Chapter 20

One of the nice things with having gotten to know Tenille better was the fact that it made her easier to talk to and gave us more things in common as well. While I’d had several first dates since the summer ended with mixed reviews I was able to use Tenille as a sounding board of sorts. Tonya was the same, though to a lesser point. I’m not sure why, but for some reason Tenille felt more almost like a sister and friend. I knew I’d been interested in Tonya and would have wanted more, it just wasn’t in the cards. She was still proving that she wanted to be friends, though.

In our orchestra class one of the things we had to do was to go to another orchestra performance and write up a review over what we thought about it. The three of us made a natural pairing for these type of performances. In my case it was additionally needed because I was the type that would get bored easily watching an orchestra performance. It made it easier for me to stay awake in the company of two beautiful girls, even if it was just casual. I think it also allowed me to relax as well knowing that I didn’t have to worry about impressing either one or worrying over how to act to get to a second date. It was also convenient that we lived in Kaysville, we were pretty much centered between Ogden and Salt Lake, making Weber State University and the University of Utah convenient to go to.

Time passed though, as it had a habit of doing. Cold Utah winter turned to spring, unfortunately requiring that the skis be put back into storage for the warmer months. With the weather warming up as well I was starting to be able to get back out on the roads easier for my running. With the spring weather and track coming up I knew I needed to get a bit of a head start if I wanted to be performing where I wanted. It wasn’t that I was in bad shape, we’d had indoor track going a little to lead into the outdoor track season, but it was an actual different season.

During even indoor track I’d continued to run the mile and two mile races (at least when they had the two mile). A few of the tracks that were used had a 160 meter track where ten laps made it to a mile. Thankfully when we did those ones we would have teammates doing different events act as a counter to track how many laps you’d actually done as the race went on. I felt good though, even for indoor track my times for both races were close to what they’d been for outdoor track the year prior. One thing I’d learned over the year I’d done so far was that outdoor times were faster then what indoor times were, so I felt that boded well for continued time improvement.

Dating life progressed, though for the most part it was only one or two dates at a time. I’d gotten over my shyness over the last year and had replaced it with an attitude that any girl I didn’t ask out was an automatic no. I’d even successfully asked out a couple girls who I would have to qualify as well out of my league.

I did have to laugh though, in taking Tonya at her word as being friends we really had developed a legitimate friendship. Tonya and I were frequently going places together, including dinner and movies, etc. It was to a point where we were frequently asked if we were going out or how long we had been. We had a fire drill that I thought showed how comfortable I’d gotten knowing we were just friends, no more of the nerves showing. With the drill on we’d had to go outside of the building on a cold spring morning. Tonya didn’t have her jacket on since it was in her locker and I had my varsity letter jacket with me. I started by offering it to her, but she didn’t want me cold either, so just stepped in front of me so that I could wrap her into my jacket as well. Thankfully she was a skinny thing and we could both fit into it like that, if a bit snug.

The only drawback to any real real dating for me was the fact that I wasn’t making much money, so I had to space things out and make sure I wasn’t spending on things that I didn’t need more then I’d want a date. That, coupled with the fact that I’d often still just take Tonya did limit my actual dates a bit, but I didn’t feel like I was really missing out – after all, I was still spending time with a beautiful girl as a practice set of dates.