My date was going well until my braces were stuck … there

Ollie* made me light up like Blackpool’s lighting.

I was 21 years old at university and I didn’t have the best story with kids. I had come out on dates, but I never really found that the chemistry where I wanted to get it further.

Ollie was different. He was on the same course as me and I was flirting with him for weeks. We had gone to groups together, but we always found themselves sitting close to each other and exploding to laughter.

My heart missed a rhythm when it pulled me on one side after a night out and asked if I imagined going for a drink together.

“What now?” I replied.

“No, I want to do it right,” he laughed back.

I arrived and smiled all the way to my house in my fog.

A few nights later it was time for our date – I had tried every dependency he belonged to to see what seemed right, even though I saw him most days in lectures.

I think I settled in some scary electric blue boots and what I thought was a very cool, intense dress with a bold red face painted on it.

If only my outfit was the worst part of the date.

We met at Student Union and couldn’t go better. We laughed together and bound over snake bites and politics.

We didn’t want the night to end so that the night of Friday’s dance dance in the Union would end.

We kept away from everyone else and just spent time with our first kiss on the floor. I remember having butterflies and feeling like I could erupt with happiness.

We left together and walked home holding hands and took some chips on the street. I felt natural to return home – I knew him for centuries. Oh how would I want to expect.

We had a drink with his roommates who everyone wanted to look at me before going to his room with red, fresh washing, leaves. He really knew how to work a washing machine! Another tick in my mind. This was going so well.

Then the unthinkable happened – I still run and go back purple when I think about it.

I’m just going to go with that: We had started very intimate when his penis sticks to my dental support.

My stupid glittering brand new straps had bought me for my 21st birthday. He left a cry with blood and his roommates ran to see what had happened.

There I was there, still connected to his penis, I felt very vulnerable and absolutely noisy.

I remember offering to go to A&E with him and looked at me with horror

The roommates phoned a friend to do a medicine to ask what he had to do – it was even worse to hear them on the phone he was discussing.

Although it was better than the choice I had thought, which was to call my mom who was a nurse.

I was fossilized that I had broken it for life. I wanted the ground to swallow me. Instead, his roommates, as gentle as he could, was detached from my support. Shame. I felt that there was blood that was coming out everywhere on all the red leaves.

I remember offering to go with him to A&E and looked at me with horror. Instead, Ollie went with his roommate. I probably had to leave then, but in my drunken state I slept and had to slip the next morning before they came back.

When I woke up after doing it back to my bed, the guilt after alcohol began to come. The retrospectives of what had happened.

I looked down to see the time and realized that I had left behind my favorite storm watch. It was so special to me. I had saved it when I was young and it meant enough to me that I couldn’t just reject its loss as a side damage from the night before.

I had to edit the courage to call him to see how it was and ask if I could pick up my watch. It was no surprise that he didn’t answer. So I tried a text. My roommates were hysterical.

He met with a choir “There is no way to get to know you to give you the watch back”.

Well he did. I remember driving there with my stomach at nodes. He was out of place and gave me back.

I asked if he imagined doing something again. He looked at me as if I were a mass killer and said no.

After that, we never talked again. I would see him around the university and I felt ashamed of my stomach pit every time I did.

I couldn’t stop myself, but I would also get the giggles – which really didn’t help to repair our relationship.

*Have changed names

This article was originally published on April 6 2024