I Looked Like An Idiot in That Hat

It was around 8:00 on Friday night. My parents pulled a round chocolate cake out of the fridge and looked slightly disappointed as they cut into it (I never liked for them to sing and they reluctantly agreed this year). After I finished my slice of cake, I told them I was going to go drive around town. I didn’t have anywhere to go but I wanted to enjoy my new privilege of driving alone and listening to music as loud as I wanted. I had just turned 17 and could not wait to use the license I got that morning. After driving aimlessly for about 30 minutes, I came back home and went up to my room. Although I never liked making a big deal out of my birthday, I couldn’t help but feel a typical teenage twinge of self-pity. I figured it was a little pathetic for me to be spending my first day with a license like this: Alone in my house, avoiding my parents. After laying in bed for a bit, I got a snapchat from a girl I had been talking to. She was at her friend’s band’s show a few minutes away from my house and invited me to come. I threw on my new hat that was meant to cover up the sad situation that was my awkward haircut and gladly hopped in my car.

 I found the place and handed 5 dollars to the guy at the door. It was hard to make out faces in the dimly lit basement so I weaved my way into the crowd. To my surprise, I bumped into one of my friends from school who was dancing particularly aggressively with strangers. He took me to the back of the room where some more people I knew were hanging out. On a couch was the girl who invited me so I sat down next to her. It was too loud to hear each other so I just gave her the ol’ head nod greeting. She handed me a gatorade bottle but I showed her my keys and motioned that I drove there. After the show ended, we were all hungry so I offered to give her and my friend a ride to Wendy’s. When we were all sitting down to eat, she kicked my leg under the table and said, “gimme your phone.” I slid it across the table and she put her number in it. “Damn, I am winning tonight,” I thought to myself. 

After leaving Wendy’s I sort of got lost finding my way back to our town but eventually I made it back. My friend said to drop him off first because he lived near where we were. I don’t know if it was due to impatience or him intentionally helping me out but either way, I was grateful. After I dropped him off, I turned to the passenger seat and asked the girl how to get to her house. As she got out of the car, she peeked back inside and said, “Happy birthday, by the way. I hope you had fun.” 

I smiled back, “Better than eating cake at home with my parents.” As I pulled out of her driveway, I looked at myself in the car mirror and thought “Shit, this hat looks horrible.”

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