I ran into a girl working in a coffee shop the other day who I thought I recognized. After looking her over, I decided she just looked familiar and I didn't know her after all. But then I saw her giving me a double take, and decided I must know her after all. When she came over to make small talk and catch up, I realized who it was:
The girl I went to the Winter Dance with my freshman year of high school.
She was still cute, and friendly, and funny, just like I remembered her. I didn't get her contact information or arrange to hang out with her or anything, but I felt satisfied that I'd finally run into a girl that I had often wondered about. As I sat on the patio thinking about it, I remembered maybe I've run into her once or twice before. I wasn't sure.
When Kaite showed up at the coffee shop to hang out with me, I told her about who I had run into, and she said, "I don't remember her."
Which was weird, because right around the time I would have been dating this girl would have also been around the time I was hanging out with Kaite pretty much every day. As I tried to explain who I was talking about, it occurred to me that I had mentioned this same girl in front of some of my other friends before and they hadn't remembered her, either.
I tried to think of all my friends, who would be the most likely to remember her, and I decided my high school buddy Clint would be a good candidate. The way I met this girl in the first place was because she had a locker right next door to Clint's locker, and I went to lunch with Clint almost every day, so ever day right before lunch I'd see her. We started flirting, making small talk, joking around -- she was really engaging and funny, easy to talk to, and somehow through no fault of my own I had fallen ass backwards into a cute girl who actually liked me and wanted to go to the Winter Dance with me.
We talked on the phone a lot and went on a couple of what I guess you'd call "dates," but by the time we got to the Winter Dance we had cooled on each other and were pretty much at the end of our brief relationship. What should have been our best date yet ended up being pretty much the last time I ever really hung out with her.
Anyway, I saw Clint online and asked him if he remembered this girl, and he didn't.
So, I began to wonder -- does she exist at all? Is she a figment of my imagination? Is my life one of those shitty movies where characters who seem real end up just being in the main character's mind?
As I thought about it, I reminded myself that I have a dream at night, from time to time, where I meet a nice, funny, cute girl who is really easy to talk to and who I really seem to be hitting it off with, only to wake up and realize it wasn't real. I hadn't made the connection before, but I thought, that dream is kind of like the way I met the Winter Dance girl -- we just casually started talking and things clicked amazingly well.
I went home to visit my parents for a barbecue today and took the chance to go through the old photo albums. I came across the pictures my mom forced me and my friends to take the night of the Winter Dance back in 1995, and sure enough, there was this girl, standing right next to me, looking just the way I remembered her, sweet smile and everything.
I stole a couple of choice photos so I could show my friends. They may never remember her, but at least I can point out that she actually existed.
As an added bonus, I look incredibly handsome in the photos. So, good date choice, Winter Dance girl.
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