The Night of the Winter Formal

         It seems so long ago now, but I think that it was the red heels that did it for me; it must be, because the earliest memory I have of falling in love with Molly Clark involved her walking clumsily in those red heels, still too young or maybe too geeky to know how to walk in them properly. I had asked her to the Winter Formal, really expecting her to decline me. My heart somersaulted when she timidly said yes and blushed a bit beneath her freckles and chestnut hair; she wore no make-up and she wore it well.
         That night I wore a suit that I had worn to several different events(weddings, a couple funerals, several UIL debates) and felt extremely nervous at the end of the walkway stretching from her house to my car. Vultures lazily circled in my stomach over the meager handful of Cheerios that I had consumed just minutes before. And as a result of staying up exceedingly late the previous night, I didn't wake up until approximately 1:30PM. I wasn't able to take a trip to the gym, so I didn't feel very confident in my skin. I just told myself, Everything will be fine, no one will no you are a horrible dancer and hopefully you won't say anything too embarrassing just please dear god don't be yourself.
         My nervousness was compounded with each and every step that she took down the crooked walkway. I was baffled at my behavior. And then it happened: my salvation. Almost in slow motion I saw her inability to walk in heels manifest itself when she was halfway down the walkway and the tip of the heel came down just slightly on it's side and the tumble began. It was pretty horrific. I spent the evening in the Emergency Room at JPS. It was awesome and I loved her for it because, having missed that dance, she was not forced to witness the sheer atrocity that is my dancing and, subsequently, our relationship continued for another 6 months until the time came when she did bear appalling witness to my dancing; then we broke up.