Confessions of an Awkward Date: Part II

This is my second post in a three part confession. You can read the first part here. I am a hopeless date.

The year was 2001. I was sixteen years old, bored and lonely over a long school break. My on again off again boyfriend was ice fishing somewhere with his Dad, and I got a call from his best friend. He asked me if I wanted to go see the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

My parents had a rule: no steady dating. And while that was nice in theory, for a 16 year old girl who was certain that she had found her life long soul mate, it wasn't an easy thing to ask. For every one date that I went on with my boyfriend, I had to go on another date with some random person who was not my boyfriend...so the fact that Scott (we'll call him that, because that was his name) was inviting me to a movie while Justin (actual name of boyfriend) was ice fishing was quite convenient. Scott was a great guy, fun to be around, and I was sure there was no ulterior motive in asking me out on a date, so I accepted.

Scott picked me up (he lived about 25 minutes away, so it was nice of him to do it) and paid for my ticket...and right before the movie started, Justin called. (On my mom's cell phone that she allowed me to take, because what 16 year old had a cell phone in 2001). He was back from ice fishing and wanted to know what I was doing. "Oh, you know. I'm kind of on a date with your best friend," didn't seem like the appropriate response, so I told him I was seeing Harry Potter at the mall and, you know, Scott was there.

He thought that was cool, so he decided to drive out and see it with us. He was about 20 minutes late for the movie (20 minutes that I sat outside the theater waiting for him while poor Scott sat by himself). I sat in between both of them, not really knowing what to think--except that I was sure I was doing something extremely rude to both of them.

When the movie was over, Justin drove me home, leaving Scott all by himself again. Again, I felt really awkward, like I was ditching out on Scott, my super nice friend who invited me to a movie. It felt like one of those really lame 80s movies. Even typing this makes me feel all awkward.

This story has a happy ending, because all three of us married separate people, and after graduating in 2004, never really saw each other again. No hard feelings.