Close Encounters of the Bad Date Kind

My Junior year of High School I agreed to go out with a friend of mine - he should have remained just that and nothing more. I really didn't want to go, but was polite and gave him a chance. We decided to go the relatively tame route and just go see a movie.

We got to the movie theater where 99.9% of the movies actually sounded good and worth seeing. The date, though, wanted to see the one movie that just made my stomach turn. No negotiations, case closed. As we got up to the window, my date paid for his ticket and walked away, leaving me to pay for a ticket to a movie that I don?t want to see. For the first time in my life, I actually brought along enough money for cab fare should I truly need an escape. The thought of leaving was pretty attractive.

But I paid anyway and entered the theater to find him standing at the concession waiting for me. He asked me what I wanted to eat, to which I replied that I wasn't hungry. He then said, "Oh, all girls eat at movies." So, to shut him up, I told him I'd have a box of raisinettes. He told the guy at the concession stand that I wanted raisinettes and walked away.

So I paid for the candy that I don't want to eat, and went off to find him in the theater playing the movie I don't want to watch, calculating in my head how much money I had left for cab fare.

Thank goodness they play those memorable movie scene slides before the previews start. Otherwise we would have had to come up with conversation on our own ? not that his conversation was much better. A scene from some Star Trek movie flashed up and he proceeded to relay the entire ridiculous plot. Then they showed an ad for a movie about alien abduction.

He spilled his guts about how he's been abducted by aliens.

You know, at that point, I sort of believed him.

After the movie the guy actually suggested going parking! I mumbled an excuse about having to be up early and that I should really get home. Back at my house, I tried to make a quick and painless escape but he stopped me with, "Don't I at least get a hug good-bye?" I hugged him and said I had an "interesting time."

"Oh admit it, it sucked," he replied.

Ok, I admit it.

--Rachel