Amonsri's Thoughts - 4. Awkward: Asking Out

Six-foot tall, lanky, blue eyes, and head covered in brown hair. That is how I would describe my 17-year-old self. It was about a month until Prom. I planned on attending Prom with Rick, a close friend of mine sense nither of us had a date. I was not popular in the typical sense of the word but everyone knew me, or at least knew about me. Mostly becasue my dad work for the school.

“Hey, Tom! Wait here!” Casey cried out.

Casey had been one of my friends for several years, and she was not your typical girl. She was definitely a tomboy, and never really wore makeup. She didn’t really get into social media until that year. She was a self-defined crazy person which made her all the more fun to be around. I looked at my watch and saw that I still had time before 7^th period began.

“Sure.” I yelled out, as I watched her run inside the classroom out of my view. I waited for less than a minute, before I saw Casey come out pulling another girl along behind her. I looked at the girl. She was a little short, and had long auburn hair. She had beautiful hazel eyes. ‘She is in my 7^th period drama class. Hmm, what was her name again…um, Mary. That was it Mary. She is one of Casey’s friends.’

“Hi Tom, um, I as was wondering if you would like to go to Prom with me?” Mary asked timidly, with her eyes not quite wanting to meet my own.

Ummm…did she just say what I think she did? Surely she did not just ask me out. I am not that good looking. I hardly know her. Shoot, what should I say? I don’t want to hurt her. Surely Rick would not care.

“Well, um, yes I will,” I responded haltingly.

Wait. Why did I say that, I have no real idea who she is. Oh, no… what do I tell my parents? They are very strict. I hope Rick doesn’t mind much.

“Ok, Great,” Mary said suddenly exuberant. “I will talk to you later,” she said, as she quickly ran back into the room. I followed close behind and saw her and Casey run into the back corner of the classroom.

I was never quite so as glad I had soccer practice every day after school. Every time at soccer practice we would have to run two miles in under fifteen minutes. If we did not we would have to run an extra mile, albeit at our own pace. I started to think on how to handle the situation as I ran.

“Ok, so I am going to prom with a girl I hardly know. How do I fix this? My first option is to break up with her, but I cannot do that I already said I would go, and that is not fair to her. So my second option, is I need to get to know her. Now, how to go about getting to know Mary? I don’t have her number, or Facebook, or anything like that. I guess I could ask Casey, but that might seem creepy. I will not have a lot of time with school and sports, and I only have one class with her. I guess I could write her a note. Yeah, that could work. That way I could avoid any conversations with awkward silences. Man, no wonder people think dating is hard. I am not even dating her yet and I am having trouble figuring all of this out.”

The next day on the way to school, I wrote a note to Mary saying:

‘Mary, I still do wish to go to Prom with you, but I would like to get to know you some more first. I realized that this will be a two way street, so I will tell you some things about myself first. I have six siblings, three older, and three younger. How about you? Do you have any siblings? I also want to let you know this will be my first time ever going out with anyone, so please forgive me if I have over stepped my bounds in anything.’

I was preparing to give it to Mary in 7^th period. Then during 4^th period History, I saw Mary walked in and waved to me as she went in, sat in the back corner of the classroom towards the right.

WHAT! I had no idea she was in this class! Man! I am so oblivious. I decided to go ahead and give Mary the note. I walked over and said, “Hey, this is for you.” I then went back and sat down in my spot and let out a huge sigh.

“So, Tom what was THAT?” Katlin said accusingly and at the same time sounding amused.

Katlin was one of my cousins. She happened to sit next to me in this class. “Oh, well um….I kind of am going out with Mary,” I told her.

“Yeah, I can see that. My problem is why I did not know about this!” Katlin exclaimed.

“Well to be fair, it happened yesterday, and I have not even told my parents yet. So, you know before them even.” I explained to Katlin

“Oh, well I guess you are excused then, but don’t leave me out of the details,” Katlin jested.

That day right before 7^th period started, Mary came up to me and gave me a note. It answered my questions, and agreed we should get to know each other more before we went out. It turned out this would also be Mary’s first time going out with someone. Oh boy. Here we go!