The One Who Double-Dribbled..

* the hang out *

It was a typical night my freshman year of college when a small group of us would get together and go to Barley's, the local Irish bar who let underagers drink, for $1 pizza, and $1 Amberbock draws. My clique of friends would  fill their bellies with beer and grease and then head back to one of the off-campus apartments belonging to a few of the basketball players. We would all cram into their tiny apartment and sit on their questionably stained furniture preparing ourselves to watch the greatest show to have ever aired on television, One Tree Hill. These were the days before DVR and Tivo, so we would always hope that the VCR recorded the correct channel for the allotted time because my week was devastated if I didn't find out what was happening in Tree Hill, North Carolina!

Our group of athletic friends always had a good time getting in trouble together whether we were dancing, bowling, swimming in the bottoms or just watching tv. I attended a private, Southern Baptist college in Tennessee and security sat at the front gate to make sure students didn't stay out past curfew. Now, there were a few small glitches in the system of security. One, if you didn't get your vehicle back on campus grounds by 3am, the driver had to give their last name to put on record. Well, each student got three free passes each semester, so you just had to take turns driving back onto campus grounds. The second glitch was the fact that they only had security at one gate. The southside gate of campus was surrounded by a wide open field with a gate blocking the driveway back into campus. If you drove through the grass around the gate, you were magically back on campus! Also, if for some reason you couldn't get a ride back to campus or a vehicle back to campus before 3am, you could wait until 6am and then gates opened up again! Impressive, I know. 

So there I am awaiting the start of my fun-filled night of OTH, sitting next to the guy I was "seeing" at the moment. I say "seeing" because we never had a DTR (define the relationship) talk before then, and I was a young, impressionable freshman so I didn't want to question my 6'5" big-man-on-campus basketball player in fear that he might break up with me. If only I knew then, what I know now...he was the type of guy who would tell all his buddies that I "belonged" to him, but then when we were at Barley's he would act like he didn't know me because it might make him appear taken. He was also the type, when he wanted to pay attention to me, that would give me money to go buy a round of drinks for him and his friends, and always leave me short a few dollars so I'd have to fork over my own money just so they could get a buzz. He was an all-star player, both on and off the court, accordingly to him, and hanging with that crowd made me part of the cool kids, or so I thought. Not sure if it was the excitement for OTH or the Amberbock that was running through me like a full-court press, but I quickly got up and ran to the closest bathroom, but someone was already in there! So I rushed down the hallway to my man's bathroom to relieve my bladder. Now, I've never been the snoopy girlfriend because more times than not, I've found things that I'd prefer not find. Ignorance is bliss, right?! As I'm sitting on his toilet, I can't help but notice the array of Victoria's Secret scented body wash and lotions. I knew that he always smelled good, but I couldn't remember him ever smelling of Love Spell or Romantic Wish.

I walked back to the living room acting like I didn't see anything and sat down to watch this show I had become addicted to. It was almost as if I was in love with OTH much like people are in brand new relationships, that you see past all the bad qualities in a person because of their infatuation. I looked past the terrible acting and unrealistic story lines, just like I had looked past all the shady things this guy had done to me. Since I didn't want to miss out on the happenings of the Tree Hill Ravens, I waited until after that episode to confront him. He lied of course about having another girlfriend, but eventually one of his fellow basketball teammate's told me that he had a girlfriend in Memphis, and conveniently had me in Jackson. He must have thought since his girlfriends lived in different area codes, he could hide it. I didn't want a real life love triangle like Peyton, Lucas and Brooke to play out in my life, so I quickly ended it with this loser. Turns out he wasn't an all-star player after all, because that girl eventually found out about me and dumped him too about two weeks later. 

R.I.S.P. (rest in syndication peace) OTH!  [teary-eyed]