My friend John (not his real name) arrived in full banquet attire with Kyleen, sporting a baby blue/turquoise scheme. I was not at all jealous of them, because I already had a wonderful date of my own, but if anyone had been paying attention, I did steal glances towards Kyleen whenever I could. I still had some attraction to her, and it was not only because of her looks.
We all ate the buffet-served food, and then inducted the new board members. I passed the candle to the next Academic Chairperson, signifying the passing of the torch. Afterwards, we danced the night away, taking some pictures in between. It certainly was the prom that I never attended in high school, because this time around I had a date with me.
After dancing with Francine for a while, we took a rest. It was a little obvious that someone else had wanted to ask her out before I did; I was just the one who did it first. In fact, I knew that there were at least three other guys that wanted to ask Francine before me. One of them, however, was able to steal her away from me for most of the night—they were closer friends with each other, and I knew I was partly in the way, so I let them have their time.
In the meantime, I stole someone else’s date away—that someone being my friend John and the date being Kyleen. It seemed that he was mingling with the older crowd, knowing that he was about to graduate soon, so he took his last moments to heart. In a way, then, everything worked out just fine: my date got to hang out with her close friend who had wanted to go with her in the first place, and I got to hang out with Kyleen, who I originally wanted take to the banquet.
We danced for a long time thereafter, only taking a one break after a long stint on the dance floor. It was just how I wanted it. She was a great dancer, of course, having been part of the hip-hop dance troupe, and it made it even more fun to be around her at the time. Really, she was just a very nice person overall (some people may even say that she is too nice). All of her wonderful characteristics just made being around her even better.
One of the most interesting things that I realized as an afterthought was that four years prior (April 2000), the scene was very similar, except that I was dancing with Jackie—one of Kyleen’s best friends in high school. After having realized that, I just had to laugh to myself. During my sophomore year of high school, I found myself dancing at a formal with the very attractive Jackie, and then four years later, during my sophomore year of college, I was dancing with Jackie’s very attractive friend, Kyleen. I almost felt guilty about it. (Notice the keyword there is “almost”.)
I knew that I still liked Jackie somewhere deep down inside. As my friend would put it nowadays: I still had a soft spot for her. But, spending time with someone like Kyleen seemed to cure the pain. I knew there was no way that I would ever end up with Kyleen, as in a relationship, but it was still nice to pretend (to myself) just for one night.
These days, I still find it funny when I remember that night, and the situation I found myself in. It was a very funny coincidence that those events coincided with each other four years apart. What made that night even better, though, was that there was no mention of Jackie whatsoever, like there had always been between myself and Kyleen. It was almost as if the two nights were completely unrelated, but destiny just has a funny way of working things out like that.
In the end, I took my date home and my friend John did the same for his. All I had were simply memories and few pictures.
I have to admit, however, that afterwards (not immediately, but eventually), I thought about Jackie again. I still did not know what to do with her, or if there was even anything more to do at all. I was top-toeing around the idea of contacting her once more to make amends, and maybe even start over, feeling that the last words that I said to her may have been a bit too harsh. I was definitely regretting a few things then.
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