I never went to my prom I will never live it down. I was supposed to take my best friend since birth, I'd promised her way back in grade school when we watched my cousin go off to her prom. Everything was all set and then about three weeks before the big day I got word that I'd have to go overseas for a potential career opportunity. Out of fear, I kept the news to myself and tried to figure out how and when to break it to her. When I finally go the balls to do so, two weeks before the prom, well...let's just say I was right to fear for my life. lol It wasn't pretty. I still have visible scars from that day. She ended up going with her best girl friend and they had a good time, but to this day she whips out that prom story to extort various things from me. I don't mind. It's one of the only promises I've ever broken in my life.
For the past month or so, I've been throwing back to my own high school days as my teenager prepares for the end of hers. This weekend was the prom, next weekend is graduation. So on Saturday night I had about 30 teenagers swarming the grounds of my home and hitting on my way-too-old-for-them friends. We'd made all of these deals concerning what could and couldn't go on during this party. And during the course of planning it, which she did mostly on her own, I probably had the least amount of input of anybody involved. My friends have gone from teasing me (referring to me as 'daddy' when I first took guardianship of her and asking if I told my dates about my 'child') to taking an active role in "parenting". So much so that when the teenager came into the house last week after having just purchased balloons and such for her party and showing one could be considered dirty shaped balloon to the committee, one of my friends replied, "What the hell is that?" She said it was the kinda balloon clowns use...you know, to make balloon animals. Then he asked, "Are you a clown? Do you know how to make balloon animals?" He then went on to tell her there would be no...I won't use the word he used, but basically that the balloons were a no go.
We'd decided quite awhile back that she was gonna have to have chaperones at this party. Not because I was worried about what she'd do but because I was worried about my house. This place is almost brand new and I'm not gonna watch a pack of wild hormones burn it to the ground. Anyway, I let her choose who she wanted to have there to watch over things. She chose me and three other friends, but of course, the rest of the crew was around. I knew her girl friends would be a part of the party and at least two of them have crushes on my that they don't hide. One of them is completely sure our love is gonna become existent as soon as she turns 18 next month. I expected to have to deal with the two of them and I did and it was equally entertaining and embarrassing. lol More that I was embarrassed for them, than for myself. One of them decided it would be a good start to our "relationship" if she grabbed my ass while asking me to dance. It was like a competition between the two of them all night. My girl friends didn't fare much better with the boys. This 18-year-old kid followed around my 27-year-old friend like a puppy dog all night....cuz, you know, that's what lands the older ladies, apparently. I felt so bad for her, she could not get away from that poor kid.
In the end, the whole thing was over at around 4 in the morning or so and the kids all went home and thought about how "awesome it's gonna be to be an adult in a week." That kinda made me laugh. None of them had a clue about what comes next. For most of them, it's college so they'll have at least a few more years to goof off before they really get slammed head first into the real world. But for now it's not about that. It's about having survived the first 18 years of the battle.
