What I imagined would happen actually happened

Last night I drove to my favorite music venue, parked a block away (which is traditional in provo), and my stride was quick because it was a frigid night.

When I step in the first person I saw was Hannah, a friend from the apartment I live at. I promptly walk up to her and exchange pleasantries;

‘Hey! I didn’t know you were coming. Who else is here?’ I give myself the excuse to scan the room. The second person I saw was almost like seeing a ghost.

I haven’t seen Tom for about three years. We dated for that long in high school. The reason that I haven’t seen him was because he moved to California for two years and we sort of lost contact. At the same time, I moved to Arizona. When I moved back to Utah and first started frequenting our old places, I would imagine running into him. It’s finally happened, but this time I hadn’t thought about him for months.

I found myself standing in front of him. ‘Hi Tom! I didn’t know you were in town.’ Tom jumped a little and then said hi back. He was living in Idaho now, so I really didn’t expect to see him.

I also said hi to his twin brother Daryl, who was sitting next to him. At some point Daryl and Tom started talking to each other and I glanced around the room and slipped away to say hi to someone else.

The music started and I was standing next to Hannah and Rachel for a majority of the time, with Tom and Daryl on the other side of the venue.

I pulled out my phone and texted my roommate.

Me- You’ll never guess who’s here

Rebecca- Who

Me- Tom Petersen

Rebecca- WHAAAAAAT

Me- I had no idea he was in town

I put my phone down and paid attention to the music. An all female band named cessley were playing and their attire made me feel like I was in Woodstock, I loved it.

The performances went on until the last band was preforming their last songs. I glanced over at Tom and Daryl, still across the venue. I felt a little jittery but not as stressed as I might have been if I saw him when I first moved back from Arizona.

I glanced down at my phone again.

Rebecca- Is Tom still there I want to meet him

Me- yep

Rebecca- Bring him over

Me- lmao maybe

I had no intention of bringing him to my apartment. It just seemed to weird. But then the show ended and I found myself standing in front of Tom and Daryl again. Do my feet have a mind of their own?

‘Hey, are you guys going home right now?’

Tom and Daryl both bob their heads.

‘To eagle mountain?’ I say, I knew that’s where their family lived.

Again they nod, parallel images of each other.

‘Would you guys like to come over to my apartment to hang out for a bit?’

This time Tom nods and Daryl doesn’t. Tom, as if sensing that their uniformity was broken, turns to Daryl and they started a mini debate.

I turned to the side, hoping to see another acquaintance or someone to avoid acknowledging the quite argument in front of me. Unfortunately, the crowd was already thinning.

Tom spoke up, ‘do you have a charger? And water?’

I answer in the affirmative to both questions and soon the three of us were heading to my apartment, them in their car and me in mine.

When I get into the apartment, everyone’s home, everyone’s up, and everyone’s cleaning. I announce that Tom and Daryl were coming over.

My three roommates have all heard lore about my one and only ex and they seem excited. I start cleaning as well, the zeal was for our cleaning checks tomorrow.