Prom

I made my date cry at my senior prom. I kind of like to tell people this story, because it is so very unlike me. I’m really a very nice guy; I have not made many people cry. Maybe my parents. My brother, when I threw that dog toy at him and hit him in the face. And my girlfriend in high school. Ex-girlfriend, now, of course. Now, it may seem obvious to most people, but it is a bad idea to go to the prom with your ex-girlfriend. In fact, it may be a bad idea to speak to your ex-girlfriend at all after you have break up with her, at least, not for a while. But maybe you are me, and quite stupid, as far as this sort of thing goes, and you try to stay friends. You don’t hate her, she’s just not the one for you. And she’s really screwed up, but we won’t go into that here. She wants to go as friends, she says. Maybe she even believes that’s true, but it’s not. It’s been almost a year since you broke up, and because you can’t think of any reason not to go with her at the moment (like a said, quite stupid), you say yes. Only a few days after that does she reveal that she still has feelings for you. You should have known this. It should have been obvious. This should be the part where you run away screaming or dive into a bush and hide until prom is over, or at least back out of the whole thing, and she starts crying. Well, the crying doesn’t happen yet, because I didn’t do any of those things. I told her I would go, I can’t back out now, I thought to myself. She is still my friend, we can still have fun. Right.

Now, here's an important fact. I had a crush on this other girl, who came with a bunch of friends without a date. I should have asked her to the prom. So I danced with her. One dance. Just one. And that was that. My plutonic-ex-girlfriend-who-still-had- a-crush-on-me-prom-date freaked out and started crying and left the room. I ignored this for a little while, and finally went to go talk to her. We didn't talk much though, but we made it through the rest of the evening. I tried to avoid her friends. They hate me, and they’re mean, especially the short feisty one. Afterwards we went to Wendy’s to get Frosties.

I should feel more guilty about this. I mean, I care about her, and sometimes wonder how she’s doing, but she knew we were just friends. But I think when I broke up with her, it should have been a sign that I no longer wanted to date her. It seems to follow that I might want to date other people. I did not want to make her cry, though. I guess there’s not much you can do about that. Well, except for the obvious thing, which is not to take your ex-girlfriend to the prom when she still has a crush on you. Cause that's just stupid.