#i owe 100% sober theater kid house party in the woods stories

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

My high school dating experience is like a teen movie:

My first (of 2) boyfriend I started dating in eighth grade and it was The Most middle school relationship. He asked me out via note w/ the check yes or no boxes & everything. I was in band (& orchestra) all thru school & my best friend did chorus with him, I found out later that she talked him into asking me out cause he had a massive crush on me (which is why he’d been avoiding me while I was pissed cause we’d been friends since kindergarten). But, he asked me out. We went to A Lot of movies w/ one of our parents. We played pool & hung out in my pool. It was all really innocent and sweet. We even went to build a bear together.

(First sign I was ace, he & my friends conspired so he could kiss me & they covered as he took me onto my back patio & tried. I just noped out of there & never kissed him. Ever. No regrets on that one.)

We get to high school: I’m in marching band & have new friends & he’s in cross country & stops by our practices after his, meets my friends, & it’s fine. School starts, he meets me at my locker at the end of the day, walks me to the bus, we chat, & all our friends (freshman music nerds) think we’re adorable & life’s fine. At least I think it is. Then the kiss thing happened. A few weeks later he walks me to the bus & breaks up with me. I’m blindsided but not heartbroken cause like I’m me & it wasn’t ever really all that serious. But it’s over. Whatever. I’ve borrowed the book Wicked from a friend to read for the first time & I’m deeply invested so it’s fine.

Our schedules never lined up during the day & I’d texted our friends that he’d broken it off right away so I’m no longer thinking about it by the next day. I’m sitting in biology reading Wicked waiting for class to start when this flute player a year older then me comes rushing in. (I would later grow to hate her but the feeling was mutual & does not relate to this story.) She comes up to me & goes “I just saw something & it’s really going to hurt you but I feel the need to tell you.” Now I’m self aware enough to say I’m a bit of a masochist when it comes to my feelings so I tell her to just say it. She goes “Your boyfriend’s cheating on you. I just saw [now ex-boyfriend] making out with some girl in the hall.” I blink at her & go: “Oh. Ok. Well we broke up so. That’s kinda fast but like whatever. He can do what he wants I guess.” She flips out. I shrug it off. Biology starts.

About a week later I’m approached by a trumpet player friend a year older than me saying he really needed to talk to me about this guy. We weren’t super close (we would get close but not from this) & I had probably gotten my hands on The New Teen Titans by this point & was tearing thru those so I’m curious but not concerned. He tells me that he has lunch with Ex & had since the beginning of the school year, that Ex apparently didn’t have any friends in this lunch but saw a bunch of band kids, knew they were my friends, & asked to sit w/ them. They were apparently very confused but agreed & that was that. One of the senior band kids had another senior friend who sat w/ them too so this table was all band kids, Ex, & this senior girl. Apparently, Girl was flirting w/ him from the start but he said he had a girlfriend & that I was in band but she never let up. My friend goes on to tell me eventually Ex started flirting back & as of a week ago they’d started acting all coupley & kissing at lunch; he knows we broke up but he thinks she convinced Ex to do it & the whole thing just isn’t sitting right &!that I should know. I thank him, say it’s weird Ex would sit w/ my friends & not his own to begin w/, am now a little mad, & the two of us keep talking about it but really that’s that.

2 weeks after we’ve broken up Ex starts acting weird & rude to our mutual freshmen friends, including my best friend who set us up. Eventually he stops talking to them all together & says it’s cause his girlfriend doesn’t want him talking to other girls, especially none that are friends with me. Trumpet player tells me that she’s started being Super controlling w/ Ex at lunch & about a month after I’m mad cause this girl is lowkey abusive, making all of my friends miserable, trashing me, & I don’t even know who she is. They go to prom together, he seems thrilled, everyone else is super pissed that she’s controlling him & that he doesn’t see it. Meanwhile, I haven’t spoken to him since we broke up.

The next year we end up in English class together. We became friends in kindergarten because the miracle of the alphabet meant we sat next to each other. Guess what happens? Yup. Well the room is weird so he’s actually in front of me, I can only get to my desk shoved in the corner by passing him. The first day he didn’t even look at me. The next day I cornered him & pretty much said “we’re going to have to work together. I’m not even mad. Can you just talk to me? If you don’t want to be friends we don’t have to.” He apologized, said they broke up & he was taking a break from dating & we went back to being friends! He started talking to his old friends again! Then he went back to normal. & then slowly turned into a dick. But that was on his own w/out a controlling girlfriend.

Second relationship had drama prior to me entering the picture.

When I was a freshman the band’s assistant drum major was a junior who (for her hair) we’re gonna call Ginger. She was a piccolo, super talented, strong willed, could be mean, but mostly just driven & outgoing. She was going on four years dating the tuba player, also a junior, who was quiet, funny, super nice, & a bit of a little shit. They were the band power couple & everyone knew it. Now, Ginger & I quickly became friends because we had really similar personalities & just clicked (we also kinda looked alike though I was taller & my hair was darker).

Their senior year there was a group of us who hung out all the time & were just close. It was mostly seniors including them, myself, & a few others. Ginger was drum major & it was really obvious to everyone in band I was going to be drum major one day too.

That year was fun! Then the seniors all graduated & were off to college. The power couple were going to school together & we all just kinda thought they’d graduate, get married, buy a house & have kids. & their kids would do band. That’s a nope.

In September a girl their year from the guard got a Snapchat from a guy friend of hers. He was sitting on his bed with a girl in his lap. Who she recognized. As Ginger. She immediately texted the tuba boy saying “this is really awkward & I feel awful but I think Ginger is cheating on you.” He confronts Ginger & she admits to it. They break up.

I’m a junior in high school, bummed most of my friends graduated & being slowly driven miserable by the drum major (flute player from before!). I had been texting my friends while they were at college, Ginger stops texting back & Tuba Boy tells me about the breakup. I tell him I’m sorry but I’m here for him. We end up texting A Lot & wound up getting really close and in December he asks me out. Not knowing what else to do I say yes.

Our first date I’ve actually talked about on here before. It’s in my high school story tag & is worth the look. We were hot gossip for the next 6 months until it was decided I wasn’t a rebound despite indicators. We broke up after I started college (almost 2 years later) & he still buys his mom flowers from my mom.