Chapter 2: The Fraternity Formal

The night of the formal I walked the four blocks over to Ginny B’s dorm to pick her up. I had called her a couple of nights earlier to tell her what time to expect me to be picking her up. She was all bubbly on the phone and excited about going to a Fraternity Formal Dance. After all she was a freshman and being asked to the dance by an upper classman fraternity member was the biggest thing in her college life so far. She said she called her mom the night after I asked her to go the formal with me and had her mom mail her formal to her. She said her mom was as excited as she was. I filed that information away for future reference in case I ever got to meet her parents. You never know, some parents live vicariously through their kids.

I walked into the dorm’s lobby and I swear half of the girls who lived in the dorm were there. They looked at me as if I was a bug under a microscope, examining me very closely. I can say with out a doubt it was a very unnerving moment. Heck, even the dorm’s resident advisor was there and she was giving me the stink eye.

I didn’t want to look weak so I walked over to the phone and dialed the number to her room, and let her know I had arrived. She said she would be down shortly as she had to finish her makeup. As I was standing there, I looked around. I couldn’t help but notice all the girls were looking at me and making comments among themselves and giggling. Truth be known I was shaking like a leaf. Never have I been under scrutiny like this before. Five minutes passed and still no date. And the looks I was getting were getting to me. I was about ready to bolt and call this whole date thing off. The Resident Advisor, Janet Collins I thought took pity on me and came over to me and make small conversation.

She came over to me and the first words out of her mouth to me were, “You hurt Ginny B. in any way, I will hunt you down and f•©k you up.”

My intelligent repartee was, “Huh?.Jeez lady, all this is, is a date to a fraternity dance. I seriously doubt after tonight she will even know who I am by next week.”

I seriously thought about making a run for it. It was at that moment there was some commotion and the door to the stairwell opened up and it was a grand processional. There was Ginny B. and her ladies in waiting making their grand entrance.

My jaw rested on my chest. I was overwhelmed by the vision that was coming towards me. This could not be the girl, who I had been fixed up with. This could not be the girl who just a few days earlier met me in the grill room and had agreed to go to the dance with me. This was a princess, an honest to gosh, beautiful princess the kind you saw in the movies. I swear she was the most beautiful creature I had ever laid my eyes upon. She didn’t walk towards me as much as she floated across the room. The closer she came the more I noticed how she must have spent hours getting ready for this formal. And she did all this for me. She was more then stunning, she was, I couldn’t think of the words to describe her. She was dressed in a floor length halter style dress and carried a white crocheted shawl to wear while we walked to the Fraternity House. I was in awe of her beauty.

Of course everyone there had to take pictures. Worse then what I remember of my high school’s proms. I was hoping we could get there before the band quit for the night. They posed us for the last shot of the night of her reaching up to kiss me on the cheek. Which was accompanied by the oohs, and aahs and the “isn’t that so sweet.” I helped her on with her shawl and we were off to the Fraternity Dance.

The air was chilly that night as we walked the four blocks. I mentally kicked myself. I should have driven over. It was late fall after all and soon we would see snow flurries. But that night it was cloudless and we saw the moon as it was rising in the east. I could not get over the transformation that Ginny B. had done. It was like she morphed into an entirely different woman than the one I had asked to go to the dance with me. I kept looking over at Ginny B. and grinning like a drooling idiot.

“Ginny, I can’t believe how beautiful you are. Not that you weren’t pretty before.”

“Nice recovery you idiot”, I thought to myself. “But I am in awe of how good looking you are. Everyone else there will be jealous of me because I am with the most beautiful woman there.”

More I talked the closer she walked to me and the tighter she held on to my arm. I was enjoying every minute of the walk to the Fraternity house no doubt about it. Seemed like we walked for hours but I doubt if it was more then 15 min.

We made our entrance into the fraternity and I saw several of my frat brothers just stare at me and my date. Several of the other women there who knew me fairly well seemed surprised I would be coming with such a beautiful girl as the one who was on my arm. As I was helping her with her wrap, several of the frat’s biggest horn dogs came over. I immediately went on alert. They had a reputation for stealing other brothers’ dates.

“Dang dude, where did you come across this beauty? She is much to fine for the likes of you.” This was going to get ugly fast I thought. Well at least I had her for 15 min.

“Sorry guys, but he is the only one I am interested in tonight and for the immediate future. So go climb back under the rocks you slimy toads came out from.”

If the words weren’t enough the look that accompanied them could have melted steel. This girl was intense. I would not want to be on her bad side.

“I am yours and you are mine and no one is going to mess with that!” she exclaimed. Right then she had me, I was totally under her influence. I knew then that we had become a couple. Damn didn’t it feel right. At last I had a significant other. The rest of the night mattered little to me. We danced almost all the dances together. We sat out a few to rest and cool down. I ran and got some drinks a couple of times. A couple of guys that had been in my pledge class and their dates sat with us at the table. It was fun to be part of a group for once instead of standing alone by myself near the beer tap commiserating with the other dateless guys.