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Existentialism on prom night

Agh. I’ve been sick for the past few days. I don’t get sick as often as I used to, but when I do, it lasts longer. I wasn’t so bad at prom on Friday, but the illness seemed to peak yesterday when I felt like I had a temperature. Today I feel quite a bit better, though still not 100%. It looks like I’ll be well in time for graduation, which is Tuesday.

Yes, prom was Friday night. I didn’t have a date, but I tried to find one. I really did. Nobody wanted to go to prom, or they were already going with someone else, or they had a boyfriend who they weren’t going to prom with. I thought prom was such a big thing. I’ve heard horror stories of girls’ boyfriends not taking them to prom and having the experience (or lack of an experience) scar them for the rest of their lives. But I guess, for the people I asked, it’s their loss rather than mine, if it is indeed a loss at all. I was fine with going solo, anyway. It’s not like I’m not used to it.

I went over to Ed’s place for the limo. He’s only a few blocks away, so that was convenient. Besides Ed, Andrew was there with Allison, his date. A bunch of people were taking the pre-prom pictures: Ed’s mom, Ed’s sister, and Allison’s sister. Andrew’s mom was videotaping. But we were a sight to see. Well, not me in particular, but Ed and Andrew went all out. Andrew dressed like a Victorian dandy, complete with a bow tie, a top hat, a cane, gloves, and tails. Ed wore a green velvet suit with alligator shoes. Copying Andrew’s idea of having a cane, he brought a wooden-type cane with a fake shrunken head on top.

We got into the limo, which was pretty nice. I had never been in a limo before. It was pretty roomy, considering there were only four of us in there and it would have been possible to squeeze in six. There was a bar with bottled water. There were neon lights, and there was an XM satellite radio receiver. We weren’t sure what channels were available (my parents have an XM subscription, but I never tune in myself), so we just played whatever stations we could find. At one point, the song “Sharp Dressed Man” came on. It was very suitable for the occasion.

It wasn’t long before the limo arrived at the Signature Grand, which apparently is a fancy place with bunch of ballrooms and stuff. We were early, so we hung around a bit and met with some people as they came in. By then I had realized that I hadn’t gotten an actual prom ticket, only a receipt. Andrew explained that they had given out the tickets at the senior breakfast the day before. Where was I? I was probably just stuffing my face too much to listen. But luckily, the teacher taking tickets had a list of all of the ticket-purchasers, and I was listed as having bought, but not received, a ticket. So that turned out fine.

After a while, more people began to enter the ballroom, which was pretty fancy. There was even an ice sculpture saying “2007.” It was good to see a lot of people I knew. Among them was Tyler, who, a week previously, had given me the scariest car ride of my life. Not surprisingly, he had gotten into an accident on the way to prom. After some mixing and mingling, they started to serve dinner, and everyone was seated. Salad came first, of course, followed by the main course of chicken parmesan (which was introduced with “Also Sprach Zarathustra“). The food was actually good, by the way, and since no one was sitting next to me, I got to have an extra salad. And then, the dancing began.

The music was varied, unlike at homecoming, and the dance floor was much bigger, meaning that I might get sucked into the whole dancing thing eventually. But for a while, I just sat. Tomás, who had sat at my table, was out on the dance floor while his date sat a couple of seats away from me. We were among the few who weren’t dancing. Her name was Julia, and she said that she worked with Tomás, so she figured that dancing with him would be kind of awkward. So we chatted it up quite a bit. I enjoyed it.

At one point, Allison told me and Andrew that she had heard in the bathroom that Jannike had been dumped by her date (boyfriend?). Allison suggested catching some rebound action or something like that. I wasn’t so sure, but I thought it would be nice to dance with her. I didn’t act on it, partly because I didn’t know where the bathrooms were, and that’s where I would have expected to find her. But later, Jannike was walking by my table and came up to me. She seemed very cheery, like nothing was wrong. She took a picture of me and her, which was nice. Then she went on her way.

Finally, it was time to announce the prom king and queen. Ed and Andrew had both run for prom king, so I figured it would be Ed because he seems to be more popular. As for prom queen, I voted for Kristen N. because she asked me to, but I figured that Michy would win because she’s pretty popular and well-liked. After all, it is just one big popularity contest, isn’t it? Anyway, the prom king turned out to be this guy named Jordan King. I met him once, last year, and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. The prom queen turned out to be Chandi, whom I’ve known since freshman year. As is custom, the king and queen shared a slow dance, and then everyone else was allowed to join them.

I longed for the days of junior high when I could slow dance with any girl I chose — not because I was particularly fetching but because most of the girls weren’t tied down with boyfriends at that age. This was, as I saw it, a rare opportunity to dance with a nice girl who now did not have a date and might have gotten lonely. I suavely slunk over to Jannike’s table, found myself a seat next to her, and asked her to dance. She agreed, and we went to the dance floor, where we assumed the standard slow-dancing position (girl’s arms around guy’s neck, guy’s arms around girl’s waist) and began to dance. We talked, and she explained that she had just gotten dumped. Nearby, Chandi, who was still riding the high of being elected prom queen, shouted, “Grab her ass!” Her boyfriend added, “I would.” “I know you would,” was the best I could come up with. For what it’s worth, I did not engage in any ass-grabbery.

The song ended too soon, and a fast one began. I was caught totally unawares and felt like I had been put on the spot, especially since I never do any dancing other than slow dancing. But I decided to go with it. Since I was feeling pretty good, I decided do do something silly and “warm up” by giving my arms and legs a good stretch. She got a kick out of that. Then I just started moving my body to the music. About a second later, Jannike said she had to leave, so we went our separate ways. I returned to my table, where I talked to Julia some more. She was really nice, and she sat out the songs that she didn’t feel were danceable enough. She did dance some of the time, though, because she wasn’t at the table the whole time.

During a fast song, Allison came over to my table and pulled me into the action. So I did what any normal person would do: I danced. I didn’t know any of the moves, and I was just making them up, which is I guess is sort of what you do. I had never really, truly danced before, and now here I was at prom, dancing and dancing and dancing. Actually, I got tired pretty quickly when I remembered that dancing is kind of like exercise, which is something I never do. After a couple of songs, I had to sit down. But it felt good, and I noticed that after dancing, my cold symptoms momentarily went away. I did return several times for some more dancing with my friends before the night ended. I’m glad I got the resolve to go up and dance — or, rather, I’m glad my friends made me dance, because it really made prom more enjoyable. Who wants to sit out all the time? Not me.

On the way back from prom, Ed, Andrew, Allison, and I were joined by Tyler’s girlfriend, whose mom didn’t trust her to ride with Tyler after his accident (or, probably, ever). There were post-prom festivities awaiting us at Ed’s, but since I had told my parents I’d be ready to go home at 1:00, I had to skip out on them. I was pretty tired, anyway, and I feared that my coldlike symptoms were getting worse. I went to bed immediately, though reflecting on all of the evening’s excitement made it hard to sleep.

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