I don't know why I even try to date

I don't know what it is, but this time of year always reminds me of a certain someone from my past. I have not seen or spoken to this individual in almost 5 years, but I still remember the smile on his face and the horrible way we never got it together.

One night, when I was in high school, this boy, I'll call him Charlie, and I were hanging out, trying to figure out what to do. It was a summer night (school might have been out by this time), warm with a slight breeze. With no where to go the next day, we had time on our side and a night full of possibilities. We knew that Hale-Bop, the comet, was passing by the Earth. The bright idea occurred to us, 'Let's drive up north where there's no city lights and check out the comet!' In my head I'm thinking, 'This will be great! A long drive, an intimate conversation, then sitting under the stars. This is going to go where I want it to.'

Looking at Charlie, I can tell he's thinking, 'Hey, this will be cool. We'll be alone and what an opportunity.' There's a gleam in his eyes (remember the show Moonlighting? Where they had the attraction but it took so long for them to get together? This was my 'relationship' with him. If either of us had ever gotten the nerve to say anything, I'm pretty sure we would have been dating for a long time. But then, we're both chickens).

I start driving. We're heading off to see the comet (and hoping for so much more than an astrological event). The conversation was sweet, we always conversations that lasted for hours. We listened to love songs on the radio, I think he even sang along.

We get fifty miles away from home, the city lights are nil so we turn off to a back country road. Up ahead is a field, no buildings or trees to be seen. I pull the car up to the edge of the field and turn off the engine. Anxious, we both jump out of the car and start walking into the field. Once we're a good distance from the car, we stop and look up.

What do we see as we gaze into the sky?

A comet?

Shooting stars?

Constellations?

No.

We saw clouds. That's right. The sky was not clear that night. There was cloud cover and we had no chance to view the comet. We drove for an hour to see nothing.

Our hopes PLUMMETED.

Neither of us ever looked up before we left (or on the drive) to see if we could see any stars. We were officially morons.

We're not ready to give up on spending time together, but we're both extremely logical people. You may be asking, why didn't these two teens sit under the clouds and talk? I'll answer that question. With no stars to look at, sitting in some random person's field seemed a little weird and creepy. Having a reason to sit there would have been better. We wouldn't feel like trespassers if there was a comet. We walk back to the car, our heads down in shame, shoulders slumped. We decided to go back towards home and do something else (I don't remember if we were going to go bowling or play pool or something like that).

Remember how we were fifty miles from home and on some back road in the country? Well, we got lost.

That's right. We got lost.

Up and down windy roads with absolutely no landmarks we drove.

We drove around for 45 minutes in the dark trying to find the highway to go home. Obviously, we eventually found it, otherwise I wouldn't be typing today.

Once we knew how to get home, the humour of the situation set in. (Yes, I spelt it that way on purpose.) I remember laughing the entire way home with Charlie. Even though we never saw the comet and never got our moment under the stars that evening, I remember just enjoying his company all night. This time of year reminds me of him and I smile.

1 Comments:

At 1:38 PM, CarpeDM said...

I would have probably said "Charlie, are you going to kiss me or what?" I've said it twice (to people not named Charlie, of course). It worked both times.

The only problem, of course, is that my longest relationship was for 6 months so I really shouldn't be giving anyone dating advice.

This was a sweet story, Brooksba.