A Date?

Beeeep! I received a text message. It was from Jacob, the friend standing in front of me. We were at the AutoZone after a night of weird coincidences and awkward pauses. The text just added to it. It read:

“I know this might sound strange, but will you go out with me. This was the thing I was wrestling about with God last night, so will you go out with me?”

I glanced up at my friend sitting on the packs of windshield washer fluid, smiling that guilty smirk that proved he’s completely serious. Oh no.

I met my friend Jacob at the front desk of my residence hall at college. As a student taking Spanish classes, I noticed this Mexican-American kid and asked if he could help me with my homework. Thus, an awkward friendship formed.

Jacob was dating someone seriously and I immediately was placed in the friend zone. Good because I wasn’t attracted to him. Regardless, after a semester of some pretty strange interactions, I received 9 calls from Jacob after finals week.

“Hi” I said calling him back.

“What’s up?” he replied.

“What’s up? Why don’t you tell me what’s up? You’re the one that called me 9 times!” I joked.

He proceeded to ask me to go to the Tran-syberian Orchestra that night. He had two tickets.

“Is your girlfriend coming?” I had to make sure that I wasn’t going to be the third wheel. He’d done that to me before.

“We broke up.”

Ooo, I immediately complied and decided he’d have to tell about it later.

When we met up, he told me he had wrestled with God about his ex-girlfriend so I just left it at that. He was struggling. I was a friend that he thought he could have fun with. I could do that. I’m definitely fun.

When we left, I began to wonder if this was considered a date. He’s not dating the other girl, so was it? I texted two good friends, the question: “What’s a date?”

One responded with the dictionary definition of a date, to which I burst out laughing. After walking to the car, we made it to his parent’s mini-van and were filling up at the nearby BP. I happened to laugh when he was in the car.

“What’s so funny?”

Me, not sure what to say, said, “My friend just sent me a definition for something.”

“Oh, what’s it for?”

“Maybe you can guess…” and I read him the definition laughing.

“Is it a date?”

“Yeah.”

The silence lingered and then he left to pay for the gas and we would be on our way. That was weird, I thought.

He comes back in, ready to go and sticks the key in the ignition. Wooooooowaaaaahh! The alarm screamed. It didn’t do that before. It did it again.

He starts getting in and out of the car, making calls and asking what to do. During one of those transitions in and out of the car, he turns to me frustrated. I try to console him, telling him it’s okay. Then he mumbled something that surprised me, “Wow, what a terrible start to a first date.” To which I responded, “WHAT?” No response. Topic dropped. And then he’s out of the car again.

Now, I want to clarify. It is not that I mind being on a date with someone. Not a big deal. But, knowing this guy and the lack of attraction to the 230-pound, 5 foot 9 build, I did not want there to be any confusion. And he broke up with his girlfriend of three years the night before. He would not be ready, and I was not into him.

We ended up jumpstarting Jacob’s car and went to AutoZone to replace the exhausted battery. This was where he decided to text me to ask me out. I could not believe he sent that. And, what do I do?

I look at him and say, “Uhhh, are you serious?” even though his smile already told me.

“Ummm, well, you just broke up with your girlfriend…”I say rambling, “…and, you dated her for awhile, and that’s not really fair for her…or you…” I didn’t know what to say. Then, in my ramblings it came out, “I’m flattered, but I think you should wait until after winter break…but then, I guess we’re kind of on a date right now…” Shoot. I was trapped. From then on, it was downhill. I realized that I didn’t want to be on a date with this guy and I didn’t know how to get out of it.

So thrown off, I freaked out internally. I knew he needed a friend, but I could not handle that he took me back to his dorm room to watch a movie. I kept thinking about how his now ex-girlfriend who I knew was in the same place the night before. Creepy. After the movie, he walked me back to my room where I jetted in before he could try to reach in for a kiss. Yuck. Closing the door behind me, I was grateful to finally get away.

Holy cow, what a night.

Written 1.22.2012 by yours truly (thus the college and dorm references) and adapted slightly for this blog.

#baddates #jacob #experiencing #boysarestupid #college