Us, Part One

Emily went to her first Honoree last Saturday night. In Nacogdoches, Honoree is the big dance for the high school. Most people in Nacogdoches don't care a whole lot about prom, Honoree is the one to be excited about. It's an exclusive dance, where each "Honoree" gets to invite only five friends and each friend can bring a date. And no freshmen! Anyway, watching Emily get ready for Honoree reminded me of my senior Honoree in January of 2006, my first date with Asa.

But first, we should backtrack to August of 2004 when I first met Asa. You see, Asa really was a Ladies Man. The first time I ever saw him, he was sitting on a girl's lap. He was a little weird, wore clothes very different from what I wore, and listened to odd music. He would dance around the bus like a crazy person and flirt with every single girl he met. But he was fun, uninhibited, and intriguing at the same time. He was always the one making people laugh, including our swim coach. Here are pictures for clarity:

I was very different. I was calm, boring, responsible, and definitely not the one entertaining everyone. See below.

I heard through the grapevine that Asa liked me (which was baffling to me at the time), but since he was famous for liking lots of girls it didn't really phase me. In January of 2005, I found myself without a date to Honoree. I told my friends on swim team about how I wished I had a date. Even though I wasn't really thinking about Asa being an option, my friend Katie Hamilton mentioned to him that he should ask me. She was kind enough to warn me ahead of time that he was going to ask me, which stressed me out. I didn't want to go by myself, but I also didn't want to get his hopes up that I liked him.

A few days later at swim practice, we were doing a kick set. So, our heads were above the water and Asa and I would pass each other during each lap. And that's when he asked, a word during each lap.

Will.
you.
go.
to.
(I was catching on at this point)
Honoree.
with.
me?

When we finished the kick set, I pretended to not know what he had asked. I really wanted him to just ask me all at once, you know? Be a man, and I probably would have said yes if he had. But he wouldn't do it! He was too nervous to actually say it directly to me, or so he told me later. So stubbornly, I went to Honoree alone (and regretted it a year later).

After that our friendship grew for some reason. I thought he might really actually like me, but we were so different it seemed impossible. We didn't have any friends in common, we didn't listen to the same music or like the same movies. All we had in common was swim team.

At the beginning of my senior year in 2005, it was my turn to be an "Honoree". That meant I really needed a date, and one that would walk across the stage with me. So, I thought to myself "I really need someone taller than me. Asa is taller than me and wouldn't say no!" A little full of myself, huh? It did make me a little tingly inside that he liked me and was telling people how much he liked me, but I still didn't want to like him yet.

At Homecoming that fall, I asked him to be my date to Honoree. He of course said yes, and then bragged to everyone that he was going with me to Honoree. I then spent the next 3 months regeting asking him and wishing I could take it back. He was a nice guy, but I was really worried that he would think I liked him and it would open the door to a really awkward conversation about how I didn't. Even the day before the dance I talked to my mom about how I didn't want to go with him. He had rented a tux, I had gotten a great dress, but I just didn't want it to happen for some reason. Looking back now, I was just scared to like him. I would start to get excited about going with him and then stop myself because I thought it couldn't work. But my mom gave me the best advice. She told me to just go and have fun and keep my mind open. So, I did.

Asa showed up at my house that night looking so handsome. He had probably never been that dressed up, and he looked great! Once he got there and we were really going on a date together, I got butterflies. We were so different, but maybe, just maybe, I was starting to let myself like him.