13. Senior Year/Senior Prom Blind Date

Senior Year/Senior Prom Blind Date
I can’t really explain why, but I have always loved playing basketball. It really makes no sense seeing how I am so short, not very fast, and quite frankly, not very good at it… but it has always been my favorite sport to play. My best friend David ‘Tater’ Turner – A Great American and I spent many weekends in my back yard shooting hoops. I wish I could find the energy today that I had back then playing ball.
One Friday afternoon after school, Tater and I were playing ball when a conversation about Prom came up.
“Are you going this year?” he asked.
“I kind of doubt it” I replied.
I really didn’t want a repeat of what happened last year with my Prom. I have already mentioned that I had a great time at Katie’s prom, but mine was a complete disaster, and I was miserable for just about the whole time I was there. Plus, you add the fact that I had absolutely NO prospects for a date, it just made sense to me to skip it.
I explained this to Tater at length, and he responded with a simple retort -
“It’s only a dance dude. You should go and have fun, who cares about last year or even if you have a date or not”.
He had a point, but I really wasn’t interested in going.
We kept playing ball for a little while longer until my Mother interrupted us. She yelled out the back sliding glass door that I had a phone call.
“Hey Dave, it’s Tank from the station”.
Tank Sherman was the morning guy at the radio station I worked part time at, and hung out at full time.  Tank was a big burly guy with an amazing mustache and really curly hair.  He was kind of like Tom Selleck’s overweight distant cousin, with a thick southern accent.
“Do you remember a girl that came in the other day to pick up a CD? Her name’s Jessica” he asked me.
“Not really Tank, why?”
“Well she told me she thought you seemed pretty cool, and gave me her number for you to call her”.
At this point I thought this was some practical joke. It definitely sounded like a set up. I was really hoping he wasn’t recording this to use as a bit on the Morning Show for the station. I already knew I was lame and couldn’t find a date, but I didn’t need it broadcast on Mix 96 for the entire world to hear, especially those who went to my High School.
“Um.. I really don’t remember a Jessica, Tank. Are you trying to pull my leg?” I asked skeptically.
“No dude, not at all. I’m just passing on the message from her onto you.”
“Dude, you’re not recording this are you? Because that would not be cool whatsoever.”
“Simmer down Myers” he said with a laugh. “I’m just calling to give you her number that’s all. I’m not using this for a bit, but I wish I had been recording it now”
So he gave me the number, and after thinking about it for a few minutes, I gave her a call. She seemed like a pretty nice girl over the phone, so I agreed to meet up with her later that night. At that point in my life, I wasn’t aware of the three day rule to where you wait three days before calling a girl after you get her number. To be quite honest, I didn’t know any of the rules when it came to dating. All I knew is I could either -
A. Spend the night hanging out with Tater watching ‘Ford Fairlane’ – Starring Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay, for the 20th time, (we always admired the classics).
or
B. Meeting a girl that may be hot and let me make out with her.
Option B won in my decision making process.
So I made the drive out to Red Springs, a small town about 15 miles outside of my small town of Laurinburg NC. I was going to have a blind date with a girl I had met only once (except I really didn’t remember it).
Is it a blind date if you don’t remember meeting the girl the first time?
We met at the local McDonalds to hang out for a bit (her idea, not mine). So over a double cheeseburger and fries, I got to know the girl who won the Bel Biv Devoe CD from my radio station.
She was a junior at Flora McDonald private school. She was pretty with long brown hair and brown eyes. We liked a lot of the same music, movies, and other things that are important to teenagers when they are getting to know someone for the first time. We sat and talked for over an hour about various things such as school and friends and things like that.
When it was time to leave, I walked her to her car and on a whim,  I asked to go to Prom with me.
“Hey, my prom is coming up in a month or so… how would you like to go with me?”
She said yes on the spot.
So within the matter of 24 hours I went from not going to my Prom, to thinking about going, to having a date with a girl I had only spent an hour with at McDonalds.
Like David ‘Tater’ Turner-A Great American said – “It’s just a dance”.
I was going to Prom with a girl I barely knew, and I wound up having one of the best nights in my entire High School career.