girlfriend is...ummm...better?

About three years ago, when the youngster was in his little league days, he came to me one evening over Christmas break. There was this girl he met at the ball fields, and they've kept in touch through IM.

"Can you drive me over to Yonder Oaks," a nearby development.
"Sure, but why?"
"I want to go over to a friend's house."
"Who friend?"
"Uhhhhh...well...she's my girlfriend." ...as the blush invades his cheeks.

The conversation continued, and eventually, after I tortured him enough and talked to her parents on the phone, I agreed to transport him. The "girlfriend" label made me smile though. I was pretty sure if you asked the girl about her status, she'd be surprised, but I left it alone. In the end, it was the only time he went to her house and any relationship the youngster envisioned quickly evaporated.

So now, the youngster is 15. He and a friend were skateboarding through the neighborhood a few weeks ago, and happened upon two girls who had lost a dog. They helped find the dog and one of the girls befriended the youngster.

All of a sudden, his cell phone activity skyrocketed. The girl doesn't go to his high school. She goes elsewhere, but he now wants to go to their football games. Within days, he reached his limit on text messages on his phone, and wants to discuss unlimited text messaging plans. (Uhhh, no freaking way, by the way, and thank you AT&T for parental controls.) Monday, when she got out of school, he asked the wife if he could take his "girlfriend" to a nearby smoothie place. She said OK, and they walked there.

The wife and I were talking, and she said, "That's the first time I heard him call anyone his girlfriend."

I told her about the earlier incident and offered my opinion that it was pretty much the same. He may be calling her his girlfriend, but she's probably not of the same opinion. I tried to silence the "HE'S GROWING UP TOO FAST!" alarm going off in my head with that rationale, and it kinda worked...until last night.

I was in my little computer room at home, which is really a spare bedroom with a futon/couch, a desk on which sits my computer, and a filing cabinet. Some of my old Navy stuff and a pennant from the alma mater on the Main Line outside Philly grace the walls. It's down the hall from the youngster's room. I could hear that he was conversing with someone, but that's all I could hear, and I was more than OK with that. I figured he was on the phone with his "girlfriend," and kinda chuckled. I went about what I was doing, until he walked down the hall, still on the phone. It soon became apparent the conversation was ending because outside my door I heard, "love you, too...goodbye."

Excuse me? Was that the 'L' word, and in a context that said someone else used it first?

Someone is growing up too fast. It's been a few years since we had the gazinta talk. I think it might be time for a refresher that puts more emphasis on responsibility, and grown up decisions.