Ah yes, "C". How I've been avoiding writing about you here. Not just because I know you read this, but because I'm just not sure what to say. Do I write about semi-stalking you to get to talk to you. Do I write about one night of kissing, never to be repeated? Do I write about trying to be your friend while having a huge crush on you for years. How about how I used to think that if you and I ever got the chance we'd have been amazing together?
Or should I forget all that and just write about the thirteen years of friendship we've shared. About how you've been with me through thick and thin, listening to my stories about my loves and not-loves. How you'd give me advice when asked, but never make me feel like you were judging me for my obviously bad decisions. Thankfully the crush finally faded years ago, but I know our friendship never will. I didn't worry at all about telling you the address of this blog, because you either already know all my stories, or will be the first to know the new ones. But I did worry about this particular post. How do I write about my greatest friend? I guess I'll just start at the beginning.
The story of "C" and I begins during my first year of college in Red Deer in 1995-1996. Back then I didn't have a car to get to school, so I had to ride the bus. Every morning I'd catch the bus just across the way from my house, ride it to the downtown bus rendezvous, then transfer to the bus that took me the remainder of the way to RDC. I was pretty much always the only person on the bus when I got on, and I'd always go sit right in the back corner. Pretty much everyday, just a few stops later, a cute girl would get on the bus, and sit a little ways away. Sometimes we'd share a shy smile if we made eye-contact, but we never spoke, I don't think even a hello. She was a student at RDC too, so she'd make the same transfer as me, and then at the college we'd go our separate ways. I think we were even in the same Biology class, but that still wasn't enough for me to round up the courage to start a conversation.
So the school year passed, with us riding the bus together pretty much every day but without us ever actually speaking, until "C" caught the eye of my friend "Chaps". "Chaps" was a guy I'd known in passing from highschool, but who I'd become fairly close friends with during the school year. We were in pretty much all the same classes, with pretty similar break times in between classes. We'd do pretty much all of our studying during these breaks, and chat and check out girls. Pretty good times. Also, "Chaps" was a lot more outgoing than me. He was one of those guys who can just walk up to anyone out of nowhere and chat them up. And not in that creepy "holy crap, get the hell away from me" kinda way.....just that friendly outgoing kinda vibe that I've never ever figured out. So yeah....one day in the spring "C" walked past "Chaps" and I when we were studying and he asked me if I knew her.
I told him, no, she rode my bus every day, but I'd never spoken to her. He seemed surprised that I'd never spoken to her, seeing as how she was a pretty cute girl and I'd had a million perfect opportunities to chat her up. He decided this needed to be remedied immediately and we followed her to the library.
In the library we found her in one of the little study pods, sitting by herself. She told me later that she'd been crying after a phone call with her boyfriend, but neither "Chaps" or I noticed. He just plowed ahead with the hello's and the official introductions. I don't really remember anything else about the conversation, but I'm sure that I didn't say another word until "good-bye".
That conversation was not the most spectacular first impression, but it was a foot in the door. Sometime a few days later I was riding around my neighbourhood with some other friends and saw "C" walking a dog down the street. I had my buddy pull the car around and got up the courage to say hi, and chat her up a bit. Somewhere along the line I got her phone number and found out that she was living in the nearby trailer park.
Of course the first time I called her, she wasn't home. "She's out walking the dog" her roommate said. Fueled by some kind of bravery that I'd never known before, and joined by my friend Dave, I headed out to the Express 24, to grab a drink. Of course, the real mission was to try to cut off her dog walking route somewhere in between her place, my place, where we'd seen her walking before, and the convenience store. We took the most direct route possible to the store, so that we could buy Brisk Iced Teas, thereby confirming our cover story, and then headed along the road that we thought she might be walking down.
As luck would have it, we ran into her and the chatting started again. She never suspected a thing. Although by the 3rd or 4th time the same scenario played out I think she had caught on.
The rest of the school year is a blur to me. I know we hung out lots, and "C" even came over and met my parents. They were always good hosts, offering her beverages, and even supper one time. I think we had pancakes. I had just gotten into funk a fair bit and we spent a fair bit of time listening to music. I introduced her to my brother, and a few of our mutual friends, and we'd all hang out together.
It was fun, and it was comfortable. She had a boyfriend, who was in jail for a convenience store robbery/assault at the time.....so we kept things on the friends level only. That was fine with me because I was still figuring out how to talk to women as human beings. I'd never had a girlfriend, and at this point I had only kissed two girls (Kris, and "S"). I was so shy that if a girl I liked even talked to me it would make me blush for an hour. But even though I really liked "C", the fact that there was that boundary there, and that she really seemed to want to be my friend, made it easy to get over my shyness around her. Getting to know her just made me like her more and more, but I never made a move in case it would hurt our friendship.
The school year finally wound down, and she decided to have a bit of a get-together to celebrate since her roommate was out of town. My bro was there, along with 3 or 4 other friends, and I think even "K" (who was dating a friend of mine at the time) made an appearance. My bro and I told my parent's we were sleeping over at one of our friend's houses, so we were set to enjoy the night without a curfew. It was nothing too crazy, just some beer drinking and music listening, some card games and maybe some board games. The wildest thing was recklessly throwing sour patch kids across the room for Dave to catch in his mouth.
At some point in the night, my friend Sean took my 16 yr old brother to the strip bar, using my glasses and drivers license to get in. It worked, but he was so scared of getting busted that he refused to take off my glasses during the show and couldn't see anything. Sometime during all this, "C" pulled me aside and said, "I've got something to tell you, please don't hate me". Of course I was thinking it was some horrible, dark secret....or that she had figured out I had a crush on her and didn't want to be my friend anymore......but instead her big revelation was "I'm only 16". That was pretty hilarious at the time. And it was especially funny since my parents had been feeding her alcohol when she'd come over. Apparently she'd been skipped two grades in school.
So the "party" went on and on, and eventually people started to get wound down. I ended up curling up on the couch, and "C" went to sort out sleeping arrangements for the other pass-out guests. A few minutes later, totally unexpected by me, she came back into the living room, and asked if she could join me. Then, she climbed on top of me on the couch and we started kissing. We kissed and touched and cuddled for pretty much the entire night. She fell asleep in my arms and it was the most wonderful feeling I had ever had up until that moment. Somehow....I had got the girl, without even really trying, and definitely without knowing how it had happened. It was a dream come true.
Of course, like almost all dreams, it ended in the morning. My bro and I made our way back home and had naps. "C" was heading back to her parent's home in Big Valley, and stopped in on the way out of town. We hung out for a bit, and exchanged addresses so we could keep in touch, , and discussed what had happened. She told me she loved her jail-bird boyfriend, and that as much as she liked me, she couldn't leave him like that so she and I would have to be just friends.
I was stunned, nothing like this had ever happened to me. It was easy to just be friends, when you didn't know what you were missing.....but she liked me....she kissed me. She was like no other girl I'd known. She was beautiful, but I could talk to her and not just mumble and blush. We enjoyed the same stuff. We had so much fun together. She was supposed to be mine. And she wanted to keep dating some piece of crap convenience store robbing hoodlum? I managed to suck up my disappointment well enough to say goodbye and wish her a safe journey.....and then went downstairs to cry.
Shortly after, she did break up with her boyfriend; I like to think that I helped motivate her to do that. We hung out a couple more times that summer, and eventually the pain deadened even though I still had feelings for her. As the summer passed, I started dating "E", and then moved to Saskatoon for school. She stayed at Red Deer College for one more year before moving to Edmonton. We kept in touch through letters, email, 2am phone calls, and occasional visits. What started as a whirlwind end to a school year has endured as my greatest friendship. I've been there for her through a bunch of boyfriends and even one husband, and she's been there for me through everything you're going to get to read here. Thank you "C".
Bob Dylan - Tangled Up In Blue
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment