Some things will never be different

I found out who the girl who supposedly had a crush on me was. It turns out it was a false alarm. I suspected that would be the case, people always seem to read too much into a situation where they'd like to see something happen. In this case, he had seen me talking to this girl on a few occasions, and then she had some nice things to say about me on an evaluation, mostly that lab was fun and that I was approachable and nice. That was it, nothing more, so I'm not sure where he got the idea about her having a crush. I guess there's always next semester, right?

My parents used to do the same thing when I was in high school. I was good friends with a girl from the time I was in fifth grade until we moved away when I was a Junior (we're still in touch and she just had her second baby). She and I did a lot of things together, but romance was never one of them. It was more like she was a sister or something. In fact, I remember finding it odd when I'd hear other guys talk about how hot she was because I never looked at her that way. Of course, my parents would go around talking to all their friends about how I had a girlfriend and just wouldn't admit it to them. It got kind of annoying, although I don't know why. It's not like anything my parents friends thought about me should have affected me in any way. I guess that's high school for you though, everything is about how other people perceive you.

It was talked enough around the house that my siblings started to think that too. One night she and I were walking home from a dance and my brother and one of his friends drove by. His friend had an old muscle car that he was "fixing up," but it never seemed to get past the stage of barely running and a paint job that consisted of brown and grey primer. Being such classy guys, they had one of those PA systems installed and decided to put it to use when they drove by us that night.

My Brother: "Hey baby, you wanna ride home with a real man?"

They drove down the street a little, pulled a U-turn, came back down the street and he said "I mean a real man."

She thought that was one of the funniest things. In fact, I visited her two summers ago in North Carolina and we had another good laugh about that. I have to say that all things considered, she ended up with a much better catch than me (or my brother). Her husband is a doctor and an all around great guy.

One thing I know is that if I'd had as many girlfriends in my life as what other people have thought, I'd have been one busy guy. I'd probably also have an STD.