It’s comforting to know, judging by the results of a recent CC poll, that I’m not the only girl on Earth who had a horrible time at her high school prom. Actually, until I came across the poll, I had kind of forgotten about just how horrible it was. Now I remember every gritty detail again, though, so I’m going to share what happened in an attempt at therapy.

I was a late bloomer, and I didn’t have my first boyfriend until sophomore year of high school. Let’s call him Eric. Eric was a freshman when I was a sophomore, but we were in the same German class. After several weeks of elaborate and awkward courtship, Eric finally asked me to see a movie with him, and our relationship began. Neither one of us was the flaky type, so it lasted a pretty long time—almost two full years, until I was a senior. Until, to be precise, just a couple of months before my senior prom.

As you might imagine, I was crushed when he dumped me (over instant messenger—on the night before finals!). I’m ashamed to say that I walked around for weeks being weepy and really dramatic, but my friends were a great help, especially my best friend. Or so I thought, at first.

My best friend—let’s call her Nicole—did everything a best friend was supposed to do. She hugged me, she laughed with me, and she came over to my house for a sleepover with chocolate, Godiva ice cream, and Moulin Rouge. She told me I didn’t need a boyfriend and that Eric was a loser, and she was right.

A few weeks later, not too far before the prom, I called her one evening at around dinnertime. Her sister said she wasn’t home, but she’d call me back when she got home. After a few hours, I presumed she had forgotten to call back, and so I called again. Nope. She still wasn’t home. Weird, I thought. Eventually, at about 11 p.m., she did call back.

“Where were you all night?” I asked.
“Uh… nowhere,” she said.
“No, really,” I insisted. “Where were you for so long?”
“I was just out,” she said. “I went to McDonald’s with Eric, and we kind of got lost.”

I should have figured it out then, but I didn’t. Eric was friends with all of my friends, so it didn’t seem that odd to me that he had been out with Nicole, although it was a little strange that they had been out for so long. But thinking that my best friend was lying would be like betraying her, so I told myself it couldn’t be true that anything was going on. She wouldn’t lie to me like that.

Another couple of weeks later, right before the prom, I was out shopping with Nicole. She mentioned something about Eric that sounded suspiciously affectionate. I tried to convince myself that I was just imagining it, but it didn’t work that time. Instead, I blurted out, “Are you going out with Eric? Just tell me. Just tell me the truth.”

She looked injured. There was a short silence, then she said, “No! No!”

I believed her.

To be continued…