Right around this time it was beginning to occur to me that Amanda was the most amazing girl on the planet and that she deserved my full attention. Unfortunately she did an excellent job at hiding her thoughts and feelings so I had no idea what she thought of me. We went to Divine Comedy the following week for the follow-up date and then ate out at Red Robin. The waiter stole my debit card behind my back and I didn't realize it until several hours later. My roommates and I had to perform a midnight rescue operation involving throwing a brick through their window in order to catch the man before he made his escape with my card. Unfortunately, he had already spent over $6000 with it. I'm never eating at Red Robin again.
But regardless of that incident, Amanda seemed indifferent towards me and I decided to call it quits. I stood no chance. There was no hope for progress. I therefore kept my eyes open for other prospects more on my level. Meanwhile, Halloween was approaching and my roommate Jason wanted to do a double date at a haunted house. We decided that I had by the end of the night to find a date for the very next weekend after Red Robin incident. Well, there was only one person I could think of that I could take: Amanda.
And so it was. I marched onto campus that night determined to complete my mission. I was almost done typing up Part X of The Book. I had to complete it. But that wasn't my main mission. My main mission involved the Cougareat. At that time I had nice fifty percent discounts, so I decided to take advantage and have dinner there. Guess who was working as a host that night? Some kid named Daniel. Oh yes, and someone named Amanda as well. I sat there eating my food thinking of Jason's challenge. Yes, I had to ask her. I had to give myself one more chance. There she was, changing trashes all by her lonesome. I approached her and after a little hesitation, I extended the invitation. Despite my fears that I was taking away all her weekends from my friends, she accepted for a third week in a row.
Things were even better. The very next day I was sitting in the library studying for my D&C test, when the phone rang. It was Amanda. She had never called me before, but I had stuck her number in my phone for convenience. I answered, expecting something work-related. It was not. She invited me to the Halloween Preference dance! Wow! Maybe she did see something in lowly old me after all!
Two dates with Amanda on one weekend! Could life get any better? Probably, like in 23 days from today, but back then it was pure bliss. Even though most songs were of the unknown jump in the air like monkeys variety, we still managed to enjoy ourselves. The night was memorable in that we took our first pictures together then:
As you can see, I snuck my arm around her. Chris, you sly dog, you! Afraid she would think I was nothing but a player, I've never done it again since.The following night was the big one. I had a feeling it would be the deciding night. If things went well, I would keep pursuing the relationship. If not, I would run away and hide in a cave for the remainder of my days. It was time for the scary haunted house, the Nightmare on 13th. The double date dare had now become a triple date: Jason and Holly, me and Amanda, and my roommate Brandon on a blind date with Kerri. Now, since I still consider this to be the defining moment in the progression of our relationship, you all get a special treat. I'm taking the following directly out of my journal!
"After Brandon got back home, we were supposed to prepare for tonight’s date, but instead hooked his laptop up to the big screen TV we got yesterday and played Bomberman until an hour beforehand. Finally Jason came back from the library and we vacuumed out Brandon’s car and filled the tank before picking up the girls: first Holly, Jason’s date; then Kerri, Brandon’s date, and finally Amanda. We drove up to Salt Lake and basically held three separate conversations. I needed to pee really badly. We went to Rumbi’s Island Grill to eat, and Amanda and I decided to get two things and share them for more variety, so I got a sandwich and her a rice bowl. It even had Jamaica Jerk sauce! Talk about gross. We ended up eating my fries and most of her rice, but the sandwich still hasn’t even been touched.
Then we headed over to Nightmare on 13th, supposedly the scariest haunted house in Utah. There were a bunch of guys in costumes who stuck their noses in your date’s face while we were in line. One of them got uncomfortably close to Amanda, so I knocked his stilts out from under him. He didn't bother anyone else that night.
After getting inside the building while winding through the dark lines, the lights went out. Axes fell from the ceiling and screams of pain arose around us. Realizing this haunted house was for real, I threw Amanda to the ground just as a razor blade flew overhead. The six of us crawled out of the room as people collapsed around us. Finally we made it into the dimly lit hallway where a zombie admitted us into the main building. His eyes rolled up and a ghost flew out of his mouth just as a tarantula dropped from the ceiling and landed on Amanda's head. She screamed, flung it off and grabbed my hand. For the remainder of the night, she held me in a death grip. We continued on threw different planes of the surreal, traveling across dimensions and dodging ghouls and demons. At one point a suit of armor swung a sword at Amanda and I valiantly took the blow in my stomach. It was a rough night, but we made it out alive.
After the haunted house we drove back to Provo and rented 1408, which was supposed to be a scary movie about a haunted hotel room. Well, in actuality I wasn’t the slightest bit scared at any point in the movie, and nobody else really seemed to be either. Except Amanda, she clutched me tightly throughout the entire thing. Suffice it to say I had no difficulty getting to sleep."
We held hands for the first time! Great, I thought. Now everyone's gonna want M&Ms. Luckily, at this point few people even knew about Amanda. For the most part, the night was great. It was the closest I'd ever felt to Amanda before. However, I went to bed feeling discouraged. What if she had just held my hand from fright and not because she liked me?
It was a feeling that I quickly had to overcome in the weeks to follow. Things were about to get complicated.
2 comments :
So, I was wondering: How much of what you're writing here is real? It seems like an awful lot of it is embellished.
I remember when I had to really pee bad. I was in the seminary in Minnesota. I had the chance to go home with a friend for the weekend who lived in Amery, Wisc. His dad picked us up and while we were driving I had to go really bad. His Dad said that we didn't have much farther to go and didn't want to stop. When we got to their house it was dark so I pulled it out and was going to the bathroom as I was going around the car to the house. I had to go so bad I couldn't wait any longer. I was real glad that the porch light didn't come on and his mother and sister didn't come out on the porch so he could say Mom and sis. I would like you to meet my friend. That would have been very embarrassing.
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