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She Turned Me Down Two Weeks Before Prom (2016)

I haven't talked to Audrey in years, and to be quite honest, it's probably better that way. You see, she was one of the earlier crushes, which means at this point I didn't know I had FRO: Female Repellent Odor. So this one hit hard because I thought I had a shot. Granted, I'm naive enough to believe I had a shot with all the other girls, but still.

I met Audrey through the theatre. I met her when my local community theatre put on "Little Shop of Horrors" (Interesting tidbit: The antagonist of the show is named Audrey II, and Audrey was cast in it, and after she wrecked me, she became (one of) the antagonist(s) of my own personal musical. How's that for irony?). So my good ole friend Isabelle (See the "Verbally Abusive" chapter for my roller coaster of a friendship with Isabelle. Anywho,) introduced me to her during intermission. Beforehand, Isabelle would text me all about how good of a match I'd be with Audrey. So, naturally I was excited (keep in mind my hormones were outta control at this point, so yeah, the thought of anything possibly romantic gave me goosebumps) to meet this mystery girl. She was really cute, honestly. I thought I was the loudest, most comfortable person out there but then I met Audrey. She was full of life, and possibly the most comfortable person I've ever met. She was laughing and playing around, disregarding that I was a total stranger. In fact, she was so comfortable that someone asked me if she was my sister. Audrey believed it was because we looked alike. I disagreed. It had to be because of our similar personalities and how comfortable we were with each other. And yes, I was comfortable with her because if she was so comfy with me then how could I not be comfy with her?

I can't remember much about how we met, because when I think of Audrey, I think of the overall pain and regret that was dealt. So, I mostly think of Prom. But we're not there yet.

The next time I saw her was when we auditioned for a copyright-waiting-to-happen Disney play about the princesses and this illiterate chef or something and these happy-but-evil elves made all the Disney princesses dance or something. I don't know - it was a really weird time. Despite the oddity that was "Cinderella's Christmas Party (an original play written and directed by Angela M.)," I had an absolute blast. Partially was because I played the illiterate and possibly dyslexic chef who said that Christmas was the "everest gever. Geverest best. Nevermind." Partially was because Audrey was Mulan, despite how much she looked like a White American, and nothing like...Mulan. Let's remember this was a North Carolinian community theatre, so you shouldn't expect much accurate casting anyways. Partially was because all my best friends were also in it. Lucas, Isabelle, Kaitlyn, Audrey, Rachel, etc. They were all there and it was a beautiful time to be young.

Audrey liked to tease, play around, and stay available for as long as she could. Meaning, as I flirted my little self away, she kept accepting my compliments and turning the other way. But, if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that I don't ever give up.

Even with some things I probably should.

Audrey remained available, but liked to not only tease me, but also every other guy she meets. She would post pictures of me and her together on Instagram, where I found it the nicest compliment and honor. I ate that up. I made all of our pictures a PicCollage because I was that infatuated. I didn't see her game. Well, maybe I did, but I was in too deep in my feelings that I didn't want to see the pattern she was making. I'm not sure how blind I was to her games, or how stubborn I was to believe them.

We would share countless inside jokes, and I mean a lot. I felt like the more jokes we had shared, the stronger our bond would be. She ate that up. She would caption our pictures together "[emoji emoji emoji emoji] when you look cute with your doppelganger [emoji emoji emoji]" and "when you don't normally wear makeup [emoji emoji emoji emoji emoji emoji]". Most of our inside jokes can be translated to a simple emoji, and with the amount we had, it looked like we were trying to make up our own language with pictures. Like millennial hieroglyphics. She even went so far to nickname me "Princey", since we were in a show about princesses and I would be donned as her prince. Cute, right? Yeah, I thought so too.