A girl that I had a crush on for a very long time was in a history class with me and always sat next to me so we could chat while we waited for the teacher to stop talking so we could get to work. The teacher was a good guy and a veteran teacher who had a really intense speech impediment that made it impossible to understand half of what he said. He ignored his handicap and insisted on lecturing every day for about 30 minutes. It was an absolute waste of time but at the end of it he would hand out notes that we could read in ten minutes and figure out what he had been talking about. In the meantime I was always trying to work an angle to finally get this girl to take a romantic interest in me. One day, quite unexpectedly she asked me out on a date. Specifically, she asked me if I had ever heard of the Steve Miller Band. I had not, but I said yes. She asked if I liked them and I said I guessed so. Then she asked if I wanted to go to a concert with her. I was elated and assumed she had cracked and wanted to move our relationship on past the barren valley for the friend zone and then on into the dating scene. I was super excited and got home showered, dressed up super pretty and put on some of my dad's aftershave for the finishing touch. When she picked me up at the time she had said there was something very curious, a guy who looked about 20 was driving and she was in the front seat with him and I sat in the back. He introduced himself and I did likewise and that is when I realized I was not going on a date with my longtime crush. We stopped by another girls house and she sat in the back with me and now I got the picture I was a fill-in date for her shy friend who was in need of a date of her own. Dang. The girl was sweet and I liked her okay it was just not what I had wanted to believe was happening. We had to stop and buy a ticket for me because I was a late addition and I offered to pay for it but the girl I had been misled into going on a date with insisted. Now I was obligated and I felt like I had been hoodwinked and was being used to fill up a quota. We drove up to the venue and the whole time my date, who I knew, but not well, was closing the distance to more of a cuddle range than a cordial range. I was being nice but I wanted to give off the 'lets be friends and that is all' vibe. When we got to the hill that we were going to sit on while the band played we met up with about 20 other people who I didn't know at all. They all came prepared to enjoy some mediocre rock with some mind-altering chemicals. There was pot, beer and wine on offer but of the group only my date and I declined. The opener played while it was still light out and the sound was terrible so I was not sad to see them go. My date and I were talking and she was actually pretty cool but I was still not really interested in making this thing a permanent arrangement. The girl I was interested in was indulging in some recreational drugs and doing quite a bit of making out with some other dude for someone I had assumed was asking me out on a date a few hours earlier. My date and I got a little contact high, got a little sway dance going on and by the time the band played the 'Time Keeps on Slipping' song as their finale I was just high enough to think the words were pretty profound. They are not.
