Wednesday, 10/12
That morning I got a call from Nia.
"Hey, Mark! There's kind of an impromptu party at the House Saturday and I was hoping you could be my date?"
"Uh, sure, love. I should be able to get off a little early. What time do you think, 9? Maybe 10?"
"10 would be fine, or earlier if you can."
"I can almost certainly make it by 10, but I'll try for earlier." I paused. "Nia, will girls be bringing their boyfriends or...dates?" I still hadn't gotten over the idea that something crazy might happen to me at the sorority house, as in my nightmares.
"
Yeeees....?
" Like
, what kind of crazy question is that?
"Cool. Hey, what do guys, like,
wear
to these things? I don't really have any cool clothes..."
Sweet laughter from Nia, "Don't worry about it, silly! Just come as you are. Maybe like you were dressed when you picked me up Saturday."
"Sure, yeah, I can do that. Thanks." All of a sudden I was worried about having a girlfriend. Not because
she
would much care what I wore, but I didn't want to embarrass her in front of her friends.
"Great, I'll see you then!
Luhlike
you!"
"Luhlike you too. I can't wait to see you again. Bye."
Sounds great, right? Your girl calling you up asking you to be her date to her sorority house's party? But there's music at parties, right? And dancing? And now I was sweating bullets because
I didn't know how to dance
! At all. Oh crap, I'm going to embarrass her after all! Then she'll break up with me and we won't get married and go on that honeymoon to Jamaica and have beautiful biracial babies together and live in a nice part of town with white picket fences...
Slow down, buddy
, said the part of my brain that says such things.
You're an engineer. Figure this out, work the problem
. You're right, brain, I can do that...
Trey
! *He* can help me with clothes, and maybe even dancing. No, that's too gay.
The girls!
Yeah,
they
can teach me how to dance! And I should see them Friday night. The song
Lean Back
came out last year, and heck, I can lean back! Maybe that's all I gotta do...
That night at work: "Trey, I got a problem, man..."
"What's up, dog?"
"Dude, Nia wants me to take her to their house party Saturday."
"
Aaaand
....that's a problem,
how
? You need somebody to finish your shift? Man, that's easy."
"No, it's not that...." Then blurting it out, "I don't know what to
wear
!"
"Just wear what you wear, bro! Like Jagged Edge say in
Where the Party At
,
โช In your white t-shirt or a three-piece suit, Don't matter what you wear, all that matters is who you with. โช
" As he sang that he did the coolest little dance I wished I knew how to do. "And you're gonna be with ya girl, right? Man,
she
don't care what you wear: she just wants to be with
you
!"
"Yeah, you're probably right, but still..."
"Alright, playa, this is what you do..." I was all ears. "Get over to Tower Center Mall, you know the one I'm talkin' about, way out on West Grand River Ave? Right, so go in some of those stores, pick you up some Southpole baggy shorts, a Fubu shirtโ" about here was when I went from keenly listening, almost taking notes, to realizing he was playing me, "โsome high-top Timberlands, and a, uh, a
'do
rag! Wrap that around your head, playa, rock that look!"
"Very funny,
homey
. Man, I don't even know why I bother talking to you about serious stuff!" I said that half-playing/half-serious, but I guess I overdid the serious part, because Trey seemed a little hurt.
"Mark, I'm sorry, man. You know how I do, I didn't mean nothin' by it. But seriously, wear that old Rolling Stones shirt you wear and some faded jeans and you'll be fine."
"Thanks, Trey," and we did the cool black-guy handshake thing.
Thursday, 10/13
About 10AM I sent Candace a text. It broke my rule about not contacting them, but I figured she and/or her boyfriend would be in class so he wouldn't have to know.
Hate to bother you, but could you call me when you have a chance?
It's a semi-emergency. Thanks.
Five minutes later my phone rang, Candace's number. Sounding worried, she asked what was wrong, was I broken down somewhere? In the hospital?
What
?
"No, none of that. I'm sorry I scared you, but.... Well, Nia wants me to be her date at a ZP house party this weekend andโ"
"
That's
your semi-emergency? I was imagining the worst, but sorry, go on."
Now I felt stupid for bothering her, and for upsetting her, so now I
really
didn't want to say why I'd wanted to talk to her. "It's nothing, never mind. You've put it in context for me, and that was a poor choice of words on my part."
"Mark. Tell me, please? I'm here for you, I apologize for how I reacted."
"It's not your fault, Candace, it's mine and I'm sorry. But okay, Nia wants me to be her date at the party, right? And there's music and dancing at parties, right?"
"
Yeeeaaaah
..."