Derek and Victoria: A Rocky Start

Is that just the cheesiest title or what?! Honestly couldn't think of anything better for this post.

As you might have noticed in my last post, I decided to keep "Short Guy's" (Derek's) number in my phone so that I could screen his calls...the obnoxious loud mouth. But the next day he called me while I was shopping for essential household items at Wal Mart with my roomies, and I answered. I don't know if I wasn't paying attention, or I was flattered to be the first of my roommates to have a new guy call them, or maybe I was actually interested in him, but I was surprised he was calling me just a day after we met and exchanged contacts. Now I can't tell you exactly, but the conversation probably went something like this:

Derek: "Hey! Its Derek, yo!"(do you have the Vanilla Ice voice in your head yet?) "What are you doing?"
Me: "Oh just getting some stuff from Wal Mart with my roommates. You know, groceries, cleaning stuff..."
Derek: "Cool, so do you want to go rock climbing with me later today?"

So of course I said yes! (Previously unmentioned in the last post, I had *briefly* met a few of Derek's roommates, and since I saw that they were all over 6' and a couple were pretty good looking, I figured Derek could be my in.) Since he had said "some friends" I was anticipating some more of Derek's cute and tall friends. I mean, Derek was cute, but he was short, a show off, and talked like a 90's rapper. The whole "date" itself was very strange.

Derek didn't come to  my dorm to get me, he called me and had me come out. But I just went along with it anyway, trying to think of which cute roommate he might've brought.

A small car, red I think, was in the temporary loading zone, I could see a cute guy I hadn't met before driving, a dark haired girl in a yellow shirt in the passenger sea,t and behind her, Derek wearing a blue shirt. Oh. So this was like a double date? Ok. I guess I could put up with Derek. I let myself into the car.

I thought we would be going to an indoor climbing place with a rock wall in Idaho Falls or something, but we weren't. We drove for what felt like an hour, and in that time I could no longer tell what kind of "outing" we were on! Derek kept flirting with both the girl in the yellow and me. And the driver, who to this day it has never been calrified to me exactly what i should call him by, was very quiet and mostly talked to Derek, but I would occasionally see him look at me in the rearview mirror. Who was I supposed to be on a date with? Was this just friends going rock climbing? But why would he have called me when we just met if it wasnt for a date? I was completely bewildered and decided to just roll with it, and flirt with both. Derek was easier to talk to, I will give him that, as long as you could get him to stop talking long enough to let you say something. Derek pulled out his phone and started showing me pictures of himself with long hair or looking cute while holding kittens. I smiled politely and thought to myself, "Really? You're trying too hard."

We were driving on a two lane road, with an empty field on one side, and rocky cliffs on the other. I started to get a little uneasy. I about peed myself when they pulled over on the side of the road, and the guys pointed to a giant rock and said that's what we are climbing. I don't think the girl in the yellow shirt knew what she was getting into either, we both shared a grimace of uncertainty.

The guys started pulling equipment out of the car, and I got even more nervous with each item they pulled out.

They showed us to a section of the rock that looked pretty darn scary. I could just imagine myself slamming into that and getting all bloodied up. Way to make an impression.

When it was my turn to climb, I felt awkward getting strapped into a terribly uncomfortable harness that pinched my thighs and was very unflattering by Derek's friend. That is strange enough, but having a guy you barely know do it because you cant figure it out, then yanking you off the ground to "test" it, and  since you aren't expecting that you fall into him...I must have been blushing something awful. Here's to hoping the sun blinded him.

As I was getting ready to climb, Derek pointed to my hand, "Hey you should take off your ring. I'll put it on my key chain for you." It was my mom's class ring. The ring that she told me if I lost it, she would kill me. The ring that I had already lost once before, but luckily found. I handed it over to Derek, telling him I needed it back as soon as I was done, because it was my moms and she would kill me if I lost it.

I dont remember what happened while I was actually climbing. I was scared to death and so self conscious of the way the harness was affecting the only view one could get of me from the ground, knowing that they were all going to be staring at my butt. It took me a while, but I was determined not to go down before reaching the top. Derek was shouting encouragement and advice at me from down below, I hated it due to my pride, but appreciated his effort.

After I took about 30 minutes to climb, Derek went flying up and back down again, taking all the anchors out as he went, in about 10-15 minutes. Again I thought to myself, "Showoff."  But I must admit that I liked him more.

 The drive home was relaxing, I got some nice warm sun, and I enjoyed listening to Derek talk more. he was also not quite so loud, and obnoxious, and I noticed that when he was very comfortable about something, like when he was showing me pictures of his family and his nephews and niece, it was Derek talking, not Vanilla Ice (*Halleluiah Chorus*).

When we got to my dorm, Derek didn't open the door for me, but he did get out and give me a hug, thanking me for coming, and complimenting my amateur rock climbing skills. I had fun, but I didn't think I would be seeing Derek again. I liked him better than I had before our "date" -if you can call it that-, but knew that we probably would never call each other again unless we were truly bored out of our minds or needed an extra body.

I let myself into my dorm and was immediately bombarded by questions from my roommates, and from some of the other girls in the complex who were just hanging out. I answered them, giggling and laughing the whole time like girls always do, then when they announced that they were going to a dance and I needed to come I went to go take a shower. As I was about to get in the shower, i realized I was missing something.

My ring. My mom's class ring. The one I was never supposed to lose, was on Derek's key chain.