When I was between steady girls one Friday I was feeling like some
female companionship and didn't know who to ask out for my best odds
of success so I asked them all instead. I went into debate class and
asked who wanted to go out with me that night. There was some
uncomfortableness and some not lookingness and then a girl a year
older than me that had been a pretty good friend took me up on the
offer. This was the girl that had gotten us disqualified from state
and nationals by being an underage judge and I didn't hold that
against her but I was not super excited about her taking me up on the
offer because I am a shallow turd of a human being and I didn't think
she was that cute. She was smart, successful, funny and really cool
to hang out with but still I thought I should have narrowed the field
before threw out the blanket invite. I told her it would be awesome
to go hang out and I asked her what she wanted to do. She told me
that she wanted to cook me dinner. That sounded pretty okay so I
arranged to come over to her house later that night. When I got there
I realized that we were two alone in the house and I started to worry
that she was thinking this was a romantic date. If she did she was
playing it exceptionally cool. She told me we needed to go to the
grocery store and get a few things. We rode up and as I was finishing
my thought, talking to her in her car before we got out and headed
inside I was startled by a tap on the window. It was a kid who was
kind of my friend in a loose we-are-from-the-same-town and we have
friends in common kind of way. He said hi and asked what we were up
to and then made some hubba-hubba kind of joke implying that we were
an item and that he thought that was funny. He asked if I was
startled because I was too into talking to my date. To my enduring
shame I tried to make abundantly clear that we were just friends
getting some stuff for dinner. I should have told him to mind his own
business and stood up for my friend and the please of her company
whether he approved or not. I don't know if she was offended or
disappointed but I almost instantly felt bad for trying to distance
myself from the situation to try and keep some dude from making mild
insinuations of romance. I tried to make up for it by being overly
nice and friendly for the rest of the time we were together. We
bought the food and went back to cook some pasta and bread for dinner
and she was a absolutely perfect host who either was very interested
in everything I had to say or else was well trained in that most
gracious form of tact that mandates convincingly feigned interest. We
ate and sat and talked until it was tie for me to go home and I gave
her a hug and thanked her for what had been a really great time. It
was so good that I hated myself all the more for being to much of a
coward to do the right thing when I was teased about being out with a
friend who I really did like quite a lot. Man, I am pathetic.
