Don’t worry, this post has nothing to do with racism, African American culture (past or present), or the tasteless name that some people use on a daily basis as a way of greeting a fellow “bro.” The “N Word” that I am speaking of is, however, almost as taboo as the word I’m alluding to above, rhyming with digger…OK I think you get it. The “N Word” in my family refers to only one thing, my senior year prom date and boyfriend at the time. His name is forbidden in my household, he was that bad. The fact that he was that bad made me fall head over heels for him even more. His bad boy style and “F you attitude” made me dizzy and gave me some serious blinders; I was oblivious to the disrespectful and offensive way he treated me.

I feel confident that in a contest of “whose prom sucked more?”, I would win. It started off with my date, N, arriving almost an hour late to pick me up. When asked why, he said “I was playing video games and forgot.”  Our ride for the evening was his father’s beautifully restored fire-red Camaro, why N was allowed to borrow it is beyond me. It’s not like he was being rewarded for good behavior, he ended up not even graduating from high school with the rest of our class. N pulled up to my house and my reluctant parents and I headed outside to take some pictures and discuss curfews. My mom said to N “Please be careful driving, really really careful.” N replied “Duuude, it’s a Camaro, I’m GOING to be careful” and rolled his eyes at her. I giggled like a dingbat and oogled at how silly and cute N was; mom pretty much had steam blowing from her ears at this point. She later said to me “I meant be careful with YOU, my daughter, not the stupid car.” Oh…right.

N and I burnt rubber leaving my neighborhood and sped off to take pictures with my group of friends first. It was awkward, as they all hated him and I was ditching them to go with his prom group. Then we headed off to take pictures with his friends and caravan to prom. They despised me and I hated them with a passion…I was in for a good night. After a few dances at prom, N said he had to go somewhere real quick and he’d be back in a few minutes. Sure, no problem. Well, an hour went by and still no sight of my prom date. I spent an hour wandering the halls of a hotel looking for my night in shining armor. All the sudden he comes strolling through the automatic front doors looking like he has just smoked an entire field of marijuana. I later found out that he had basically done just that. He drove somewhere with another girl to go smoke, leaving his prom date alone for a little over an hour! Why I didn’t leave his sorry ass at that point is beyond me.

We went to the prom after-party at one of his friends houses where one of the “cool moms” had bought a couple of kegs. It was not fun, I did not play drinking games or do any drugs (feel like I have to throw that in there), and I spent the whole night wishing I had gone home with my girlfriends. I am sure that there are several more small, horrific details about that night but I have probably blocked them out for good reason. So there it is, worst prom ever.

I am thankful for my time with N. I got to experience my “wild side” without losing too much of myself. I was able to bounce back without a criminal record, illegitimate children, or significant loss of brain cells due to too many drugs. Unfortunately that is more than a lot of people can say. Thank goodness for dating the losers, otherwise we wouldn’t be so eternally grateful for the good ones!