The Homecoming Mishap

The night was young, Brandon and I had just arrived at our friend Alex’s house. We had been haphazardly late to pictures so late in fact, that Alex had already departed to pick up his girlfriend Maya upon our arrival. We were out walking my adorable Jack russel terrier Mac before we set out for the house arrival making us both extremely bedraggled and sweaty upon arrival. Brandon ran quickly upstairs to change into his suit while I fled to the downstairs bathroom to slap on some make up and my dress. After we changed we snapped some last minute pictures with our remaining friends before setting off. We both looked like messes! There wasn’t very much time to care about this though, because we promptly had to leave for the dance. We left in Brandon’s freshly washed BMW that he had scrubbed for the dance. About half way to the high school, I looked over in dismay and grumbled, “I forgot your guest pass at home”. Brandon looked back at me and light heartedly rolled his eyes. I giggled trying to make up for my inconvenience as we sped back to my house. This was only the beginning of our worries.

We were only a minute away from my house and we hit it, the skunk. It was too dark to see, and as we turned the corner of the main road our brakes were not enough to save us. When the dreadful animal was hit, it’s decimated body traveled up into the wheel well and then smacked across the bottom of the low riding car. Brandon and I always have a tendency to get ourselves into pickles like these, but we werent mentally prepared for this. Immediate panic set in, we both were going to smell like a skunk at the dance. My parents rushed outside to see us the moment we pulled into the driveway. Immediately they knew what happened. They shooed us inside and my mom sent me to change just in case my dress caught any of the stench. Brandon was devastated, his car smelled terrible and he thought his only set of clothes did as well. I gave him a hug and reassured him that everything was going to be fine as we hopped into my clunky SUV and drove to the dance. When we got there I looked over at him and laughed a bit. He looked back in dismay exclaiming, “what are you laughing at everything sucks!”. I gave him a hug and answered “isn’t this just our luck though?!”. As we entered the dance I squeezed his hand in reassurance to make sure the night wouldnt be ruined by our mishap.

After that incident we ended up having a super great time dancing like goofballs in the crowd of people. I even came up with a new dance move that I jokingly called milking the cow, and there are still people who don’t know how to do the cotton eyed joe, Brandon to be specific. Who knew? Sweating and famished we left the dance early to go out for dinner. While driving, I chose to call Longhorn Steak house to check the wait time before we would be seated in the restaurant. Upon arrival, we happily ordered fried pickles, chicken tenders and a half rack of ribs. Famished we dug into our plates of food and soon realized that we would be attending this place way more often. By the end of our meal we were happy and sharing jokes and stories as usual, the skunk incident was almost totally forgotten about.

Quickly after leaving the restaurant the reality set in that our perils were not over. Brandon’s car was still sitting back at my house reeking of nasty skunk juice. So we begrudgingly rolled home to wash his car. When Brandon and I arrived at home my dad already had a bucket full of dish soap and a big brush ready for us to operate. In our dress clothes, we began scrubbing the car, it smelled so terrible I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically. I laughed so much in fact that Brandon ended up laughing too at the sheer stupidity of it all. When I look back at it, all the laughing made the night so much better. Without it, I think all of the mishaps would have ruined Brandon and I’s experience.

Sometimes laughing things off is the only way to make the best of a situation, and that’s exactly what Brandon and I did. We now remember that night as one of our most enjoyable dates and are enthusiastic about the next school dance in the spring, even though there will still be the threat of the skunk population awaiting our drive.

Photo by Kitty Terwolbeck on Foter.com / CC BY