You know it's not always fun being a teenage boy in high school. You have to deal with all sorts of social pressures, schoolwork, friends, parents and the biggest one, girls. It seemed that no matter how hard we tried me and my friends could never really figure them out. Sometimes they would do things we wouldn't understand, and the most important thing we couldn't figure out was how to tell whether a girl liked us. This only added to our stress and even as a collective group we could never figure out if the girl one of us liked felt the same. Jon once said that the only sure fire way to find out was to ask a girl out, however, for a group of high school boys with low self-esteem that was significantly more difficult that it sounded. As a result of these factors a series of events happened to me that I'm sure don't deviate from the normal teenager's life. I don't want to be one of those melodramatic teenagers who puts so much more meaning on something than it deserves, so I'm not going to say that the events described in these pages changed my life or anything over exaggerated like that, instead I'm just going to say that they seemed relevant to me.
It started in midsummer on a Monday and three girls and I were talking in the back of a fencing club as they all get out of their equipment and talk with one another. Galen, a junior in high school is talking about how her boyfriend Ricky who she had been dating for about seven months had said that he loved her and she could not say the same for herself and she felt guilty. Sarah, Cara and me listened and Sarah and Cara offered advice. I felt bad for Ricky who was also his friend and wanted to help him despite his absence but I did not know how so he sat there silently. It was not like Galen did not like Ricky, she was just not as emotionally attached to him as he was to her and felt bad for him. I was jealous of their relationship because even though they did not share the same levels of affection for each other they had a connection and could enjoy each other's presence for hours. I sat and listened when Galen addressed me and asked if I knew how Ricky felt about it. I had talked with Ricky and knew that he was worried about it, however I said that he did not because Ricky had asked me not to mention it. However I did say that if I were in Ricky's shoes I would not mind some reassurance that her reluctance to say she loved him did not mean that she did not like him. As I said this I looked up at the time and realized how late it was. "Shit I gotta get going, bye everyone, have a nice night." They said good bye and I gathered up my stuff and hopped onto my bike.
I would bike home from fencing every night, it was a nice calm time to think and just relax, it was a four-mile bike ride and it gave me some time to reflect. On my way home I wondered whether I should mention to Ricky about what had gone on that night however I decided not to because I felt like it would be betraying Galen's trust. I also thought about how I wished I had someone like that who cared for him and who I could talk with. While I was riding I got a text from June, a girl who I dated a year ago who started to like me again. We were friends and I did not mind talking to her but I felt bad because I could not reciprocate the feelings she felt towards me. She had asked if I wanted to see a movie later in the week, I said yes but did not want to go alone with her and asked if she minded if I brought his friend Dan who liked June at the time. She said sure and they planned to watch the movie on Wednesday. I immediately texted Dan and told him what had happened, Dan of course agreed to go with us although somewhat tentatively, because he had trouble talking with girls and was very self-conscious around her especially. I felt bad for Dan because ever since he developed a crush on June he had been depressed and not his normal self, it probably didn't help that out of our group of friends he was the only one who had not had a girlfriend yet.
I passed the next few days at fencing and with friends and on Wednesday night I left on my bike at the time we had agreed on. On my way there I was worried that Dan would not be there yet and I would be stuck with June, however as I neared the Roman Gourmet, which was the pizza place where we were going to eat dinner, I saw Dan and June talking and felt relieved. I got there and we went inside to eat before the movie, which would start in about 45 minutes. We ordered a large cheese pie at the counter then sat down and talked while we waited for it to be made. After about 10 minutes the waiter came to give us our pizza and I looked at him and realized it was Nick who I knew from my fencing club. We were surprised to see each other and talked for a few minutes but he had to get back to work. While we were talking I realized that Dan and June were kinda sitting there awkwardly because neither of them knew Nick, I kept hoping Dan would use that moment to talk to June but he did not make the move. When Nick left we returned to our conversation and ate the pizza. When we were done we left and headed to the movie theater, which was next door. When we got to the theater it was dark inside and there was only one person inside. We tried to enter however the doors were locked. We knocked on the door and the man who was about 20 years old came up to the door and told us that the theater was closed for another 20 minutes, which was about when our movie started. Not knowing what to do we just stood outside and waited. Eventually we got bored and Dan and I decided to stare inside the window of the pizza place and try to creep out Nick. As we were doing this a woman in a black dress passed by and June mentioned that she thought she knew her. I said, "Probably not, she seems kinda old." The woman stopped and turned around to reveal that she was older than us but obviously still in high school and cute at that. She had long blonde wavy hair; she was about average height for most girls and striking blue eyes. She looked me in the eyes and asked me if I still thought she was old, and had a smirk on her face that said "I'm enjoying calling you out and making you feel awkward". I felt my face burn red and got mad at myself for making myself look stupid in front of a cute girl. Luckily for me June interjected and said, "Hey Caroline! How have you been?" Caroline looked at June and smiled and said "Good, how about you?" and from there they went into a conversation that lasted a while, Dan and I got bored after a few minutes and went back to staring at Nick through the window who kept giving us weird looks in return. "What are you two doing?" we heard Caroline's voice come from behind us, we turned around awkwardly knowing that we probably looked like idiots making faces at a glass window. I said, "We are trying to make our friend Nick feel awkward while he's working." She replied, "Oh, I'm actually here waiting for Nick to get off work." "Well, we should probably get going into the theater." I said looking at my watch, "The movie starts in about five minutes. It was nice meeting you" "Same here." she said. "Ok, I'll contact you later about Lunch on Friday." June said to Caroline. As we went inside to buy our tickets I asked June, "What are you two doing for lunch on Friday?" I asked June. "Oh, I was thinking me, her, Dan and you could eat lunch at Five Guys on Friday, would you be interested in that?" "Of course," I said "Why not?" "What about you Dan?" "Yeah, I don't see why not." he said. "And how do you know her?" I asked June. "Oh, she used to go take ice skating lessons with me, I think she's a senior now." She replied. "oh" I said and decided to change the topic so that it did not appear that I was paying too much attention to Caroline.
