Storymania - Happy Valentine's Day by Derek Toney

Happy Valentine's Day
Derek Toney

It was normal day, or it should have been, at least. I’m just an average college kid, who doesn’t like school all that much. I’ve never been much of an academic kind of guy. Sometimes I think my ideas should be shared by everyone, so I can be kind of annoying at times. I’m just like every other single dude out there on Valentine’s Day.

I walked along, back to my car. I’m a student at College of the Ozarks. What a wonderful place to meet all sorts of weirdos. My favorite weirdo is a guy I work with, but I try not to think about him until I see him. I was walking alone to my car, when I heard someone call my name.

"Hey! You! Yeah, you. The cool looking guy," the mystery girl said. Ok, maybe she didn’t say the cool looking guy part, or maybe she did. I don’t hear to well, and it doesn’t help that I’m sort of egocentric sometimes.

"You mean me?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Umm, what do want?"

"A girl told me to give this to you."

It was a box of chocolates. I was touched. Then I read the note attached to it.

"This is for the most handsome love of my life. Thank you Jason, for being such a hottie, and for dating me," I read aloud, "Wait a sec. My name isn’t Jason."

"It’s not?"

"Nope. I’m Derek."

"Dang! I thought I’d written the right name on it…I mean…uh…I’m sure I thought the OTHER girl had written the right name on it…yeah."

"Yeah, so this Jason guy isn’t even dating you? You just day-dream about him or something?"

"NO! Well, yes, but I never told you, ok."

"I don’t care who you’re day-dreaming about," I said, "You should at least make sure you get the gift to the right guy though."

"Yeah. Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about Jason would you? I mean, maybe you could help me get a date with him."

"I work with a guy named Jason, but I don’t know if it’s the same dude."

"He’s close enough to the same Jason, I’m sure."

"Dang, you’re one desperate chick."

"So, will you help me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don’t feel like it, I guess. I don’t know," I said, "You just seem way too eager to date someone."

"But, today’s Valentine’s Day, and I made a bet with my friends that I could get a date to the Valentine’s Dance tonight."

"Well, tough luck. You shouldn’t have made a stupid bet."

I decided to walk away before she tried to drag me to the Valentine’s Dance. I was thinking the little scenario over, when a thought struck me like greased lightning. I hadn’t gotten a V-Day’s gift since I was in the 4th grade. I was almost saddened by this thought. The thought slid away as I ran into another girl. It was one of those cheesy accidental-oops-I-just-ran-into-you kind of things that you see in movies all the time, and that’s exactly what happened. I accidentally ran into this girl I’d never seen before.

"Umm…sorry," I said starting to walk away.

"Wait up," she said, "Is that all I get from you? A sorry?"

"What do you want? I’m broke if you’re asking for money."

"Not money, but you could take me to the V-Day Dance tonight."

"Dang, is this all the girls at CofO think about?" I thought to myself. I waited a second to organize my thoughts. The girl wasn’t that bad looking, and I didn’t exactly feel like going home, because I had gotten into a fight with my parents earlier. I didn’t have anything better to do, but I kind of wish I did.

"I don’t dance," I said. I was lying, kind of. I held the record of a 500 arrow combo on Dance Dance Revolution, at our house. No one could beat me at that game, but then, it’s not exactly the same as a Valentine’s Dance.

"You don’t have to dance. Just come with me to the Valentine’s Dance," she said, smiling. It was an addictive smile. The kind of smile that’s contagious, if you don’t know who the person is. I definitely didn’t know who she was. It was weird, actually. She didn’t seem like the type of person to just ask a stranger to a dance. Maybe she was just in a good mood.

"I guess I can come," I said, "Where is it going to be at, and what time?"

"It’s at gym, at 7 I think."

"Ok, where do you want to meet at?"

"Just meet me at the gym."

She walked away smiling. She saw one of her friends. He was a hippie-acting weird dude who looked like he was high off his rocker most the time. Another guy came up to them. Then I noticed that it wasn’t a guy at all, it was hippie-man’s girlfriend. I got sick, so I walked away. I checked my cell phone for the time. I never carry a watch. It was 6:15. Only 45 minutes until the dance.

*19*8*6*

The wonderful Dance was about as nice as getting hit by a train. I met my ‘date’ at 7 and walked into the gym. They had set up a massive dance floor, and couples were already dancing. My date said she saw another one of her friends, and wanted to say ‘hi’. I never saw her again. Alone and slightly angry at my date, I started walking around. I watched couples dance for a while, then that got boring. I walked outside and headed towards my car. I got in my car and started it. It was idling for a little while, then it died. I saw smoke come from under my hood. I got out, opened my hood, and saw my engine on fire. Someone called the on campus fire department, and they put it out. I couldn’t really complain. The car wasn’t the nicest thing on the planet. After my car’s ordeal was over, I walked back to the gym. I sat outside on the steps, because I sure couldn’t go anywhere. I saw a person I worked with. I called him squirrel-head. Everyone else called him Erich.

"Hey," he said.

"’Sup?" I answered.

"How’s work, on…whenever you work?"

"It’s the same as always."

"Yeah."

We were silent for a couple of minutes.

"How was work, when you worked that one day?" He asked. How was I supposed to know what day he was talking about?!

"It was fine."

"It’s just me and Sashanna on the front line, when I work. I have to do appetizers and the thing. She plates up the food. We’re really fast," he said. It was the 7th time I’d heard the story.

"Yup."

Erich’s the type of guy that doesn’t get too much out of a conversation. Actually, he gets the exact same information out of every conversation. Always something about when he did some type of work, that I’m supposed to automatically remember. It’s best just to agree with him for a while, and hope he has a class to go to soon.

"Well, I have to go," I said, anxious to get out of such a dull conversation.

"Ok, I’m going to go dance. I have a date."

Dude. Erich dancing? This was something I’d have to see.

"You’re going to dance?" I asked.

"Yeah, I must be really good looking or something," he said. This was far from true, "A girl just walked up to me and asked me to go to the dance. She had some box of chocolates for a guy named Jason, too."

Sounds familiar.

"Is she a hottie?" I asked. I couldn’t have cared less, but I had nothing better to do but carry on a conversation with Erich.

"She’s a girl," he said, as if this answered all the questions I’ve ever had about girls.

"Oh, ok."

"Well, I’ll see you later," he said.

"Yup." Little did he know that I was going to watch him dance.

He walked into the gym. I waited a few minutes then walked in. I walked up some stairs so I could have a good view of him dancing. I was also determined to have a good laugh. If nothing else I was going to make this Valentine’s Day memorable. It already was, but for all the wrong reasons. I’d make this my V-Day’s gift to myself. Watch Erich dance and laugh hard at him. What a great gift! I was waiting for him to dance, when I saw him arguing with another guy by a finger-food table. At least, I think he was arguing. Erich’s also the type of guy that has the same face for every emotion. He always has a quirky kind of smirk on his face. It was hard to tell if he was arguing or laughing. If he was arguing then I could go down and make the other guy mad at Erich. The end result might be a very memorable fight. Man, I’m a jerk, and it was a lousy idea. I felt kind of lousy, so it was all good. I walked up where Erich was arguing. I acted calm and just stood behind them a little ways. I overheard them talking.

"So, if I punched at you, you could deflect it?" The mystery guy asked.

"Yeah, it’s all about balance." Erich answered. Erich didn’t seem to have much balance, but what do I know?

"Want to try out your technique?"

"Ok, let’s take it outside," Erich said. It seemed like he was ready to get beaten up. Might as well let him then.

I watched them go outside, and waited. I must have been really thinking about the way Erich would look when he got back, because I didn’t hear a girl talking to me for a couple of seconds. When I finally woke up from the day-dream I realized it was a girl I knew. I kind of knew her anyways. I forgot her name, but I sure wasn’t going to ask her yet. I didn’t exactly hear all of what she was talking about. I just kept agreeing and asking her general college questions. She had brown eyes and the same color hair. She wasn’t a preppie girl, and that was a relief. She was actually kind of a tomboy. Not like a man. She just wasn’t the most girly-acting girl, and that was cool to me. I fell in love. Just joking, but maybe I’m not. That has nothing to do with the story.

She asked if I wanted to dance. We were going to go to the dance floor, when I heard the jock that Erich was going to fight, walk back in. He was bragging about beating Erich into a bloody pulp. As much as I wanted Erich to deserve what he got, I couldn’t. I excused myself from the girl, told her I’d be back in a little while, and walked over to the jock.

"Hey, jock-strap. What happened to the kid you were going to fight?" I asked. I have no idea where any of my courage came from. Maybe it wasn’t courage. It was probably stupidity.

"I beat him up bad. Ha Ha Ha! You should of seen him…."

I jabbed fast with my right hand. It landed on the left side of jock’s face. I must have punched hard, or maybe I just surprised him. He acted a little dazed and confused. I didn’t want him to wake up to reality and beat me down, so I punched him with my left hand, too. I heard and felt his jaw crack a little with this punch. I was kind of sickened by this. For as much as I wanted to stop, I just couldn’t stop myself. I kicked him in the stomach and he fell down. I stood there for a second. My adrenaline was still pumping hard, when one of jock’s friends charged towards me. I was scared, and I’d never been in one fight before, let alone two. Jock’s friend grabbed me. He was going to hold me while the rest of jock’s friends, also known as the CofO basketball team, were going to fight me. I nailed the guy’s nose with my head. He let go of me and backed away a little bit. His nose was squirting out blood like a cheap packet of McDonalds ketchup. Jock’s friends were surprised. How was this kid beating up the whole basketball team? I didn’t even know how. I knew I was a lover not a fighter or something like that. The rest of the team helped jock and his other friend up. They left. I waited for a little bit. The whole gym started cheering. Apparently the rest of school doesn’t like jocks either. Then I thought of something. Maybe getting in a fight wasn’t so bad. I knew this news of me would spread like wildfire in a dry forest on the 4th of July in Hades. Maybe everyone would treat me a little better. Maybe I was thinking way too much about this stuff, because when I looked around. I was still standing by the girl I fell in love with.

"Hey, Derek. Do you want to dance?" she asked. She didn’t seem to notice that I had been dreaming up a fight.

"Sure." I said.