When We Were Being Followed

Cutter's Log - Stardate 2012.81.90
Current Song - Careless Whisper (Wham!)

I never had success with girls in high school, except for being the No. 1 fan of the Rock Falls Softball team. That was pretty much the closest I came to girls. Still, I had a long way to go from there.

The memories that stick out in my mind are those that many people consider just an ordinary day. Since I had little success with the opposite gender, moments that many percieve as small are huge to me.

So let's go back to ...

Well, it took me a long time to figure out the date of this memory. You see, the memory is so huge that I can't even remember when exactly it happened. After about two hours of thinking about it, it was Week 5 of the 2003 football season.

So let's go back to Week 5 of the 2003 football season:  The only time any hint of jealosy involved me and a girl.

I was working for PSO at the time, on the Sterling Football beat. The year prior, I had asked for permission to cover a Rock Falls game. I told them I was going to Homecoming with one of the girls (a lie, but a believeable one), and went on to cover Rock Falls vs. Mendota - the game that Isaiah got injured and Robbie ran into me while I was taping on the sideline. RF won that game.

The following year I tried to pull of the same excuse. I told them I was going to Homecoming with another girl (which was actually almost true, see the third-to-last paragraph) In this game, Rock Falls was taking on Hall -Week 5 of the 2003 football season.

I don't remember much of this football game, mostly because Hall crushed Rock Falls 34-6. I do remember walking to that game because I didn't have a working bicycle at the time (the "Geneseo" bike had broken down, and the loaner bike from my boss had to be returned). From my house to Hinders Field is about 2 miles one-way. All I was tasked to do was write an article.

Along the way to the field I'm sure I talked to several of my friends. Like last year, I was in the middle of the Rock Falls team box trying to take game notes and such. So much for this game, 34-6. Needless to say, the commotion amongst friends had started to take over the student section rather than watching the late stages of the game. This spilled to the area outside of the stands after the game.

I remember walking toward the gate when a group of friends called me over. Within this group was one of the girls. (She knows who she is).

Somehow I guess the conversation had turned to wondering if I rode my bike there. I said I walked here, and they thought it was far for me to walk two miles to a game.

I don't know what happened next, but a disagreement between girlfriend and boyfriend sounds familiar, but the next thing I know this girl had called me outside of the group and we walked away. Her hand was across my shoulders and we were walking close to each other. She had heard that I walked home, and offered me a ride back to my place.

We were walking to her car, which was parked along 15th Avenue. Her boyfriend followed and was all confused - or angry, or I don't know - as we hopped in her car.

"I'm taking Cody home!"

Well, this was a first. I had never been in a car ALONE with a girl. (I had been in a car with four girls once, but never with just one). While noting the generosity she had given me with the ride back home, I had wondered what was up with this whole discussion between boyfriend and girlfriend. She seemed to be angry at him for whatever reason.

Now picture this: there is a disagreement between boyfriend and girlfriend, and the girl takes another boy to her car with her and offers him a ride home. What do you think the boyfriend would do about this? Keeping in mind, he knows that I have known her for quite some time (and not just some stranger).

He follows us.

We go across First Avenue Bridge and head under the railroad tracks. I guess that was where she noticed that her boyfriend was following her, and I seem to remember her not being too happy about it.

To be quite honest, I have no idea what we were talking about in the car. I seemed to remember not making much conversation, while she was a little sad.

I think about that thought and a bunch of "what ifs" come to mind. One of the moments where having autism fails me miserably. If only I were able to make more conversation I think things would have been different.

We arrived at my place, and there is not just one car following us, but two cars: the boyfriend's and another car with a couple more friends (Kody and Kal).

I thanked her for the ride back home.

I walked inside my house and sat on the couch wondering about this feeling. What kept coming into my mind was all of the "what ifs." Who knows what would have transpired had her boyfriend not followed us home.

Damn my shyness!