The Final Act

This weekend was the final Donna to Dusk concert. The first one was 5 years ago, just a couple of months after she died. They have always been on Sunday night, which is unfortunate for most people who have a job or live out of town- or both. I was only able to go last year and this year. Last year I didn't realize what a reunion it would be. It turned out to be lots of people from high school who remembered Donna or had her in classes I wasn't in.

This year I expected it to be a reunion, and I hoped to see more random people since it was the last concert. I didn't expect to have such an awkward encounter with my ex-boyfriend.

I met DW in middle school band- he played sax and I played clarinet and I sat next to his best friend. We developed crushes on each other when I was in 7th grade, and danced to Selena at the Christmas band dance that year. He had long-ish blonde hair and glasses. I had about the same haircut, plus glasses and braces. Everyone teased me for liking him. He's a year older, so my 8th grade year he was already in high school.

When I got to high school, we were still in band and realized we still liked each other. I'd ditched the glasses and got my braces off, he'd cut his hair and got rid of the glasses too. I asked him to Homecoming and our parents dropped us off at Fandango's for fajitas before the dance. I had to search all over town to find shoes that didn't have too high of a heel so I wouldn't be too tall compared to him.

Soon after we decided to be a couple. Our first kiss happened while we were watching Beauty and the Beast at my parents house- it was really not good- slimy with teeth- but I'd never kissed anyone so I didn't know what it was supposed to be like. Eventually we got better at that, and at writing notes that we'd pass between classes. We learned different ways to fold them so other people couldn't read them.

We did theatre together- I was a hot box dancer and he was a gambler in Guys & Dolls. We attempted to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance together in our matching black top/khaki bottom outfits. We planned to double with Donna and Kelly- our curly red headed friends who wore glasses- and ended up skipping the dance and going to dinner.

He gave me a heart necklace covered in fake diamonds that I insisted on wearing in my Glamour Shots pictures taken after I got those braces off. He's not the first boy who told me he loved me, but he was the first one that I believed. To me, there was no end in sight. I made him a mixed CD and hand made the booklet with the stamp markers in different shapes like stars or bugs.

Our relationship lasted about 9 months- the length of the school year. He broke up with me that summer, just after I gave him a calendar with pictures of me for every month- in different costumes, like an angel for Halloween/October, a sporty outfit, a wintery outfit, and I think even a bathing suit photo! I guess it wasn't going to work since I had them professionally print our anniversary every month on the wrong day!

I was pretty torn up about it, and I remember his reasoning. He asked if I thought we were going to get married, and I told him no. But deep down I thought it would be a great story- the middle school love turned married couple. I was in 9th grade! I wasn't thinking about marriage!

I didn't talk to him again.

And I still hadn't seen him in person until last night. He walked in and circled around while I was talking to a friend and tapped her on the shoulder, then acted surprised to see me standing there. Yeah right. He asked, 'So where's Mr. Bell?'

'Oh he has to work, since tomorrow's Monday and all'. Nerdy reply.

He had a girl with him, and at least I knew I won that competition.

Later in the night, we were saying goodbye to everyone and he and I started talking a little more like old times. The girl was glaring at me. I brought up the Sadie Hawkins dance thing, then we laughed about his old haircut. She kept glaring. We were going to get somethig to eat, and I threw out the option for DW and the glaring girl to come with us and they accepted. I was not interested in hanging out any longer, especially if she was going to keep trying to burn a hole in my head with her death stare. I asked how they met, thinking she would let up if I asked about her. She said they've known each other for about 10 years, and just recently went on a couple of dates. In fact, this was about their 3rd or 4th date.

At dinner, I realized how weird he is and how much I didn't want to talk to him. He made one particularly disgusting comment and I remembered how he smacked his mouth while licking his fingers and that was my biggest pet peeve.

I'm glad to have seen him. He proved that Bean is the cutest boy I've ever dated and I'm so glad I married him. We tend to look at the past with rose colored glasses- what if we had met up in college and realized we were supposed to be together- the romatic movie theory. It just proves that there's a plan for all of us and we can't try to figure out what it is. It's also nice to know you made the right decision.