Stories From My Past: It's Not A Date!

Back in college, there was a friend of mine at church was a little socially awkward. Good guy, friendly, just tended to be a little dorky and shy and not have many close friends. A lot like me, in other words.

I feel bad for telling a story on him, because I honestly don't even remember his name. I guess that gives him deniability if he ever reads this. :)

At any rate, it was around the time that the band Avalon was touring in support of their album, A Maze Of Grace. Their hit song was...



Yeah, not exactly my kind of music. I liked the lyrics quite a bit, but I'm too much of a metal-head to get excited about anything where a programmable synthesizer is the primary instrument. :)

Anyway, my doppelgänger approached me one day. "Wanna go to a concert?"

In the long history of awkward "uh" 's, this one may have been the longest. "Uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh.... ... ... maybe? What?"

"I have two tickets to the Avalon concert," he explained. I had no idea they were even on tour. "It was going to be a date, but the girl I asked backed out on me."

"Oh." I was a little relieved. "Who was the girl?" Doppelgänger's eyes dropped. "Never mind."

Red flag! Red flag! "Wow, ... uh ... well, I'm sorry it's not going to be a date for you." Doppelgänger looked like he might cry. "Me too... " He tugged nervously on his thumbs. "So... wanna go?"

He asked me!
He asked me!

There was another long awkward silence. "It's not a date," he insisted.

Avalon wasn't a band I was excited about, but my social calendar wasn't exactly full. "I guess so. How much are the tickets?"

"Oh, I already bought them. Don't worry about it."

Red flag! Red flag! "Dude," I protested. "This just became a date."

"It's not a date!" "Then let me buy my ticket." "No, I honestly already bought them. It's fine."

You can't
resist...

I gave up. The siren call of "free ticket", even to a band I didn't care about, was too strong for me to resist. "OK, fine. When is the concert?"

"This weekend at 8. I'll pick you up."

"Dude, this just became..." "It's not a date!"

At least he wasn't wearing a boutineer when he picked me up.