The night of the concert I picked her up and we drove up to the big
city where I had to pretend to be the expert so that I could look
cool. It was stressful trying to act off handed about driving down
the maze of one way streets and trying to find parking but when I
pulled it off she said she was impressed by my skill. I hoped she
would be. She was looking really good and She smelled amazing and as
we locked up and started walking to the arena she held my hand and
arm as she walked with her head on my shoulder. Not a bad sign at
all. I cannot remember who opened for Pearl Jam but we were in the
seats almost strait in front of the stage so we had a great view if
not the dancing freedom a floor seat would afford. Eddie Vedder was
in fine form and they were playing all of their good songs pretty
much like they were on the album with no stupid musical shenanigans
or stupid songs no one has ever heard of. They played for a good long
time then went off for a bit to give the crowd a chance to stomp
their feet and chant and they returned for an encore. They played
“Black” and my date took my hands and stepped in front of me and
nuzzled in for a standing-spoon-dance-hug.
They played one more and
then ended with the best B-side in the history of rock - “Yellow
Ledbetter”. I couldn't ask for more and I was deeply and truly
happy in the way you can only be when there is literally nothing in
the world that would make a moment better. They went off and the
lights came up and I had that concert deafness that when you are 16
seems like a pretty cool thing. My date was smiling and laughing and
giving out some celebratory whoops. We walked back to the car and
talked about how awesome that concert was. We agreed to agree that it
was the greatest thing since the whole world combined. It was. As we
drove home we didn't talk much but she was scooted all the way over
on the Ford's front bench seat leaning her head on me and even though
it was abundantly obvious that this girl was really interested in me
I was spending the whole ride home trying to figure out how to kiss
her. What I came up with was shamefully lame. A few exits from her
house I told her that I was having a problem with one of my contacts
drying out and needed to pull over to re-wet it and put it back in.
This was true but not the real reason. I spent a few minutes on the
side of the frontage road just off the freeway with the light on in
the cab putting my eyes back together while she waited. I mustered
the courage and closed the mirror visor turned to her and then told
her I would really like to kiss her. She shrugged a little okay sure
and leaned in for a kiss. She was really good at it too. She also
knew a trick about kissing ears which thing I had never heard tale of
but I was intrigued and encouraged her to do that some more for the
sake of documenting it properly. I just realized that she could have
learned that trick from her creep ex-boyfriend and in that context it
now doesn't seem that cool. After about ten minute she gently pushed
me away and said she did really need to get home before her parents
got worried. I agreed with my words and the rest of me went along for
the sake of unity. I dropped her off and she kissed me at the door
and I grinned and celebrated back to the car. I turned the heater up
all the way and rolled down the windows an sang along loudly to every
song I could find on the radio and took twenty minutes driving the
five minutes home. Nights don't come much better than that one.
