Dave Myers is the TarheelinNashville

Blue.
It’s my favorite color, and always has been.
Blue.
It was my favorite color crayon as a kid.
Blue.
It was the color of the majority of shirts in my closet.
Blue.
It’s the color of the majority of jeans I wore (though some were acid washed, (it was 1990-91 btw).
It is the color of the UNC Tar Heels.
and finally…

Blue.
It was the color of my first car.
My Blue 1986 Ford Mustang.

It was beginning of my junior year in High School. I bought the Stang over the summer. I had received my license the day of my birthday 6-10-1990. The roads haven’t been safe since.

It was a great summer. My friends and I driving around, listening to the radio, circling the Stop and Go on Main Street, checking out the girls parked with their friends in various parking lots (though I never really stopped to talk to them…).

My family and I went to Pirateland Family Campground in Surfside Beach, SC over the summer for the week of 4th of July. I carried my guitar played loudly by the gazebo. What started out as a couple of friends and I just goofing off, wound up being about 20 kids hanging out and singing along every night for the entire week.
In the middle of one of my breaks from playing, a cute blonde from New Jersey caught my attention. We walked by the water and discussed life, philosophy, and the worlds problems… Ok. Not really, we just had a serious make out session. And we continued to do so all week long… (numerous times in the back of my Blue Mustang).
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why the girls of summer seemed to like me, but girls back home wouldn’t give me the time of day. That was a question I pondered often during the fall and winter. Why did strangers from far away treat me different than the girls back home??

As it does every year, summer came to an end. The girl from Jersey went back home to Yankeeland, and my Junior year at Scotland High School approached.
With the year beginning, my thoughts once again began to drift to Megan Alba Biel (Her real name has been changed to protect the innocent, and to avoid any legal matters). I wondered how her summer went. I wondered if she looked the same. I wondered if she was still dating the dude from last year. I wondered if I really stood a chance with her this upcoming year.
I drove to school in my Blue Mustang with thoughts of strawberry kisses filling my mind, and the radio full blast in my car. The independence I had longed for had finally arrived, I just hoped everything else I had longed for would as well.

With my car, came a car payment. Because of this, I had to get a job. I found one at Belk Department Store. It was the only store in Laurinburg that carried name brand clothes. I chose to work there for that reason. I wanted to dress nice, and with an employee discount, I was able to do so. I needed money for a car payment and gas, plus I could buy nice clothes relatively cheaper… it worked out well.
I worked with a popular kid from my school.
Remember the preppy guy from my Freshman year (in Part One)?
He and I actually became friends. For once in my life I felt like I was part of the ” in crowd”. We didn’t hang out regularly, but when we did it was fun. I was kind of amused by the fact that it took us both being out of the halls of High School to actually get to know each other. We had a lot more in common than I had thought a couple of years before. While we didn’t hang out all of the time, it did feel nice to feel included when I would go out with him and his friends.

My shyness, for some reason, did pop up some of the times when we were out. I didn’t feel incredibly comfortable around some of them. Even though the majority of his friends were friendly to me, in the back of my mind, I was still felt like the geeky 7th grader a lot of them used to pick on. Those moments aside, for a few brief moments… I actually felt cool. I felt like one of the popular kids. I felt the feeling had been longing for.

Junior Year means Junior Prom. I didn’t have any prospects for a date, and I was a little worried about that fact. On a whim, asked on of the “popular girls” from my US History class. We had hung out together with my popular friend/co-worker, so I figured I had a shot. Just a few nights before, we had all hung out at his house, and she was laughing at some of my jokes, and I thought we might have hit if off. She seemed really friendly at the time.

I asked her to go after class a couple days later.

She said that she would let me know. I heard her giggling with one of her friends as she walked away.

She never did get back with me to let me know.

However she did let everyone else in school know.

My co-worker brought it up at work the following night.
“Did you ask (un- named popular girl) to the Prom?” he asked.
“Yeah” I admitted, kind of embarrassed. “I felt like we kind of hit it off a few nights ago at your house”.
“Dude, no offense… but she is NOT going to prom with you.” he replied. I don’t think you are really her type” he said somewhat smugly as he walked away.

My heart sunk, and I felt low.

Not because she said no.

Not because she had laughed at me.

Not because my feeling of fitting in with the “in crowd” dashed away with one statement.

I felt low because I asked the wrong popular girl.

If I really wanted to be brave and ask a popular girl out, I should have asked the one that had been in the forefront of my mind for almost three years. If I was going to take a risk, I should have asked Megan Alba Biel to prom… but I didn’t.

The guy she had been seeing the previous year had moved away. For a little while, she didn’t have a boyfriend. I didn’t have any classes with her again this year, but again we shared the same lunch period. She sat at the “cool kids table”. I sat three rows over. I would be lying to you if I didn’t admit to daydreaming while watching her eat lunch sometimes. I wished I could be sitting there beside her. I wished I could muster up the courage up to ask her to prom. I wished I would stop wishing, and just do it… but alas, I didn’t. She wasn’t single for long.
The mid part of our Junior year, she started dating a guy that I found hard to dislike. He and I went to Middle School together, and was one of the few popular kids back in Middle School that was nice to me. It was easy to dislike her previous boyfriend because he was older and I didn’t know him very well. I knew this guy, and while I admit I was jealous, I can’t say I had any ill feeling toward him. She started dating him not long after I got rejected by un-named popular girl.

There was no use in beating myself up over not asking her to prom. I had missed my chance. She was going with him, and the truth is, I didn’t feel like I stood much of a chance of her saying yes anyway. I had already asked one girl who was ‘Out of My League’ and got laughed at. I would have rather not had asked than risk HER laughing at me.

Blue.

That’s how I felt in the months leading up to prom.

B L U E

Love Y’all
d