The Day Girls Started Chasing Me

Chapter 12 (Part I)

"I think I made a big mistake," I tell Frank as I bike my way through the rugged roads of Fort Collins, Colorado, careful not to slid through the ice. Since this neighborhood is in the same town as my university, I see a lot of familiar faces as I wind down the lane. Sometimes they look like they're staring at me, almost laughing. But no one ever pays me any attention because I'm not much to look at, so I doubt their gazes are directed at me. With my phone placed on my ear with one hand and my hand braced on the bike's steering wheel with the other, I peddle with a ferocious intensity to somehow wipe away what I said earlier.

"I mean, what if they never talk to me again? What if my mom never cooks me food again?" And then the worst thought of them all hits me. "What if they actually think I had a threesome and never look at me the same way again?"

"Look, calm down, Adam," Frank tries to console me over the phone. "Use your head. Your parents love you. You could obliterate the world and they'd still love you. So don't worry too much, things will sort themselves out."

"But what if they don't," I go on, my mind wandering off in a complete frenzy, thinking of every worst possibility known to man. "What if I crossed a line that I can never walk across again?"

"God, Adam, can you stop it with the what ifs?" Frank yells exasperatedly. "And nevermind, don't use your head, just listen to me. Everything's going to be fine. So stop talking to me about your problems, I don't really care."

"Ouch."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way," Frank sighs. "I've just been going through my own problems, okay?"

I slow my peddling as I reach the coffee shop. After I chain my bike to the gate, I begin to head inside and wait in the largely packed line. "Why? What's wrong?"

He pauses before he answers, "It's Grace, okay? I think she's dating some other guy."

"Grace? You mean, the girl you're not dating?"

"Okay, not dating officially but if you were here to feel the sexual tension in the air between us, you'd know there's a connection," Frank responds quickly in an attempt to explain himself. But if anything, I think his last comment made him seem more pathetic.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that the girl who's not dating you is maybe dating somebody else," I offer.

"You're so apathetic to my feelings," Frank retorts.

"Says the one who just told me he doesn't care about my problems," I spit back.

Conversations were always like this between Frank and me. They were conversations that always turned into a debate. We're always competing against one another. Frank's a good friend, but sometimes this gets tiring.

"But that's not what's important, I think something happened to me last night," I add trying to change the subject.

"You mean you kissing the star player of your football team, you know, after you got slapped by the beauty queen," Frank replies bluntly.

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know about that," I ask quizzically.

"Dude, it's all over the place. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, even MySpace. I can't believe people besides me still use that thing," Frank laughs.

But I'm too busy feeling my face burn into a raging fire and the heart in my chest pound a million beats per minute. I pull my phone from my ear and quickly go to the feed on my snapchat. Sure enough, it is everywhere. Gigi's hand striking straight across my face and the quick peck I had with Steve. As well as my being ambushed and thrown into the pool. Cheryl and Ezra were really telling the truth. It's bad enough this actually happened but it's even more appalling that I and everyone I know watched it happen. How am I supposed to live something like this down?