Inspired by Rob Sheffield’s book, “Love Is A Mixtape: Life and Loss, One Song At A Time” About ten of us were in the group, members of a program called T.O.P (short for Teenage Outreach Program), who got together every Tuesday from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Some of us attended Seaside’s King Middle School, while others went to Colton Middle School, located in the neighboring city of Monterey. All of us were good kids, with parents who just wanted us to have a faith-based after school program, which T.O.P. essentially was.

For the most part, everyone in the group got along just fine, especially me and Layla, my girlfriend at the time, who was also in the group. Back then, T.O.P. was the only place we could really act like a couple, and when I say act like a couple, I mean run off and hide in certain spots of the school where the T.O.P. meetings were held to go sneak in five minute make out sessions. Eventually, like all great teenage couples who don’t have the privilege of parents with night shifts and have to hide to make out, Layla and I were caught by the program director, Ron. Make out sessions be damned, Layla and would remain together because for some reason, we thought each other to be the one. In our eyes, everything about the other person was perfect and if anyone disagreed, they would be checked with the quickness.

This was a lesson I and Sonnie, another girl in T.O.P. learned when, one day, the song “I’ll Make Love To You” came on KDON, 102.5 FM, our local radio station. In hindsight, we were all entirely way too young to be singing “I’ll Make Love To You” by Boyz II Men. I was only 13 going on 14; Layla, 14 going on 15 (yeah, I had it like that). The rest of the group, all the same age, all virgins (I think), but we didn’t care. This was 1994! When “I’ll Make Love To You” came on, you sang that song with the passion of someone who made love over and over and over again, even if you hadn’t so much as kissed another person. Just imagine, a whole van filled with pubescent teenagers singing these words at the top of their lungs: “I’LL MAKE LOVE TO YOU! LIKE YOU WANT ME TO! AND I’LL HOLD YOU TIGHT! BABY ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT!” Of course, because I was with my girlfriend and didn’t care what other people thought, I sang the song too. I even caught Ron mouthing the words once or twice and this particular day was no different. But I guess my voice carried a little bit more than the others because at the end of Shawn Stockman’s first verse, Sonnie turned to me and yelled, “Jozen, stop singing! You can’t sing!”

“Oh no she didn’t,” my girlfriend said. Oh, she did. Sonnie was right I couldn’t sing, but no way was my girlfriend going to let Sonnie talk to me like that. “Shut up!” my girlfriend snapped. “For your information, he can sing, he’s just playing right now.” “Well he needs to stop,” Sonnie snapped back. “You need to stop being jealous that you don’t have a man who sings,” my girlfriend retorted. Oh no she didn’t. The next thing I know, “I’ll Make Love To You”, everyone’s favorite song, was cut off, right in the middle of Wanya’s ad-libs. Ron pulled the van over, and my girlfriend and Sonnie were separated until they both cooled down. From that day forward anytime “I’ll Make Love To You”came on the radio in the T.O.P. van, Ron changed the station. And if any of us wanted to sign the song ourselves, we kept it in our head.