In the beginning I was looking for a prom date. I was bound and determined to find one for myself because EVERYONE insisted that I get one and NO ONE believed I was capable of getting one. (My mother had expressly forbidden me from going with a girlfriend.) This lead to a long string of suggestions from my mother, aunts and grandmother that included all males they new of approximate age including cousins, and neighbors. After weeks of obstinately turning down every possible offer for help I finally allowed my friend Jose to call his friend and ask him to come.
I had met this friend before. He was David Jose's best friend from middle school. We had met at Jose's 18th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, where I had been the girl who convinced Jose's 4 year old sister to go through the tubes so I could go too, and he had been the overly enthusiastic guy who somehow was able to give out more high fives than even me.
David and I were to get to know each other better and hang out before Prom in order to make the situation less awkward. In order to do this Jose made plans for the three of us to all ride our bikes to the beach together. The meeting was set at 8 am which wouldn’t have been a problem if I hadn't been at 6 flags the night before with my best friend Lisa until 3 in the morning. Still I woke up bright and early, put on my tie-dye, filled my bike tires and set of to Mitsuwa (our designated meeting place).
The ride over was great, the weather was nice, the sun was out and since it was early and during spring break I had the whole world to myself. I got to the Asian market place earlier than I expected looked arround and didn't see them, then I noticed the store name "Famima."
I had gone to the wrong store.
Embarrassed, I called Jose and told him of my blunder. He decided that I could not be trusted to find them at a small store and was told to meet them at a very specific intersection next to Del Amo mall. In a couple minutes I arrived and then I began my waiting.
After about 5 minutes I thought maybe I was lost again and tried to call Jose.
No Success
Again
No Success
After waiting about 30 minutes, they rode up. I remember David's hair was all spiked up, perfect and even, and he was wearing a long sleeve black thermal under a short sleeve gray button up shirt, and dark shiny sunglasses. He was in perfect contrast with Jose who wore a gray shirt under his black jacket.
I remember this because I had seen them together twice and both times they seemed to be matching, and of course my first question had to be, "Do you two call each other before you go anywhere to co-ordinate your outfits?" (The first time I had ever met him he and Jose had both had the same Police shirt on.) After a couple minutes of laughing about their similar apparel we made our way to the beach, making some small talk.
We got to the beach and parked our bikes so we could walk around the pier. I remember being nervous talking to him. I felt horribly pathetic, his questions were so direct and I could feel his gaze taking me in and analyzing my every movement. It is difficult for me to admit to being tongue-tied. Me, a captain and one time vice-president of the debate team. The girl who would openly argue with teachers in class. Queen of bullshitting. I always have something to say.
But to him word were carefully thought out.
I remember as we walked some men sitting at a bench were watching me and making comments that I did not appreciate. Jose didn't notice, but David did and insisted that we go back a different way so that we didn't walk past them. No one had ever really protected me like that, and I couldn't even find the words to thank him.
Since it was March the pier was not in its busy season and there weren't a lot of places open so we rode over to El Burrito jr. and got cheeseburgers. As Jose ordered and David and I sat at the table prom was finally mentioned with the question, "So are there like no guys at your school?"
How do you respond to that? 'No there are guys I'm just a loser…' so I gave my best response, "There are guys but everyone I know has a girlfriend or a date." This answer is also dumb because it indicated the desire to go with someone I knew, but that I was going to go with him, someone I had met once. Lets be honest though; any girl, in any high school, looking for ANY date will tell you that all the good guys are taken or gay and your only options are the friends, the undesirables, and other people who are incapable of producing a fun evenin
g. (See figure 1)
As we ate the three of us talked about music and life.
After we had all properly stuffed ourselves with cheeseburgers we rode FYE the music shop. There are no two people in the world who know more about music than David and Jose and when the two of them combine there is an explosion of musical knowledge that left my head whirling. I tagged along as the two of them made their way through EVERY AISLE in the entire store. David sweetly made conversation with me, telling me about music and bands, even taking me over to listening stations so I could hear what he meant.
He had good taste.
It was necessary that we make a hasty exit from the music store, Jose needed to go home and get ready for work. My house wasn't far from where we were and I offered to drive them both home. After a water break we decided to load the bikes into my car and head out.
There was only one problem.
The bikes didn't both fit inside my 1968 Volkswagon bus...
As I went inside to search for the keys to my mom's SUV and they stayed outside to determine how they could get the bikes to fit.
After about 10 minutes I had found the keys and I walked out of my door to the site of two bikes precariously stacked on top of my car. I wish I had a picture, words simply don't do justice to the hilarity of the sight.
We drove to Jose's window's down, radio blasting, us all singing along, and two bikes poking out of the back.
While Jose got ready David and I sat and talked. Of any topic he could have brought up, ANY topic in the world, he decides to talk about relationships.
"Ya I'm single"
"I just don't really see the need to have a boyfriend right now. I'm leaving for school soon and I'm happy just floating around. Besides there's just no one I can really see myself being with"
"What about you? Is there a girl"
"um…. Well, not really. There's this girl that I was interested in for a while but it didn't work out. Her family really didn't like me. I guess her mom saw me hanging out with my friends who were being crazy and now she thinks I'm like that and I'm not. "
Oh no! He's single and thinks family is important...
"Ya, family's important and if the mom doesn't like you she'll never let the girl see you, and she may even start thinking like the mom."
"Ya, and this week I found out my friend Jessica might have feelings for me, and I don't know what to about it"
Wa wa wa…. Who's Jessica!? Is she pretty?
"Do you have feelings for her"
"I don't know…"
Ya right. You like her and don't want to tell me.
"Well if you don't know you should figure it out. It's only going to hurt you to trick yourself into loving her and it's only going to hurt her if she thinks you have feelings for her."
By this time we were getting back into the car with a Jose who had NO IDEA what we were talking about. We drove 4 blocks to the CVS Jose worked at, he got to work and David and I walked through the store. Why was it so easy to talk to him?
After we had walked the whole store I drove David back home, helped him unload his bike and walked him to his door.
I wanted to spend more time with him, talk to him more.
I had a party to go to….and he had other girls on his mind...and I didn't want to seem like a crazy person
So I said goodbye.
And that was the beginning of me and David.
