My story is from High School. I should have known from the start that it wouldn’t work out between us: he was this rough-and-tough friend of mine that was always getting into trouble at school (detentions and poor grades, later followed by arrests, DUI’s, possession charges, and probation), and I was this tight-laced suburban girl trying to prove she wasn’t as naive as everyone thought. However, he was just my friend and we should have left it at that. Our first and only date was a semi-formal dance at the high school. Since I was really only a kid, his father was going to come pick me up at my house so our parents could meet. They both showed up late, and we got to the dance late. (I found out in my later years that his father was an abusive alcoholic… I shudder to think that the 15 minute drive was likely a drunken one).

From within 5 minutes of arriving at the dance and meeting up with some friends, I realized that my “date” was nowhere to be found. He had gone off with his guy friends to smoke and drink, and I didn’t see him again for the rest of the night! Normally being at a dance alone wouldn’t be a big deal, but since this one was a semi-formal, everyone was there with a date… except me. I sat through several slow dances by my lonesome. I had to get a ride home from my miffed parents. In the end, I wasn’t that heartbroken about it… he made it REAL easy to move on!