Part(y of) 3

I met Nicole while leaving a movie theater[1] and was able to get her digits in possibly the nerdiest way imaginable: I told her I would memorize her phone number if she said it exactly once, and would prove it by calling her later that afternoon. On both counts, it was a success, and we talked about the similarities between our respective high schools (architecturally speaking[2]) and the differences in the overall ethnic makeup of the student body (both Porter and Pace had "a lot of chongs," but Pace had more white people).

I was excited to have met a girl that was both good looking and interested in talking about Green Day with me, and we decided to talk the next day. This is the part where things get really fuzzy in my memory. I know we talked a few more times, but at one point I called and her sister or mother said she had just stepped out, but I could call her back later. This had happened on several other occasions, and when I did call back, we'd talk, so it's not like she was avoiding me. But for some reason that I cannot explain, I just gave up. I never called back, she never called me back.

This is actually more of a non-story than anything, but I have repeated a process like this more than once, and it makes me wonder why this happens to me so often. Granted, those were the days before social networking sites made it possible to exchange flirty, innocent-sounding messages with the object of your affection on a minute-by-minute basis, but I can't blame it on the technology. Maybe I would have stopped Tweeting her, or liking her Facebook status updates at some point. I don't know. But the sheer possibility that this girl might actually want to talk to me or eventually kiss me while watching another terrible movie didn't so much scare me as completely depress me. I figured it was all downhill from there. I was an idiot, even at 14.





1. That film was Independence Day. I was going to add "unfortunately" at the beginning of that sentence, but I guess it was fortunate in that I met Nicole because of it. Although, since nothing materialized from this chance encounter, I guess "unfortunately" works just fine.

2. Porter and Pace are identical structures, even down to the little rocks that made up the floors. I wonder if the chongs of Pace ever hung out in the CEILINGS, as ours were wont to do, but I guess they could have accessed them via the bathroom stalls in exactly the same way.