I Tried to Help Him Out

I was in high school. He was in my home room. He had a crush on me.

I was the last one to realize it, as usual. I’ve always apparently had a bit of the absent-minded professor air. I’m sorta clueless when it comes to social interactions.

So how did I finally figure out that this guy liked me?

He decided to serenade me in class.

I was sitting there, minding my own business, when suddenly he is standing in front of me, singing a pretty love song.

I was embarrassed, and apparently blushing — a neat trick when you’re not white, but that just shows how embarrassed I felt.

At the same time, though — I had to give him kudos. I figured, anyone who had the nerve to do that in front of 30 of his peers and a bemused educator might be a guy worth getting to know.

Besides which, he had a pleasant baritone voice. And, for the first time, I noticed little things about him which were sorta attractive.

So I decided to try to get to know him better.

I figured — if he was willing to make a fool of himself for me, the least I could do was have a conversation with him. It was my way of making an effort.

It went horribly wrong.

The next day, in homeroom, I got up and sat at the desk next to his. I tried to get the ball rolling by telling him I liked his song. He seemed to have a hard time making eye contact with me. I asked him a question. He mumbled a reply.

Disappointed, I got up and went back to my own seat. I’d tried.

What I had not anticipated — several of the other students in the classroom got mad at me!

I was totally baffled by the situation.

He had come on to me, quite strongly, I thought. I made the effort to reach out to him. So why would he not at least have smiled at me? And why were his friends upset? What the heck was I supposed to do?

It’s still a mystery to me.

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This post was previously published on Shefali O’Hara’s blog.

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