How You Get the Girl

Bad Harper. No finding your computer partner sexy.

After school, Beth and I went to the art room to work on our paintings. We were both taking Advanced Painting and the teacher expected us to spend a lot of extra hours in the studio. It was just the two of us so it was a great time to get some serious work done and to catch her up on the state of my love life, or, lack thereof. Beth had been my best friend since third grade. She was tall, brunette and hopelessly in love with her girlfriend Maria. They had been together since October. I envied their relationship.

"Maria has a basketball tournament in Duluth this weekend. You and I should do something. I know, you could sleepover on Saturday. We haven't done that in so long!" Beth sounded excited about the plan.

It would be fun, I thought. So, I said, "We can watch chick flicks and eat junk food and you can tell me all about how wonderful Maria is. If I can't have a love life at least I can enjoy how terrific yours is." I told Beth.

"Come on Harper, there has to be some guy in the school you like," said Beth.

"It's just that he boys at this school are so depressing," I complained.

"Not my problem," answered Beth with a smile.

"Yeah well, not all of us can have the perfect girlfriend," I answered. "Some of us have the misfortune to be born straight and have to deal with teenage boys."

"Your loss," Beth said smugly.

"Why are all the boys in this school either jerks like Seth or they not interested in me?"

"Is Seth still coming around?" asked Beth.

"Yeah but I learned my lesson with him last semester. Friends with benefits is a hard no for me." I answered with a frown. "There is no one to date at this school."

"That's not true. she said. "You just go for the jerks."

"What is it about me? Why are nice guys never interested in me?" I asked her

"What do you mean?" she said. "There have been nice guys who have been interested in you but you just shoot them down."

"No, I don't," I told her.

"I can think of two other guys last semester alone," Beth said.

"I want names," I told her.

"Sam," Beth began.

"He just needed help in English class. He never asked me out," I responded

"When a cute guy on the soccer team sits next to you in English class for a semester, flirts with you every day and asks if you are coming to watch his game, he likes you. And what did you do? When he asked if you were coming to his game you said you didn't like soccer. Of course, he didn't ask you out. He thought you meant you didn't like him," she told me.

"Oh," I said.

"Yeah, oh," she answered. "And what about James?"

"He was just my lab partner. He's such a sweetie. He helped me with all the math in physics. I would have had such a hard time without him," I told her.

"No, he liked you. He liked you a lot right up until the moment you shot him down," she stated.

"I never shot him down," I defended myself.

"Yes, you did. He had the lead in the school play and he asked you if you were coming to see it and you told him you weren't because you had to do something with your sisters," Beth explained.

"I did. We were doing a sister bonding weekend," I said defensively.

"Harper, when I guy asks you to go see him do something, it means he likes you," she stated in exasperation.