Songfest Romance Part Three: The Invitation

Two days until recruitment!  I hung out with Brody last night and  we watched a couple movies; it was really fun.   Here’s the final installment of the story I started Monday!  This is mostly the part I was apologizing for on Monday, and so, once again, I hope no one takes offense to anything that comes out of Evan’s mouth.

Our outfits for Songfest consisted of a cut up black shirt over a bright blue or green tank top.  Our bottoms were either calf-high dance pants or tiny shorts over fishnet tights.  And of course we wore black shoes.  The fishnet tight combination was preferred over the dance pants, so, like any good member, I wore the fishnet tights.  Evan spent the entire time we were practicing making little jokes about the outfit.

And he chose to start the moment I walked in.

“I just have to ask!”  he shouted.

I was a bit startled, and concerned, “What’s wrong?”

“Did you own those fishnets before you knew the Songfest outfits?”  A huge grin spread across his face.

But he didn’t stop there.  Evan was always full of sarcastic jokes.  So this was one of the times when he had plenty to say on one subject.

After our dress rehearsal, we had managed to be allowed to leave Coors, so long as we went together.  Evan offered to buy me a pizza over at the Taco Bell/Pizza Hut.  I was ecstatic.

“Are we going inside to get the pizza?  I only have my card.”

“I guess I’ll have to get it for you…  But I guess if we went inside the employees might be willing to trade a pizza in lieu of payment…”

“Evan!”

When we were back at Coors, my friend Rick from Kappa Sig texted me to see if I was in the arena.  I was heading over when Evan grabbed my arm.

“Maybe you shouldn’t go visit people…”

“Why?…”

“If the Pikes see you in an outfit like that, you’ll wake up in their basement tomorrow!”

I put my hands on my hips.  “If you’re so worried, maybe you should go with me…”

“Nah, I don’t like the Kappa Sigs…”

“Well, do you like the G Phis?”

“Eh…”  He shrugged and went back to his pizza.

When I returned from visiting Rick, he smiled.  “It seems you got back from the Pikes okay.”

“I manage just fine.”

“Oh hey…  Will I see you on the corner of Broadway and Baseline later?”

“Evan!”

His jokes got less creative as the night went on, as I clearly don’t remember them in their less than funny state.

I do remember his final joke, however, and it occurred after the performance had ended.

“Hey, do you want a ride home?”

“Yeah okay…”  A grin started spreading across his face and I grew concerned.  “Why?”

“I just don’t know if it’s safe for you to walk home dressed like that.”  He started cracking up.

I shook my head and started to walk away.

“Hey, come back!  I was just joking!”  It was hard to hear him over his laughing.  “Deidree!”

After Evan offered me a ride, a few of the freshmen enthusiastically clamored over a ride back to the house.

“Could I have a ride too?”  Leigh asked expectantly.

“Me too!”  Catherine exclaimed excitedly.  I guess she had some claim on Evan, what with being finale dance partners and all.  But still…

Evan seemed to be seriously considering his response.  He paused for a moment.  “I guess if you all are going to the same place…”

As luck would have it, while we were walking out, the girls decided that they were going to go to Melissa’s dorm in Kittredge  instead; this is right by Coors, luckily.  I kept following Evan to his car.

“So, were you going to come to our party tonight?”

“Umm, maybe…  I have a paper to work on for Thursday and I haven’t gotten to work on it at all.  But, it sounds like fun.”

“If you want, I’ll call you when it gets bigger and you can come over then.”

“Okay.  But I don’t think I have your phone number….”

“Really, I was sure you had it…”

We exchanged numbers during the last bit of the trek to Evan’s car.  He had parked in the upper parking so it was really far up the parking hill by Coors.

Evan started to drive, but upon reaching the line of cars exiting Coors, he turned right on to Regent instead of left.  The car was heading toward 28^th now, instead of Broadway.  This may seem like an ordinary occurrence because of the traffic, but we both live on the hill, which is off of Broadway.  And even despite the traffic, heading toward Broadway would be a faster drive.

While we were waiting at the stoplight on Colorado and 28^th, Evan turned to me slightly, “So are you excited about the party tonight?”

“Um…  Well, I think it’ll be fun to blow off some steam, but I wish it weren’t a Monday night…  I rarely ever go out on week nights because of work, even Thursdays…”

Evan gave me a small smile, “Well, at least you’re coming tonight.”

I couldn’t help but smile back; I always smiled when he smiled.  “Yup.  However, I do hope you guys are throwing down again this weekend, because I will totally be there.”  I felt my smile growing.

Evan bit his lip a little.  “Well, you’re always welcome at Pi Kapp, but no one will be there.”

I felt my smile dropping.  I tried to hide it.  “That’s weird…”

“It’s our formal, actually.”

I was filled with disappointment.  I wonder who Evan was going with…  I bet she was pretty.  “That should be a lot of fun!”  Was I hiding my disappointment well?

Evan chuckled a little.  “You would think so, but I don’t have a date yet.”

“I’m sorry.”  Okay, secretly…  I wasn’t really sorry at all.

Evan laughed again.  “It’s okay…  I’m sure one of your seniors will cozy up to me on Thursday, ‘So, Evan…  I heard you don’t have a date yet.  I’d love to go if you’re okay with that…’  And then she’d drink my alcohol and hang out with the brother she actually wanted to see.”

I wasn’t about to let that happen.  I was mulling over my options in my head.  “That seems like some short notice…”  I would go with him…  Monday is much less short notice.

Evan shrugged a bit.  “It happens.”

I mulled over it a little more and finally decided to go for it.  “Well, I’m not doing anything this weekend…  I’ll go with you.”

Evan let out a laugh.  “You want to go, huh?”

I felt myself blush a little.  “I mean, umm…  If you want…”

Evan gave me a large smile.  “Yeah, you should come.”  At this point we had reached my house.  Evan stopped the car and leaned over toward me.  “We’ll talk about it later. I’ll call you about the party.”

“Okay…”  I stepped out of the car and all I saw was his large smile gleaming at me.  “Bye….”

I walked up the steps to our house in a daze.  I punched in the door code and stood at the bottom of the annex landing.

Kristin was standing at the top of the stairs.  “You okay?”

“I think I just invited myself to Pi Kapp’s formal….”

“Omigod!”

And here’s my present day musing on the events surrounding this invitation:

Despite my thought that I had in fact invited myself to this formal, after thinking it over and talking with some of my guy friends, I realized that I had not exactly invited myself at all.  Let’s take a look at some of the facts.  As I mentioned before, even with traffic, taking Regent to Broadway is faster than taking Regent to 28^th to Baseline to Broadway.  So why would Evan take the loop over the straight path?  To have a longer conversation, of course.  As fate would have it, it seems that Evan had actually planned this conversation.  I’ve been told that he was simply testing the waters—we had only known each other for a little under a week at this point, after all.  Despite wanting to gauge my reaction, Evan was extremely good at reading me.  I’m still not really sure how a conversation about a post-Songfest party could turn into a conversation about Pi Kapp’s formal….  But then again, maybe my face said more than I had hoped it did.  In any case, Evan had wanted me to come and had effectively maneuvered our conversation.  He’s a sly one at best.  And in case you were wondering, the formal was awesome.  Not that anyone should be surprised, of course.

Songfest Romance Part Two: Songfest Practice

Three days until recruitment!  I heard from Brody today.  I think he really misses me a lot, for whatever reason.  Anyway, here is the second part of the story I started yesterday!

Later that evening, we had Songfest practice.  The gloom from the afternoon when I had first met Evan had turned into rain sometime between the start of our dinner exchange and the start of Trivia Bowl.

We had sloshed through the rain to Trivia Bowl and then later to Songfest.  As of late, we had been practicing outside.  Since it was raining, we obviously weren’t about to do that.  When it had been colder weather, we had practiced inside, but pushed the Pi Kapp’s furniture outside on to their basketball court.  We weren’t able to do this either.  So the boys had the bright idea of stacking the pieces of furniture on top of each other.  Tables were stacked on tables with couches piled on top of them.  It didn’t seem very safe…

Because we were sharing the dining room space with furniture, Tasha, the choreographer, had split our big Songfest group into two smaller groups:  Group A and Group B.  Evan and I were both in group A.  We both ended up on the left wing of the stage after the partner dance, during the A-team dance, so we chatted quietly during the A-team dance (the dance with the girls who were actually trained dancers) until the boys’ dance directly afterward.  We continued this during the next few days of practice, but this was the day it started.

The run-through of the performance started with Group A performing a dance followed by Group B performing the same dance.  Then, the run-through changed to Group A performing the entire ten minute performance, followed by Group B doing the entire thing, and then alternating.

We were only supposed to be dancing until eleven o’clock, and around ten forty-five, Group B was about to perform a run-through.  Evan and I were sitting off to the side by a stack of furniture that included: a table, a table stacked upside down on top of it, another table stacked on that, and a couch sitting on the top table.

He touched my shoulder.  “I’m gonna lay down for a minute.”

I thought nothing of it and simply nodded and said, “Yeah, we’re probably not performing again…  For at least a while anyway.”  I then looked at my phone.  “Actually, our group is probably done performing anyway…”  I turned to where Evan used to be standing, only to find him gone.  “Wait…  Did you just climb the stacked furniture?”  I looked up slightly.

A hand dangled at eye level.

“Come join me.”  Evan moved his fingers ever so slightly.

“Is that even safe enough for one person?”

And apparently, it was…  Not that I would have ever considered climbing up there though.  And I didn’t.

That same year, one of my dance partners was Neil Cole.  I fluctuated between calling him “Neil” and “Cole” then, but I almost certainly call him “Cole” now—like all the other brothers.

Cole was a very busy freshman.  He served as a delegate to IFC for Pi Kapp and was also a double major in a few science majors.  IPHY may have been one of them, I don’t really remember.  My point is that he was rarely around to dance with me in the dance we were partners for.

We were having a practice on Sunday morning the day before the Songfest competition.  The night before, the Pi Kapps had thrown a major party, and so the basketball court was covered in broken glass and bottle remnants.  Us girls were concerned with falling to the ground in the intro, because we didn’t want to get cut up, understandably.

Tasha was getting annoyed at everyone’s lack of real performing and asked the guys if they would clean up the court.  The rest of us hung around inside while they did.  Near the end of the sweeping, Cole had discovered the box that all the glass had been put in.  He picked up the box.  “Look at all these bottles…  They need recycling!”

I nodded, but I was also a bit apprehensive.  “Probably…  But just come back in time to dance.”

Cole was gone before I could ask him to be here for our partner dance.

Twenty minutes later, Cole was still gone.

Evan had crossed his arms and was leaning against the red truck of one of the brothers.  “I don’t think he’s coming back…”

I put my head into my hands and groaned.  “Not again!…”

Evan put his hand on my shoulder, “Hey, since I don’t have a partner for that dance anymore, if Cole doesn’t show up tomorrow, I’ll dance with you.”  He smiled.

I couldn’t help but smile back at him.  “Um, okay…”

This would have been great, except Cole did show up on Monday.  The one day I would have happily seen him gone, he decided to show up.  Oh Cole….

Songfest Romance Part One: Serendipitous Can Meeting

First, a daily update type paragraph.  In addition to having had surgery, I am now sick, so I’m very upset.  Oye.   The good news is, though, that I should be recovered enough in time for recruitment on Saturday and potentially Friday when Steph and I may go to our Rockies game.

Alright, so here’s the story I promised yesterday.  I want to point out, first, that any and all negative opinions that may be expressed throughout the story are not mine and belong only to the specific people mentioned.  So if there’s anything you find disagreeable, I apologize ahead of time.  It’s just the way the story goes.  There’s a few things in particular that I can think of, so I’m just apologizing in advance for future installments.  The good news is, I guess, that not many people are reading this blog right now and so not that many people could be offended, so yay?

Anyway, this is a story from my sophomore year of college.  I’d normally give the background information, but instead, I’ve decided to just let you all enjoy the story, so here we go!  I was originally going to post it all in one go, but it’s kind of a long story, so I’ll just post the first third.  And look, now I have content for the next two days, hooray!  Anyway, the story…

I remember very vividly the day I met him.  I was picking up cans for Greek Week.  Every year there is a can drive in order to support local charities, and the team that had the most cans received the most points for Greek Week (so it’s not entirely selfless).  It had been a cold and rainy day on the Wednesday I decided to buy cans.  I reached the Safeway via Hop and decided I would do some more shopping while I was there.

I had engrossed myself in some pink blush when a man further down the aisle caught my eye.  I busied myself with the blush so he wouldn’t notice I was staring at him.

That was when he let out a cough and his torso faced me slightly.

Pi…  Kappa…  Phi…

We were on the same Greek Week team, so clearly I had to say hello!

I sprinted over and burst out “Hi!  I know you!”  The only problem…  I absolutely did not know his name.  I had seen him before at Songfest practice, so I felt like I knew him at least a bit.

Despite that, he responded somewhat cheerfully with “Hey, what are you up to?”

I lifted my basket slightly; “Buying cans.”  At that time, my basket contained pink blush, crackers, and orange vitamin water.

He chuckled slightly, “You sure are buying cans.”

I blushed.  “I haven’t gotten there yet…  Are you buying cans?”

“Medicine…  I got sick over the weekend.”

“Standing out in the cold at Frat Football?  I totally get it.”

“We were out of medicine, so…  I came to get some.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”  I frowned a little.

“It happens.”

“Well, I should actually buy cans,” I gave him a small smile.  “See you at Songfest tonight?”

“It’s kind of rainy.  Do you need a ride back to the house?”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”

“Don’t even worry about it.”  He grabbed my basket and held it for me.  “Unless you drove or something…”

“No, I didn’t…  Thank you…  Hey, are you coming to our dinner exchange?”

Also, I bought six cans of green beans.

Later that night, I was sitting next to Kristin at Trivia Bowl.  He hadn’t shown up to the dinner exchange and I was pretty noticeably disappointed.  Kristin had tried to cheer me up on our way to Trivia Bowl, so I was at least trying to curb my sour face.

I saw two of our seniors Becky (short for her last name, Beckerson; her first name is actually Jaclyn) and Morsy (short for her last name, Morison; her first name is actually Caitlin).  I waved to them excitedly, “Becky, Morsy!  Good luck!”

Morsy returned my smile as she headed to the farthest row of seats in Hale 270.

That was when I noticed Becky talking to him.  A smile spread on my face and I shouted out “Hi!” only to realize that I still did not actually know his name.  I lowered my raised arm slowly as a look crossed my face that can only be described as a smile mixed with a grimace.  I sunk into my seat.

Becky noticed my torment as a sly smile crossed her face.  “Hey, Evan, we’re all going to sit up there.”  She motioned to the back row of seats where Morsy was now sitting.  “You coming?”

So his name was Evan….

Evan put his hands in his pockets and gave a small shrug, “I’m not on the trivia team.  Why would I go up there?”

“Okay, whatever.  Stay here then.”  Becky started heading toward Morsy, but gave me a short smile and a nod as she did.

Evan and another Pi Kapp brother headed into our row to sit next to Kristin and I.  I whispered quickly to Kristin, “Let’s switch seats!  Pleeeasse!!!”

“No.”  It was a vehement whisper.

As Evan sat down, he leaned forward into the conversation I was having with Kristin.  “Oh, hey, Deidree.”  He had such a warm smile.

I couldn’t help but smile back.  “Hi, Evan.”  Plus, he knew my name.

A few weeks later, Evan recounted the part of this Songfest romance where he learned my name.  I was probably in class that Wednesday afternoon.  So, I am recounting this quip as a third-party to the actual conversation.  However, I am assured that this is exactly how it happened.

As it turned out, Evan was actually roommates with Becky, though he called her Jaclyn, and another one of our seniors, Cindy.  So after he took me back to the house after our serendipitous can meeting, he returned home and found Becky eating a fajita while sitting on their living room couch.

“Hey, Jaclyn, question for you.”

She set her fajita down.  “Sure, what’s up?”

“There’s a girl in your house that I met today…  And I need to know her name.”

“Oh really?”  While recounting this to me, Evan had said ‘You know that look Jaclyn sometimes gets when she knows she might be holding something over you for the next ten years?’  I nodded and laughed.  ‘Yeah, she gave me that look.’

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”  Evan sat down in the chair next to the couch.

“Well, what does she look like?”

“She has brown hair.”

I wanted to take the time to point out that this is clearly a good descriptor when trying to differentiate women.  Clearly.

Becky agreed; “Evan, I’m going to need a little more help than that…  Is she doing Songfest?”

“Yeah…  She usually wears one of your shirts.”

Becky shook her head, “So?”

“With pants…  Sometimes shorts…  Sometimes both?”

This is the part where I interrupted the story with an ‘Evan!’  ‘What?’  ‘I did not wear shorts and dance pants at the same time.  They were tights.’  ‘Whatever, they were something that you wore with shorts.  I don’t know the difference.’  ‘I’m sure, because you were looking at my legs so often…’  ‘Hey!’  I gave him a smile and he shook his head and continued his story.

At this point in the story, Becky responded with “Oh that’s Deidree.  Why?”

Evan rose from his chair and shouted “Thanks!”  Then, he booked it back to his room.

Or so the story went…  Though I’m sure once she saw my face, Becky figured out the exact answer to ‘why.’