March Madness

(What's High Concept? And what makes a High Concept story? Click here to find out on this week's Jared's Inkwell! -JMG)

Story Sent in by William:

Lisa was pretty into college basketball. I wasn't so much, but I wanted to at least take an interest for her sake. We went to a sports bar for our first date and the catastrophes began almost at once. There was a Pittsburgh/UCLA game playing and she showed up in a Pittsburgh hat and UCLA jersey. Even I knew that that wasn't right.

"If Pitt loses, I'll just take off the hat," she explained.

"What if UCLA loses?" I asked.

She said, "I'll just go into the bathroom and turn the shirt inside-out," she said. Great plan.

Everyone at the bar gave her funny looks when we walked in. A few drinks later, people started asking her about it. She spent more time explaining her logic and reasoning to strangers than actually talking to me. Man, that was fun.

UCLA won and she took off the hat. Only no one noticed or cared by that point. She handed the hat to me and said, "Put it on?"

I asked, "Why would I do that?"

She said, "One of us has to be the winner and the other the loser. It just has to be that way."

I glanced at her shirt. "Why can't I be the winner?"

She said, "Uh, this is my jersey and I'm not taking it off. Now put on the hat."

I refused point blank. She stopped talking to me and pretended to be interested in her drink. Or maybe she was more interested in her drink. Either way, I paid for my share and left without saying goodbye. Was that what she wanted? I'll never know, I guess. Either way, she didn't at all seem interested in a date.