Page 4 of Choosing Her

crossy

There were very few things I refused to do when it came to hockey superstitions.

Get dressed right to left every time and redo it all if I mess up? Sure thing.

Bleaching my hair? Have at it.

Use only pink tape and laces because it worked once five years ago? No reason not to.

But as I sat in a diner booth with a sophomore girl and watched her cry into her salad, I began to question just how far my loyalty to the sport could go.

“Are you sure you don’t want to just go home?” I asked for the second time. “I really don’t mind.”

Hanna looked up and pushed her bleached blonde hair out of her face, showing off the mascara streaks down her face and blotchy red eyes, and I did my best not to cringe in sympathy.

I had no idea what was going on in her life that had caused the waterworks to come out in the middle of dinner, but it was obvious that being on a date was the last thing she needed right now.

“Why?” She asked, her voice carrying through the restaurant. At least three other couples from the surrounding tables turned to look at us and I smiled weakly at them. “Do you not love me?”

The words made me choke on air, while even more customers turned to look at us with shocked and disgusted faces. I couldn’t even force a smile now. I just grabbed my water and chugged, hoping to buy myself a little time to gather my thoughts before I said something that made her cry even harder.

I put my water down and cleared my throat as she stared at me with a trembling lip.

The words got caught in my throat and I suddenly didn’t want to have to tell this girl that no, I didn’t love her, because we’d only met seventeen minutes ago.

I wasn’t made for breaking hearts like this, especially since I didn’t understand how I could possibly be breaking the heart of someone who I’d known for less time than a sitcom episode.

I swore I could hear my friends laughing at my pain from the booth behind me, and I silently swore to myself that I would get revenge against them for this somehow.

They claimed they were only setting me up on these blind dates to help break my “Saylor Curse” which had destroyed my ability to play hockey this season.

Ever since I’d dated the wrong Saylor sister then got unmercifully dumped by her, I’d been unable to score a single goal.

My friend Mako had declared that the only way to fix it was by finding a true love’s kiss—and to do that, I had to keep going on these blind dates until I found my true love.

I thought he was taking Disney movies a little too seriously, but I had to do anything I could to break the curse, so I was giving this a shot.

“Hanna…” I said slowly. A loud guffaw behind me interrupted my next words and I let out a deep sigh. I was going to kill them all. “You seem like a very nice girl?—”

“Seem?” She cried. “I seem like a nice girl?”

“Are!” I said quickly, desperate to do anything that would make her stop crying. “You are a nice girl! But we barely know each other and?—”

I was drowned out by the sound of her ringtone. It was some pop song that I recognized from the radio but I didn’t hear enough of it to know which one it was exactly. Hanna didn’t so much as spare me a glance as she grabbed the phone from the table and answered it.

“What do you want?” She yelled into the phone. More eyes turned toward us and I ducked my head, trying to avoid looking at anyone. “Haven’t you done enough already?”

I leaned in so I could whisper to her, “Who are you talking to?”

She didn’t bother covering the phone as she said, “My ex-boyfriend.” The person on the other end of the line must have said something because she went back to yelling into it.

“ Yes , you are my ex! That absolutely was a break-up, why would you—” She gasped loudly and started screaming about something his mom had said to her.

Since she was on her phone anyway, I pulled my own phone out as well.

Group Name: The Penalty Box

Members: Bear, Tino, Crossy, Mako

Crossy

On a scale of one to ten, how sure are you this girl doesn’t have a boyfriend

I heard three phones chime from the booth behind me, then some whispering.

It was loud enough in here, especially with Hanna now screaming at the boy on the phone how he was a dirt bag and she had a new boyfriend to buy her dresses (and I desperately hoped she wasn’t talking about me), that I couldn’t make sense of what my friends were saying. But a text came through a moment later.

Mako

Maybe a two?

Crossy

Why would you send me on a date with her then???

Mako

She didn’t TELL me she had a boyfriend!

But it definitely sounds like it from the phone conversation

Great, they could hear everything she was saying too. How many other people in the restaurant were leaning in for a listen as well? If I wasn’t the one involved in the situation, I definitely would be.

Crossy

I am going to kill you for this.

Mako

Again, she didn't tell me

And don't blame me, I'm trying to break your stupid Saylor Curse

Not my fault that you got yourself in this mess

I rolled my eyes and put my phone back down.

I guess he was right that it wasn't entirely his fault that I was in this mess, but he was the one who had come up with this stupid solution that I wasn’t convinced could work.

There was no way I was ever going to meet a true love on one of these dates.

Not only because of the great improbability of it, but also because I knew in my heart that I had met my real true love—and none of this would work until I got over her.

I thought Mako might have been right about this whole Saylor Curse thing, but I didn’t think the solution wasn’t finding true love’s kiss.

The solution was getting over her, and more importantly, finding some way to make her stop hating me.

Knowing how much I’d hurt her, and that she was still in pain from it, meant that I could never let go of her.

I was always replaying how that night had gone, wishing there was some way I could go back and undo it.

I’d agreed to trying out this dating idea in the hopes that I might fall for someone else, but it was still only half the equation, and I had no idea what I could do to make Saylor stop hating me.

Bear

Does anybody else think it sounds like she's getting back together with her boyfriend on the phone?

I turned my attention back to the girl who I realized I had been tuning out for a second as I was focused on my friends, and listened to her talking again. She was still crying and screaming, but now she was saying “I love you so much!” and “Yeah, I can meet you there.”

Okay, so maybe Bear was right. She probably was getting back together with her boyfriend.

“Maybe I should go,” I whispered to her.

I figured I might as well give her an out, so she could dal with this.

I thought she would jump on it, but she just held up her finger like she was making me wait.

I froze, the words I hope this goes well for you stuck on my lips, and looked around, as if one of the other patrons at the diner was going to explain to me how to get out of this.

Everyone seemed to be politely acting like they weren’t listening, even though most of the tables were suspiciously quiet and I thought I saw some people leaning in like they were eavesdropping.

I could probably just get up and walk away, leaving this girl to deal with her relationship drama on her own, but it felt a little rude to just get up and leave without saying goodbye.

Sure, she was getting back together with her boyfriend while we were on our first date, but I should still be a gentleman.

So I sat and waited. Even as she started crying anew again, told her boyfriend how much she loved him, that she never meant it when she said she wanted to break up, and that of course she wanted to go home with him to see his family.

Yeah, she definitely would not be breaking this curse—even if she was somehow actually my true love, I didn’t see this date ending with a kiss.

I sat there for another five minutes before I realized that I really could not just stay here until this conversation was over because it seemed never-ending.

One minute she would be telling him how much she loved him and she wanted to see him, and then the next she was saying that she wasn't sure if she could forgive him for what he said and that he was gonna need to work through those issues.

Crossy

I will give 20 dollars to whoever gets me out of this date asap

The boys all howled behind me, and I resisted the urge to bang against the divider between the two booths.

Clearly, none of them were planning to come and help me.

They were all enjoying this way too much.

I would have to think over how I was going to get them all back for this soon, but right now, I needed to find someone else to get me out of here.

With how the girl was sobbing, I wasn’t sure if she would notice if I just got up and walked away, but I didn’t want to risk hurting her even more when she was in such a vulnerable state by just walking out on her.

I quickly scrolled through my contacts, wondering if there was anyone else who could get me out of this, although I wasn’t sure what anybody could do to help.

Make Hanna just as uncomfortable as she was making me so that she would decide to leave?

I wasn't sure that was possible—it wasn’t like I had an ex-girlfriend to get back together with on the phone.

I definitely wasn’t calling Naomi to get back with, that was for sure.

My contacts list was too much of a mess, filled with a ridiculous amount of family members I’d only met once and every person I’d had a class project with, so it was impossible to find anyone good in this list. I switched over to my messages app, looking at the last few people I’d texted, who were more likely to be able to get me out of here anyway.