Rebellion

12. Triggers

“The people who trigger us to feel negative emotion are messengers. They are messengers for the unhealed part of our being.” – Teal Swan.

•••

“This whole scenery just reminds me of prom.”

Tiolu’s awe of the environment was quite evident in her stare. It was one of the things he loved most – watching her light up in admiration. She was quite a scene to behold when such thing happened. They were treading the short path in the center of the hall on the red carpet which ended at the base of the podium. Her left arm was still linked in his right, and his body drew cold from hers due to the proximity between their bodies.

“Prom?” His chuckle was suppressed, apparently he was trying to fight back a level of amusement. “Yeah sure, for people like you this sort of scenery brings prom to mind. For people like me, It just brings back memories of kick-ass parties we’ve seen in movies on TV.”

“What do you mean?” Her surprise was expected, as she craned her neck up to stare at him – incredulously. “You mean you never went to prom?”

“Nope,” Dayo shook his head, his lips quirked. “Really? I didn’t think you’d be too surprised at finding out such thing. Of course, I don’t strike you as someone who has a very social life.”

Tiolu bit her lower lip, and lowered her gaze also. “It’s just that I thought prom was a sacred thing. I attended BIS, and even the nerds and you know–the social wannabes attended the event. Everyone had a great time in their own way. I didn’t know there was such thing as not attending prom.”

“Well, this young man right here didn’t attend his high-school prom.” He reemphasized his previous point. “In my school, only the ‘it’ people attended prom. People like myself just gave stupid excuses as to why we wouldn’t be able to make it. But the real reason was that we knew such atmosphere was somewhere we wouldn’t fit in.”

“Even you?” Tiolu’s voice still held facets of shock. “Okay, fine you might be a nerd but you’re not the regular type. You know how to look good, and I’m betting you were one of the most good-looking back then. Even if you were shy to ask a girl out, I’m willing a bunch would have walked up to you and asked you out.”

Wow.

Her insight in such area didn’t surprise him. Her inference was spot on, totally. He was indeed shy to ask anyone out to his high-school prom, but that wasn’t the factor that sounded the death knoll on the prom. No, a couple of girls had indeed asked him out but he had declined every single offer. Tiolu probably thought the real reason he didn’t go was totally because of his timidity, sure that was a big factor but it wasn’t the major one.

The major one was the fact that the girl he had a crush on, was way out his league and of course had gone out with one of ‘it’ boys in the school. It sounded petty, but that was his reason. He figured that if he was going to subject himself to an activity he was uncomfortable with, he’d rather be in the company of someone that was worth it and he was comfortable with, not the opposite.

“Well, I did get a bunch of requests,” Dayo replied finally. “But I didn’t deem any worthy. I just couldn’t subject myself to such awkwardness. Before the announcement on the school assembly, I had taken the liberty to look up the activities of a prom night on the internet and I found out that 90 percent of the stuff done there was so ‘un-me.’ So, that’s why I didn’t go.”

“Wow, that’s swell.” Tiolu sighed gloomily. “And I mean the bad – swell not the good one. Prom is a really lit experience, it’s a pity you missed it really. But at least you still had your dinner nights and all in college, right?”