Laurie
I’ve been friends with Laurie for awhile (now would be a good time to take advantage of the new Cast of Characters link on the sidebar), a friendship built largely on awkwardness and miscommunication. To wit:
When I first met her, I felt an instant attraction, so I asked her to go to the movies. Now, ordinarily, I could understand why, in film-student circles, this wouldn’t be instantly seen as a date. But when I asked Laurie, I could see from the contortions on her face that she knew what I was asking — she took the time to process it, then broke into a wide smile and said, “Yeah,” all fake-shy-like.
And then we never, ever went to the movies. Ever. See what I mean? It’s confusing.
The friendship kept going. Despite my inability to seal the deal (or even getting her to acknowledge there was a deal there to be sealed), I discovered she was a person I wanted to know. I also got involved with somebody else, so after awhile the romantic notions with her just dissolved like they did with Gina. We were just friends, like normal people, for a few years.
Then, I got on MySpace. Then, she found out I was on MySpace. Then, things got weird. Weirder.
She started to drop awkward comments on my MySpace page, there in public, for everyone to see. Things about how she missed me, but the way they were phrased (which I am not going to quote verbatim because I just Googled them and they’re comically easy to trace back to me) led me to the pretty clear conclusion that…she’s into me. For real.
But this just led to more awkwardness. She promised to call and didn’t; I promised to make definitive plans to see her and didn’t. After an ill-fated attempt to go to an Oscar party in a blizzard failed, we didn’t talk much anymore…
…until a month ago, when it started all over again, with another random comment, this one even more unusual and salacious than before. After calling herself “a fool,” she decided it was “imperative” that we get together. Written as if the world would literally crumble to pieces if we didn’t not drop everything and rush into each others’ arms, I elected to respond. I told myself, “This isn’t really worth the effort. I’ll respond, and if something happens, it happens. If not, whatever.”
Responding to the comment led to catch-up text-messaging, after which I didn’t hear from her at all. Out of the blue, a day or two ago, she sent me a private message on MySpace, explaining to me that her life has been hectic, she’s also unemployed, she’s had car troubles that needed taking care of, and she has neither forgotten about me nor of our plans to see each other. She closed by saying, “Just let me get things together, if you know what I mean.”
Somebody, please explain to me what that means. I don’t know!
But when the time I got this message, I was hooked again. I know I shouldn’t. I know it’s going to be a series of mishaps resulting in us seeing each other for maybe five minutes in the year 2008. And that’ll be that…
There’s just that small part of me that I can’t seem to kill, the one that listened to too much Cheap Trick as a lad and believes the main priority is wanting to be wanted. Even if it never gets to pivotal phases like “seeing one another on a regular basis” or “not crassly manipulating each others’ emotions” (I can’t claim she’s the only one guilty there), part of me is merely happy that there’s someone out there who wants me, even if it’s only for 15 alcohol-fueled sections prowling MySpace late at night.
Posted by Stan on March 17, 2008 5:52 PM | Permalink | Friends: Can’t Live with ‘Em, Fumbling Attempts at Relationships | Digg It
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