No, I did. I'll set up a contest. I'll rig
it so she wins, and we'll right off into the sunset. Wow,
are you impressed with the brilliance of this plan?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Brilliance wasn't necessarily the word I would have chosen.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
But uh, I think there may have been a talent portion.
Now I'm certain there was a talent portion. There's no
way there wouldn't have been.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Jesse made a questionnaire, Tory took one home and filled
it out. Jesse says she really aced one particular question.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
If I was hanging off the side of a cliff
with one hand, you know, slipping, what would you do?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Wow? High stakes?
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, And I remember that she wrote nothing. It was
like she saw through the ridiculousness of it and it
was like a wink.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Hmm.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So it's like you can do better than that.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Jesse's plan worked. He and Tory became best friends for
the next few years. They sat together every day at
lunch and on the bus ride home after school from
their separate houses. They call each other up on the
phone and watch movies like Misery and Sixteen Candles all
night long. Jesse would show off for Tory, play piano,
(04:09):
entertain her with his impression of Sean Connery. Tory didn't
even know who Sean Connery was, but she laughed anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Jesse was in love.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
On the day of Tory's thirteenth birthday, Jesse decided to
make his big move. They were going to the movies
to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Do you remember the movie? Oh?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Yeah, I could never forget. It was The Day after Tomorrow.
There's bad movies, but it's bad in a special way.
But whatever. I wasn't even watching the movie half the time.
I was more looking at Tory, thinking about what do
I need to do to be able to put my
(04:50):
arm around her. I did the old classic yawn, but.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
To a surprise, Tory shrugged me off, and I thought, hmm,
maybe I've miss read some of this.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Jesse was confused.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
He'd been trying to show Toy in many small ways
how he felt about her, and she seemed to like him,
but she kept shooting him down. Jesse recalls one day
in school when he saw Tory carrying a big bouquet
of balloons, balloons from some other admirer. He thought of
all the other guys who might actually be putting their
arms around her at the movies. He was jealous, wounded,
(05:34):
and afraid of being hurt, so he pulled away. No
more watching movies over the phone, no more sitting on
the bus together. Jesse began treating Tory like any other
girl in his science class. To fill the Tory sized
hole in his life, Jesse, now in eighth grade, threw
(05:56):
himself into the school musical. He was playing the lead
in the music Man, and rehearsals were a welcome distraction
from Tory with a capital T and that rhymed with
B and that stood for broken hearted. On the night
of the show, everything went great and Jesse was riding
high until he came out to take his bow from
center stage. Jesse saw Tory sitting smack in the middle
(06:18):
of the front row, beaming at him, and then she
held something up for him and all the school to see.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
She had made a sign on a large piece of
poster paper, and it said, Jesse, will you go out
with me?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
In the romantic comedy version of his life, this would
be the moment when Jesse would leap from the stage
and swoop Tory into his arms. But instead, I was
so embarrassed, Jesse froze. It was everything he'd wanted, but
all he felt was fear. Everyone in the art auditorium
(07:00):
was looking at him expectantly, and he had no idea
what to say. He was just thirteen years old, an
age when even a kiss on the cheek from.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Your aunt might make you blush?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Was he really supposed to profess his love for Tory
for all his friends, family, and classmates to see. The
applause died down and the lights came up. The audience
filed out, and the rest of the cast went backstage.
In Jesse's memory, it felt like he and Tory were
the last two people left in the auditorium, all alone.
(07:32):
Tory was still holding the sign, Jesse, will you go
out with me? But Jesse couldn't even meet her gaze.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
He walked off stage and left.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
I couldn't face my fear. I can be honest with
myself about how I fell the I very very very
much loved her. I didn't even understand the full shit scope.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
After the music man, Jesse and Tory didn't talk about
the sign.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
In fact, through the end of middle.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
School then high school, they didn't talk at all. They
were in separate classes and avoided each other in the
halls until four years later, at the end of senior year.
Jesse recalls it was right around graduation. Tory's younger sister
was a friend of a friend of Jesse's, and so
one day, by chance, he found himself hanging out with
(08:28):
a bunch of people at Tory's house. He walked by
Tory's room and, seeing her, stopped in the doorway to
say hi. They began chatting casually, and Jesse sat down
on the carpet. It was bizarre, after years of no
contact to suddenly find himself right outside her bedroom. They
weren't talking about anything serious, but to Jesse it felt sacred.
(08:52):
It suddenly hit him he was still in love with Tory.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
It didn't really make any sense to me. Why because
it's over and you shouldn't still feel anything like that,
But I did.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Jesse resolved to tell Tory how he felt, to finally
rectify the mistake he made in ignoring her. After the
music man and with high school coming to a close,
it was now or never. The night of graduation, he
went over to her house, but before he even got
to the front steps, he saw Tory and her boyfriend
at the time standing outside on the lawn yelling in
(09:31):
the middle of a big fight. There was no opening.
For the second time. Jesse said nothing and left. It's
not unusual for your first love to make an impact,
but for Jesse, his first love left a crater. It's
been twenty years since The Music Man. Jesse's dated other people,
(09:55):
was even engaged for a while, but he's never stopped
thinking about Tory.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I tried to convince myself that kids think that they're
in love all the time, it's no big deal, But
subsequently I never felt the same.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Jesse has a scar in his palm that Tory gave
him with her fingernail by accident. He looks at it sometimes,
grateful to have proof. He says that he and Tory
were ever close.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
In twenty nineteen, I was in West Virginia talking to
my best friend over a can of cors Light or two,
and I had narrowed down exactly one regret, only one.
If you could go back in time and change one thing,
(10:49):
I knew what it was, don't freeze. After the music
Man performance, tell Tory, I felt, yes, just tell her something.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
He was so dear to me.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
He was.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
My best friend.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
This is Tory, she's an artist now living out West.
I call her to ask how she felt about Jesse.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
But he meant more to me than that. Also, he
was really my first love.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And so Tory remembers all the same moments of their
relationship that Jesse does science class, the long late night
phone calls, the balloons, which, as it turns out, were
not from some middle school casanova, but from her dad,
and of course she remembers going to see the day
after tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
For the record, I did not hate it.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Tory says that when Jesse put his arm around her,
she might have shruckd him off, but secretly she was thrilled.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
In my mind, it was like I was going to
have more chances somehow, like he had made a move,
and I confirmed that he liked me, and then we
could go forward from here.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It never occurred to Tory that she was sending Jesse
mixed signals until it was too late.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
I had been too reserved with my feelings. I had
held them too close, and I lost him. And I
felt like, if only I could show him the extent
of my feelings, he would come right back. And I
think to myself, this needs a grand gesture.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And so Tory made a sign.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
It was all caps in black sharpie on a white
poster board. You know, I had to catch attention.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Which it did from everyone, it seemed, except the person
she wanted it to.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Other students. All my classmates see me and Jesse won't
look at me. I thought, wow, I fucked up. And
from that day Jesse and I did not speak.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Tory moved on, She made other friends, dated other people,
like her boyfriend. Senior year, Tory remembers the argument they
were having on her front lawn the night of graduation,
and who.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Shows up with Jesse And he's standing there on the driveway.
I don't know what he wanted to say. After graduation,
I move all over the United States and I get married.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
It is devastating I find out that she was married.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Why is it because on some level you still had hope.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
It was even more complicated than that. It was that
I didn't feel like I was good enough for her,
but this guy definitely wasn't.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Over the years, Jesse and Tory would occasionally exchange messages
on social media. They talk about jobs and moves and relationships.
Two old friends catching up. Jesse tried not to think
about what might have been. Are you confident that if
you had had the chance that night, graduation night to
(14:22):
talk with her things would have been different?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Timing is everything. When Tory was ready to declare her
love for Jesse, Jesse felt ambushed. When Jesse was ready
to be honest with Tory. She had moved on. It's
like Tory and Jesse have been playing a decades long
game of phone tag. Last December, Jesse and Tory were
(14:55):
both home in West Virginia at the same time. By
this point, they were in in their early thirties. Tory
was divorced and Jesse's engagement had ended. Jesse suggested they
meet up. They spent the whole evening together, Jesse playing
songs for Toy on his guitar, making her laugh the
way he used to. There was a feeling of expectation
(15:16):
in the air, a subtext to everything said, and yet
still the whole night, Jesse couldn't bring himself to confess
his feelings, never mention the music man. When it got late,
Tory went home. Once again, they'd missed their moment. This
(15:42):
is the point in a normal heavyweight story where I'd
step in to create that moment. I'd get Tory and
Jesse together and awkwardly nudge them into a conversation twenty
years overdue. They'd say the things they didn't have the
words for when they were kids, and I'd say something
stupid like, Jesse, can you do your Sean Connery impression
for us. But in this story I don't have to
(16:04):
do any of that because at midnight that night back
in December, after Torri got home her cellphone, rang.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
I told her everything that I had meant to for
the past twenty two.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Years, which was what.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
That was really shitty of me to do what I
did to you in eighth grade. I apologize for that.
I don't know if this is obvious, but I love you.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
It was one of the best moments of my life
to catch you up to speed for what's happening now.
We are getting married in December this year. It will
be our twentieth anniversary of when we met.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Oh my god, is there something that's almost frustrating that
it had to take this long.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
Yes, we had many conversations about why did we why
did we play this game? And I think we both
had a lot of growing to do. And I think
if we hit stay together, I think we would have
had a whirlwind relationship. It would have been crazy highs
and lows. Maybe, but I don't think we could have
stood the test of time. This is our time.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
The wedding data set, but there's not yet been an
official proposal Tori says she's going to make Jesse a
sign on white poster board with big black letters written
in black sharpie that says Jesse, will you marry me?
And this time Jesse won't freeze. This time He's going
to tell her Yes, Jesse, can you do your Sean
(18:05):
Connery impression for us?
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Well, let's clear it up.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Much rain at the moment.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, she's quite lovely.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Did you eat anything for breakfast?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
French toast?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
This Heavyweight short was produced by Moheemy mcgouger and me
Stevie Lane, along with Jonathan Goldstein. Our senior producer is
Khalila Holt. Production help from Domiana Marqutti. Special thanks to
Emily Condon, Alex Bloomberg, and Sonya Desani. Bobby Lord mixed
the episode with original music by Christine Fellows, John K.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Sampson, Ben Elleman and Bobby Lord.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Additional music credits can be found on our website gimlipmedia
dot com slash Heavyweight, Follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight
or email us at Heavyweight at gimlipmedia dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
We'll be back with a new episode next week.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
This Heavyweight short was produced by Mohemy mcgowker and Me Jonathan,
oh my god,
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