Zel-kun’s Words

This chapter is a little different because it skips around different time periods.  I can’t see the story being told here being broken up, it just wouldn’t make sense.  So here it is, in its entirety, the story of Rose.

My first girlfriend.

The story begins in the spring of 1995, during my second year of middle school, seventh grade.  We had a class field trip to Indiana Beach, which didn’t really have any educational value whatsoever.  Its an amusement park.  Its a nice thing to know that the tax dollars that went towards my education were spent wisely.

Picture a short, fat kid with unruly hair, and you have me in seventh grade.  It was about noon and I had my fill of the crowds and the heat, and so I sat in the shade of the food stand.  There I met her, a sweet-looking girl, offering me a can of coke.

I hadn’t brought any money to the trip, so I was more than grateful for something to drink.  We struck up a conversation (can’t for the life of me remember what about), and became friends.

The friendship continued for a year or so.  I went to her house, played video games, we went bowling, went to movies, it was fun.  Then she asked me to a dance.  I figured why not, here’s a girl, and she’s asking me to a dance.

The dance itself went about as well as can be expected, with me awkwardly tripping over my own feet, and doing my best (and failing), to not make a complete ass out of myself.  We sat a couple dances out and I figured I’d do it, I’d ask my friend if she’d like to start dating.

She seemed to really enjoy the idea.

So things went on pretty much as they had, except now there was a hug thrown in every once in awhile.  Really didn’t think about it, I just rolled along.  That was until Valentine’s Day.

We got each other cards, of course, and spent the day together.  I can’t remember what we did, I think we watched a tape at my house or something.  That was back when people watched tapes.

At the end of the day, being Valentine’s Day, I kissed her, and it was like kissing a dead fish.  I realized then that I was no romantic interest in her at all.  I tried to convince myself this wasn’t true, but through the next couple weeks, I just felt more and more awkward and uncomfortable around her.

I decided it was time to break it off, to go back to being just friends.  I call her up (bad idea, I know in my wiser years), and tell her I think we should be friends.  I THEN discover I had chosen to do this on the same day her dog died.

Nice.

I’m pretty sure that at that moment, I was the punchline to some cosmic joke.

After some consoling, she agrees, and our friendship returns to normal…. almost normal.

We don’t see each other as much, we drift apart.  By the time high school starts, we probably only get together once a month.  And it was in the beginning of my Freshman year, the fall of 1996 that things took an odd turn.

Another friend (more on him in a future chapter) and I thought that Saturday would be a good day to go bowling.  I decide it would also be a good idea to invite Rose.  We arrange to meet at the bowling alley at 1:00.

I wash up and get ready, and then wait to be picked up by my friend and his father.  This was in the days before I drove, so I relied on other people to cart me around.  We end up getting to the alley at about 1:10.  After a walk-around, we don’t see Rose anywhere, so we kill time at the arcade that’s in the front entrance (We were playing Soul Edge).  When I look at the clock and see its 2:00, I decide I’d give Rose a call and see why she’s late.

I call and her mother answers the phone.  She then proceeds to yell at me about standing Rose up.

Ehwa?

I explain that I had arrived ten minutes late, and apologize.  I am questioned on why I am just now calling.  I reply that I thought Rose was late and that I was waiting for her, and apologize again.  This goes on for several minutes, me apologizing and trying to calm down an angry mother, and my friend barely containing his laughter.

I finally calm her down and convince Rose to come to the bowling alley.  We bowl and have fun, and that was the end of it.  Except for the being made fun of for being whipped by a girl I wasn’t even dating anymore.  It was not the end of that.

Awhile later I mention that there was some new movie or another coming out, and that maybe we should catch it sometime.  The following monday, I get a call from Rose.

We talk for a solid ten minutes before she finally screams into the phone, “Where were you on Saturday!?”

Ehwa?

I think this is one of the first times in my life I am so shocked my brain shuts down for a moment.  She lays into me about how we were supposed to see the movie saturday, and how I stood her up at the theatre.

I cannot stress enough at this point that I did not make any arrangements of any sort.  I had idly pointed out that I’d like to see a movie sometime.  And if she had expected to see the movie that particular day, maybe she should have clued me in.

After yelling at me for what seemed like an eternity, she slammed down the phone.  She had hung up.

My first instinct was to call her back, but I decided against it.  If she was still my girlfriend, maybe I’d consider it, but I did not appreciate being treated in such a way by my FRIEND.  I had decided that she was in the wrong, and she could call me back if she wanted to apologize.

The call never came.

Fast forward several years (circa 2003) to me working at Wal-Mart.  I stood there in electronics, and in she walked.  Like the fight had just happened yesterday, she morose and downcast, saying that we should ‘talk things over’ over some coffee after work.  She gave me her number and left.

I had a choice to make.  I could either call her, and perhaps open up the same issues as a few years ago.  Or I could toss the number and be rid of her forever.  I thought about it for a couple of days, asked some friends online what I should do.  Eventually, I decided to rip up the number.

End of story… no.

I see her time and again in my department.  Each time I send another associate to deal with her.  Each time they told me that she was just looking.

I see her being interviewed by HR at the front of the store.  I dreaded the thought of having to work with her.  I found out she had applied for a position in electronics.  HR asked me if I knew her and what I thought about her.  I decided to not sabotage her directly.  Even if she was seriosuly starting to creep me out, it wouldn’t be right.

I simply reply, “I know her, she’s a decent person, though I really wouldn’t be comfortable working with her.”  That probably cost her the job, but I was telling the truth.

Later, when I started my final semester of college, I pick out a seat in my literature class and wait for the professor to show up.  She takes attendance and I hear Rose’s name.  I also hear her voice from directly behind me.

If I was a little creeped out before, I was severely creeped out now.  I see her in my class, around campus, she seemed to be everywhere.  This continued until I abruptly left school (more on that later), and then left Indiana entirely.

It should be pointed out that my mother LOVED Rose.  In fact, until I began dating Zai, I could still find pictures of her hanging around the house.  That is my house in Illinois, in 2005, roughly a decade since my mother had seen her last.

My mother would sometimes occasionally ask, “Have you talked to Rose?”

This is why, I’m sure if I ever broke up with Zai (not bloody likely), my mother would ask, “So how’s Rose doing?”

So concludes the story of my first girlfriend.  The friend, the psycho, the stalker.  She was a good friend once, and I hope that despite everything, she is happy now.