3.28.2014

Prom Night 2001





Here I am, a 30 year old mother of three. This song comes on and there I am, back in high school. I close my eyes and I'm sitting in the cafeteria at the greasy bench tables. I can almost smell the dried out, heat-lamped, burger discs and soggy french fries on the line, and a faint scent of sweaty, hormone-laced, locker metal. A blur of faces around me but there is that one that sticks out from the crowd. A face burned in my memory. My teenage crush. I swear I went through the female version of this song. The verse about prom kicks me right in the heart. Every. Damn. Time. Flashback to 2001. There was only one person in the world I would have gone to prom with back then. He never asked me. He took one of the prettiest and most popular girls in our class. She was crowned prom queen that night. I stayed far away from the dance but set-up with a friend for an after party. Slowly guests arrived, all of them decked out in their prom attire. He walked in. Alone. His prom queen date ditched him after the dance. He didn't walk up to me with two tickets to an Iron Maiden concert, but we did end up laying on the grass in the backyard, staring up at the stars, and talking until the sun came up. We dated on and off for years after.