In tenth grade, I was given a journal assignment in English class. My teacher said it needed to be about the Bible. However we wanted to approach it was fine, we just had to write about something from the Bible. My journal was about the story of Cain and Abel. We had recently studied figurative language so I thought I would use every bit of figurative language I could. It was about Abel trying to flee the Lord after murdering his brother. I thought I was just throwing around descriptive words and hoped for a decent grade. Turns out that what I wrote was pretty good. I made a 100 and my English teacher encouraged me to sign up for the creative writing class that started the next semester. I signed up and loved the class. Tenth grade was when I realized one of the few talents in my life. Since that time, writing has come natural to me. I do it for enjoyment and to get my thoughts out. This will be the first time in quite a while that I have written a short story. It will be divided into chapters. I hope you all enjoy it.
I have never been good at tying ties. My pledgeship for my fraternity in college taught me that I may be called upon to wear a tie at any time. Back then, it was unacceptable to spend an hour watching videos on YouTube about how to tie a tie because being late was not an option. My tie was always sloppy. Usually tied too short, and sometimes with too small of a knot for my sizable neck. Tonight, I set aside an hour to tie my tie. Anything less than a double windsor would be a letdown. It had to be perfect tonight.
Tonight was the night of my ten year high school reunion. I had always thought that I would enjoy going to a reunion. However, when the invitation came in the mail, a little bit of panic set in. What were all these people going to think about me? Forget about what I would think about the people I graduated with, their perception of me was much more nerve wracking.
High school was the time of my life. I tried to hold on to my friends from high school for as long as possible. Many people were still in my life, but many people had faded from contact. I knew it would happen someday. There is a difference in someone that sat behind me in math and dealt me drugs and someone who really knew me. As the time approached for the reunion, I couldn't help but think about my time with these people. I only spent one year at the school I graduated from. However, I spent three or four years prior to my senior year with people from that school. College was amazing, but high school is the time in most people's life that they lay the foundation for who they are. It was a time of learning, experimenting, failing, loving, and losing.
I learned things in high school that I will always remember and wish I forgot. I experimented with different groups of people. I failed at academics. I loved, and lost, and loved again. The friends I made in high school improved and destroyed me, loved and hated me, killed and revived me, amused and annoyed me. Memories from high school had finally started to fade from my memory until that damn invitation came in the mail.
If I told you I was dreading the event entirely, it would be a lie. I wanted to see the people who helped form so much of who I am but, I knew that the upcoming tiptoe down memory lane could turn into a shit show.
It had been thirty minutes in front of the mirror in my bathroom on my phone with YouTube playing. Anyone within earshot could hear that I was getting frustrated.
"You stupid little piece of shit!" I yelled as I ripped off the tie for what felt like the hundredth time. I could feel the sweat start to drip from my forehead. If it took me much longer, I would have to shower all over again.
"Baby, what's wrong with you?"
I knew she would hear me sooner or later. My wife walked into our bathroom with a puzzled look on her face. She had the kind of face that was still cute with a weird expression on it.
"I can't get this stupid tie right. Are you sure you bought one that was extra long?"
"Oh no, its just regular length. We'll have to stop by the mall and pick up a different one." she said.
I felt like my head was going to explode. "Are you serious?! We don't have time to do that. I have to change shirts now so one of my other ties will match!"
"Just shut up and calm down. I was kidding. The tie is fine. You just can't tie one." She said as she snatched the tie from my hand. I was instructed to sit down on the counter so she could reach my neck and I obliged. I've always been a sucker for the little things in life and one of those little things is looking into a beautiful woman's eyes. For that thirty seconds that she tied my tie, all the nervousness I had been feeling went away. What high school friends think seem to fade away when the woman you love is so close to you. The escape didn't last long. My tie was tied on in an unfairly short amount of time.
"Is that what you're gonna wear tonight?" Apparently I was dead set on destroying the romantic moment I just experienced.
"No, asshole. I haven't changed yet." She was so sexy when she got angry.
"Well don't you think you should get ready darlin? We need to leave in like fifteen minutes."
"It doesn't take me as long as you," she said with a smirk "I just need to throw my dress on and do my hair."
"Do your hair? It takes women like two hours to do their hair."
"What kind of stupid woman is going to spend that much time on hair? Nobody's hair is that important."
She got hotter with everything she was saying.
I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer. A drink would do me some good to calm down the nerves. As I sat down to watch Sportscenter before we left, I began to think more about the people I would see that night. My best clothes were on my back, my wife would be on my arm, and my car had been washed and waxed. The reason behind my drive to impress my former classmates was mysterious to me. Maybe I just wanted to look successful or maybe I just wanted to see other people who had become successful. Whatever the reason was, the time was coming.
"Are you almost ready babe?" I yelled into the bathroom. Asking if she was ready was an understatement. She walked out in a black dress that should have been illegal. It wasn't that it was overly revealing. It was just, damn. It was the perfect combination of cute and beautiful. Not many women have that.
"How does it look?" She said as she adjusted the dress.
"That's not a dress, that's an Audrey Hepburn movie."
"That line would be really good if you hadn't made me watch that movie last week."
Damnit, I thought for sure she wouldn't remember that. Jerry Macguire is great movie. But how could she remember? I went and put on my blazer and we were ready to go. All that was left between me and memory lane was the drive.
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