Tuesday Repast

Gather 'round, Kiddies and I shall tell you a story from my past.

I shall entitle it:

School girl crush

My family sold our home and moved to a larger one during the middle of my 9th grade year of High School.

I had missed the initual first weeks of school pecking order rituals so I wandered the outskirts of formed cliques like a shadow; a silent observer.

One of my favorite observation targets was a senior boy (who's name escapes me now after all these years)

He was tall, lean and moved with the athletic grace of a panther. He had short black hair with long bangs that hung over his eyes giving him the hormone tingle enducing bad boy look. Girls swarmed around him like flies on ripened fruit and I wanted him.

Bad

Alas, my status as a puny freshman who lived in the social shadows doomed any fantasy I had of ever being noticed by him until one infamous day. A day so horrible it lays inside my memory like a jagged scar.

I had finished P.E. class, showered, changed clothes and was walking my dirty clothes up the pathway towards the building that held my locker.

I dodged around the cluster of kids that hung by the pillars that lined the walkway and felt the familiar jolt of my heart when I saw the object of my school girl crush leaning against one of the pillars.

Be cool, I muttered to myself. Breathe. Breathe. Just keep walking. Don't act like a geek.

My legs felt wobbly and I labored to keep them moving in a casual, nonchalant walk.

My heart was pounding so loud it made my ears buzz.

Keep walking. Keep walking. Don't look at him. Just walk past him. I chanted to myself.

I passed by him and was taking my first breath of relief when I heard him speak.

"Eh em, hey you."

I jolted to a stop. Was he talking to me?

"Hey. You!"

Oh my god.

I turned slightly and looked at him from the corner of my eye.

He was looking right at me with those gorgeous chocolate brown eyes.

I felt my heart stop then start beating a frantic beat as adrenaline shot through me.

I watched mesmorized as his beautiful mouth turned upwards into a smile.

"You dropped something."

I blinked. "Huh?"

"You dropped something."

I followed his eyes to the ground by his feet and felt myself freeze in horror.

There in all their undignified glory, lay the dirty underwear I had been carting back to my locker!

Please-Lord-let-there-be-a-sink-hole-that-will-swallow-me-whole

With no sink hole forthcoming I lunged and swooped my panties up, my face ablaze with internal fire.

Laughter followed me as I scuttled away.

My school girl crush ended that day.

Burned to a crisp in the fires of my humiliation.