Conventioneers-BNL

"It was great fun but it was just one of those things."
Originally uploaded by lapinfille.

I needed to get out…I mean…really get out. Get out of my house. Get out of my life. Get out of my skin, for just a moment in time. The problem was that I had no one to do it with and did not want to be out all alone. I didn’t mean to be inviting, yet overheard in conversation… an invitation takes shape.

He is new, just as I am. He is searching for evenings that take his mind off of the day. He is so ordinary that most people have to meet him 6 or 7 times before they remember his name.
And in a blur of conversation, taking place in my room over such topics as needing to “get out”,
HE thinks about it for a moment. It is one of his most irritating habits. Ask him his name and he takes a few seconds to consider his response.

Despite the quirky images I conjure up inside my head when thinking about Him, he wrinkles his forehead, and for some reason it makes him look extra sexy…not that he needs it at this point. This image is not at all about how He looks….just about how he reacts, and how he is about to make my night…someone to go out with…to an event that I need to “get out” to.

…pretty lips, tightened in a defiant smirk, he answers, “Of course!” I didn’t even think that I had asked a question.

And so…the scene from MY movie…develops

So there, at the club, in a ballroom depressingly under lit yet full enough to keep them uncomfortably close, through all of the various dances in the band’s repertoire, never changing his step, his bounce, he reaches over…not very far… for they are already touching…but over, to hold her. One arm clutched her waist and the other her neck, a hand rising up through her hair to cup her head to his chest, trying to sneak in a phrase or two above the droning of the noise and music. Seemingly knowing that this could never take place inside the halls where they first met, she leans in to listen, not even caring what he is about to say. There was no question from the way they held each other at that passing moment,that they were caught in a whirlwind, their bodies took such obvious relief from the contact.
.

My internal gyroscope keeps me erect, fighting the necessary need to sink into his arms…to “get out”…of my skin, of my life.

That particular incident was a turning point in my life-one of those magical moments where suddenly the way you see the world changes forever. I haven’t quite pin-pointed the way my world might change…but it has been rocked.

And then…here comes the movie quote…
“You look very happy…like you have a secret”

There were phrases that preceded this capture in time…conversations at the bar, in the breezeway, in the stairwell. There were phrases that followed this moment as well. But this scene…this quote…is the one that goes down in the book. How does he know…that I have many secrets?

And when I get home, the rest of my life goes by like the movie “Groundhog day”, down to the last of the boring repetitive details.

Today…the Morning After…is filled with the regular bustle of the school day. The afternoon goes on as normal…working on math and such other dismal subjects. Unannounced… a parent walks in, dressed to impress, probably a single mom. She opens a few bags and gets the kids to join in a song of Happy Birthday. Oddly enough, it is not to her daughter, but to HIM. It is HIS birthday, and I never even knew it. (There are 24 candles on the cake….what a mess) When all is quiet and the hallways are cleared…I enter the room, HIS room.
“Why didn’t you mention this last night??” I inquire.
“I didn’t want you to know that I was spending my birthday-eve with YOU.”
“So what are you doing tonight?”, I ask.
“Don’t know…wanna grab a drink?”
No, I am saving myself for tomorrow’s “After School Drink Party”. Thanks though. You gonna go?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”

And I turned around with a smile…a big smile.

Short week this week…we all have Thursday and Friday off for the Teacher’s Convention and Fall Break. Good thing…cuz I don’t know what to think…or even if I want to think!
I will go to the Convention…and go on with my life.