"Roar."
My head whipped back like he had smacked me. "Did... did you just 'roar' at me."
A look of embarrassment crossed his features quickly, but I saw it before it passes. "It's my name."
"Your name is Roar?" He nodded. "Crap! That's cool as shit...
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Well, that was Goodwin. As annoying as can be, and still as annoying as the last proper time that I spoke to the guy -- which has got to have been six years ago. Sixth-grade year, the first day back from Winter Break where I rudely unfriended him in front of our group of friends.
Goodwin and I have known each other since birth and our parents kind of forced a friendship out of us since they were great friends. Win and I hated each other up until third grade where I sort of develop a crush on him and started being nice to him, and of course, he noticed. I stopped putting chewed up gum wads in his hair and I stopped tying his shoelaces together and instead made him disgusting looking PB&J sandwiches and I let him use my crayons. I mean once you let a dude use your 96 count Crayola crayons and the built-in sharpener in the back, you know there's something going on.
"Nellie?" Win had asked hesitantly one day. We were in my room and our parents were downstairs chatting and preparing dinner while us kids were told to stay in my room and play. My room used to be this big blob of yellow puke. I mean I give myself props for not falling in love with the color pink like other girls my age, but still yellow!?
"Yes, Goodwin?" I asked in the sweetest voice ever. I think about how nice and sweet I used to be back then and almost vomit on my shoes.
"Um..." I remember him blushing and putting down his toy Hot Wheels car. He was staring at his hands so hard that his blush turned into something else. "Do you like me?" And like that, it was my turn to blush. He said it so softly that I was going to act as if I couldn't hear him, but goodness, when the guy you have a crush on asks if you like him, of course, you're going to want to bury yourself in your toy pen.
I won't go into great detail after this, because well... things got very awkward and embarrassing. Basically what happened in that room that day, stays in that room. It kind of became an unspoken agreement between us to never speak of it ever again.
***
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It's been days since the last time I've spoken to Goodwin Balanchine, which in itself is pretty damn impressive since not only did I have to avoid him at school, but also at home since our parents have an unfortunate friendship.
