Cracked Misdirection

Crackhead. If I had to pinpoint the one reason we never went out in high school, it was Crackhead. How could I misinterpret the signs of her being with him versus not?

This discussion has come up more times than I care to count, and it's always something of an amusing topic, since I was so totally off on their relationship. The weird thing is that retrospectively, it didn't seem that I was so far off, and yet, I may have placed too much stock in the high school relationship as well. My presumption was that once a couple was a couple, they were exclusive till it was over. Apparently, I was mistaken.

The Arizona trip had a ton of different activities, and granted, most of her time was spent with me, and yet when we were walking about during one activity we did on the Arizona trip, she wondered multiple times where "Peter" was. I honestly can't remember the name of this place, though I wish I could. It was like an Old Western town which featured some kind of baked bean barbeque that was kind of mediocre. Clearly, the food wasn't the point of being there. It wasn't exactly an amusement park, but I do remember paying tic-tac-toe against a chicken.

To clarify, she insists that she called everyone "Peter" in that time. No, his name wasn't Peter, nor was anyone else's. But I always associated the name with him, since I heard it in reference to him at one point, and what else was I to think? I didn't know their games. Besides, isn't having a pet name of some kind a sign of a relationship? So I thought.

Fast forward to a time when I was hanging out in her room with BG, Rox, and another guy I'll call The Swede. The Swede did some vital work with me and another guy later on that yer in relation to music, but that's another story entirely. Point is, he was there too, and I'll tell the amusing tidbit that goes along with that in a moment. Where this slice fits into this tale is how Crackhead acted with The Queen. When they were together in her room, he was all over her, and she didn't appear to be overly offended by the attention he gave.

What I saw was the kind of relationships I'd been missing out on, and anyone that close would not be interested in going elsewhere. There didn't seem to be any animosity to indicate that they weren't close. So at some point I left the room. As luck would have it, everyone else got kicked out soon thereafter...well, almost everyone. Turns out at some point the Swede went to sleep in the hide-a-bed which was in their room. Let's make that clear: he was actuall INSIDE the hide-a-bed, so that some time later when everyone was ready for bed, he emerges and wonder what happened. I'm not 100% on the timeframe there, but I heard about it quite a bit.

This Arizona trip covered from the day after Christmas to the day after New Year's Day, so we got to celebrate New Year's with all our band friends at a building there in Arizona. Everyone was moderately dressed up, and since BG wanted to ride with Rox over there, The Queen went ahead with the trade and rode on Bus One with me. It was my impression that she wasn't happy with the switch (but I've been wrong about a great many things).

Well, we got to the New Year's Eve Party, and I walked in with her and BG and Rox. Wasn't sure how the night would go, but I was with her, so I figured it might be a decent evening. Then, she saw him. He was playing pool with his buddies, and when she saw him, she ran to him. What was I to think? I went elsewhere. I was on my own all night since I didn't want to see her with him. The more time I had spent with her, the more it tortured me to see her (apparently) happy with someone else.

Turns out that she spent all of 30 minutes with him, and had I just hung around, I would have spent time with her again minus Crackhead, who was far more interested in his buddies than her. So I blew it.

The trip home went very much like the trip up. Everyone was on their respective buses, and we had two stops I'll make note of. One was a place called Old Tucson that has been used for movie making and such. It's a bit of an amusement park but focuses more on the old western looking town that it is, though it is more of a movie set. I was priviledged here to spend the whole time with her (a point she brings up fairly often when I complain about Crackhead), and we had a good time.

This was overshadowed by another time at an Elk's Lodge for dinner. I was sitting on one side of her; guess who had the other. For me, it served to derail the hopefulness I felt after Old Tucson because it seemed like despite all the time I had spent with her, she was still going out with him. Absolutely maddening, and I was too young to know what to do.

So crash and burn city on that trip, right? Not entirely. She did notice me which was a little encouraging even though she seemed more hooked on him. And while the next few weeks after the trip were of no account, we were chosen to represent Oklahoma in the Presential Inauguration Parade for Bill Clinton. This time, I made sure to get on the same bus as she, and so began round two.

The trouble, again, rested with Crackhead (aka Ali Ababwa), but in retrospect, it shouldn't have. She spent most of her time with me. If I had been the least bit agressive, things would have been different, but I wasn't. I have the excuse of being young, but still... If only...