Dates are a time to charm and romance your significant other. Sometimes, it all goes perfectly, other times, everything just falls apart. Some El Paso High students have agreed to share their stories, but to keep them anonymous, we gave them an alias.

In the following stories by “Stephanie,” “Samantha,” and “Ron” everything went as smooth as it could’ve gone, and the date went according to plan.

Stephanie went on a practically perfect date that could compete with the date of anyone’s dreams. Dinner and a sunset made this a date unforgettable.

“We drove to Ardovino’s desert crossing, and we ate dinner there, he ordered my favorite dessert, which was crème brûlée, and it was all cute,” Stephanie said.  “Afterward, we went driving around, and we stopped at an abandoned golf course. It was really pretty watching the sunset. We listened to music in the back of his car and took a bunch of Polaroid pictures. Then he played his guitar for me.”

For Samantha, something that might’ve ruined the date turned out to make the date that much better and more memorable.

“We were at the movie theater, we were watching Aquaman, and he was caressing my hair/face, and he accidentally poked my eye in the process, but we had a good laugh afterward when we talked about it.”

Dylan went on an exciting, thrilling, summer date, with plenty of affection. The thrill and fear factor really worked out perfectly to make this a cute, loving, supportive date.

“We went to Western Playland during the summer, and it was pretty fun. She was kind of scared on some of the rides, so we were really close, and she held my hand. Afterward, we went to the movies, and it was a scary movie, so we held hands the whole time, and she was on my shoulder.

These stories from “Maria,” “Craig,” “Ana,” and “Charles” are examples of how dates went horribly wrong.

Maria’s date was awkward, nightmarish and hardly her own. She ended up third-wheeling her best friend and her date.

“He asked me on the date, and I was really nervous, so I texted my best friend to go with me. So we went to dinner, and it was really awkward for me. The whole time I was texting my best friend to make conversation and I would jump in, but like, I didn’t talk to him a lot. So yeah, it was like her date.”

Craig had an utterly sickening date that went horribly wrong, despite his best efforts to tough it out. Everyone understood he had good intentions and really helped him out that night.

“Eighth-grade year, in the summer, I took her out to the movies, and before that, I wasn’t feeling so good, like my stomach was hurting, but I was like I can’t not go. Halfway through the movie, I went to the bathroom. When I got back, she asked me to go get popcorn with butter. I pressed the little button for butter, and it was a lot of butter, but I didn’t stop it. Eating it, my stomach started feeling worse. I threw up, and the people next to us helped clean it up. I got it on her right leg and messed up her shoes. Then we got up and left during the movie and went home.”

Ana’s date went a lot longer and a lot worse than expected when their plans got postponed due to a little forgetfulness.

“We were going to watch a movie at seven at the mall. When we got there, he told me he forgot his money, so he called his mom to bring it, but she didn’t get there until like after nine. We walked around until then since we couldn’t really do anything we had to pay for, and sat and didn’t really talk. We ended up watching the movie at ten, and after, his parents took me home, and that was it.”

Charles’ date went positively terrible when an ex showed up and wanted to fight, however much it ruined that part of the date, this couple had an otherwise good date.

“She had a boyfriend, but the day she broke up with him she asked me if I wanted to go to the movies. We were sitting in the back, and her ex and his family were there further up, and he came up to us and was asking if we were on a date and I told him we were and it was none of his business. He started getting aggressive, and he swung at me but missed, and I pushed him back over the seats in front of us. His mom came up and was holding him back and but he came back up and swung again, and I pushed him over again. Then a Cinemark employee came over, and they were escorted out. The rest of the date was good but like that kind of ruined it.”