Stephanie

16

The sun rose and everything fell.
No, this is not some apocalyptic, Walking Dead copycat, but rather, a 16-year-old boy’s view that if the girl he liked didn’t like him back, then the world might as well just collapse. Alex had always been—as his sister liked to call him—melodramatic in a way that even challenged the biggest of celebrity meltdowns.
So frankly, it wasn’t surprising to anyone when Alex woke up some peaceful Saturday morning and started hollering about how stupid he was.
Stupid, because he’d accidentally confessed his love for a certain girl over a text message, and then have that girl, the next day at school, parade in class with a boy that was not only better looking than he was, but also much richer. Oh, and if that wasn’t worse enough, his crush Carli also just had to announce, in front of everyone, that she really didn’t like him and that he was “embarrassing” himself by pinning after her in such a pathetic way.
Which he didn’t exactly disprove by shedding just a “few” tears during 1st period.
Alex realized how cliché the entire situation was—you can’t exactly expect the head cheerleader to like a nerdy little boy who hasn’t even gone through puberty yet. He was lanky, just a bit awkward, and even worse, the owner of the most massive-rimmed glasses known to man. So really, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the head cheerleader wasn’t going to go for the captain of the Mathletes team, but still, that still didn’t lessen the hurt or catastrophic nature of the whole thing.
After moping in bed for another few hours, his older sister, with an exasperated look, finally came up to his room. With her hands on her hips, she yelled, “For crying out loud, get over yourself, come downstairs, and stop acting like lovesick puppy! So what, she doesn’t like you? Is the world suddenly just going to stop spinning?”
As much as he wanted to answer, “Yes,” something told him that if he did, his sister might just murder him. So he lifted his arms in surrender, and managed to drag himself out of bed and into the kitchen.
Quite awkwardly, both of his parents were seated around the table, both with concerned looks that could only signal some sort of awkward conversation that Alex really just wasn’t in the mood for. He could only stand being called “honey” or “my little baby” so many times before he would virtually combust. Plus, he didn’t exactly need his mother or father to say, yet again, that “there’s plenty of other fish in the sea.”
“Save it, mom, I’m fine,” Alex exasperatingly sighed, hoping that it might just save him from listening to something straight out of a parental guide.
Maybe his words would have been a little more believable if he actually looked like he was fine. But instead, his eyes were bloodshot red from crying, and it didn’t take any sort of parental guidebook to figure out that he really wasn’t doing “fine.”
His mom gave him a slight smile. “Oh honey… “
Alex just wanted to self-implode, especially after his mom just had stand up, her arms outstretched for hug, just like one of those maniacal Teletubbies. “Seriously, mom, just leave me alone,” Alex snapped, pushing her arms aside.
Alex was expecting her to yell at him, but instead her gaze only softened. “On one condition.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this one condition wasn’t going to be something he liked, but if it got his mother off of his back, then chances are, it would be worth it. “Alright, I’ll bite. What?”
But nothing would’ve prepared him for the next few words that came out of her mouth: “Go talk to Carli.”
***
It seemed to Alex that his mother had no clue how girls or high school worked. Persistence isn’t what gets you the girl; it’s what gets you a restraining order.
Somehow his mother just couldn’t understand that, no matter how many times Alex emphasized that she didn’t like him and that she had explicitly stated, with a perfect eye roll, “Please stay away from me, creep.”
Not exactly the words of the girl he still might have a chance with.
In fact, at this point, Alex was perfectly happy just living alone with a hoard of dogs (he didn’t like cats). Dogs were just so much easier to please and so much less confusing than girls. At least with dogs, he wouldn’t be kept awake late at night asking himself, “What did I do wrong this time?”
Apparently, though, his mother was rather adamant on the fact that he at least talk to her and somehow managed to shove him out of the house with the words, “Remember that I love you, honey!”
It was great how she reinforced those words by locking the door.
And so now, Alex was stuck walking to Carli’s house, where he was almost positive he’d probably get rejected once again, only this time with a court order.
Luckily, or unluckily, Carli only lived a few blocks down from him, in easy walking distance but at this point, even if she lived halfway around the world, he’d still be fine with that. In fact, he was fine with never seeing her pretty face again if it meant he didn’t have to have this awkward conversation.
At least the day was pretty nice: the sun was shining, birds chirping, and kids were running outside playing. The whole scene reflected the exact opposite of the inner turmoil he was facing, and frankly, the happiness around him was just really, really irritating.
Passing by the park, he was rather surprised when a kid, probably no less than five years old, ran up to him and gave him a hug. Awkwardly, he tried to pry the girl’s arms away from him, but she literally had arms of cement.
“Er, sorry,” Alex said, “But could you maybe let go of me? You're sort of cutting off circulation from the rest of my body.”
Instead of losing her grip on him, the girl raised her head up in defiance—Alex would’ve found it cute if it hadn’t been for the fact that a random child was now attached to him. “You look like you need a hug, and I don’t have Mr. Snuggles with me, so you’ll just have to hug me instead,” she pouted.
Alex scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. “Who’s Mr. Snuggles?” he blurted out.
“He’s my teddybear, duh!” she responded cheerfully, squeezing him even tighter than before.
Before he passed out from suffocation, it seemed like the girl’s mom had finally noticed that her sweet child was no longer riding the slide on the playground, but rather, attached to a stranger. “Honey, what did I tell you about strangers?” her mom asked, with her hands on her hips. Giving Alex an apologetic smile, she somehow managed to pry the girl’s fingers off of him and lead her away.
Alex gave her a small smile as she retreated, and the girl enthusiastically waved goodbye. As soon as the girl disappeared out of his line of sight, he couldn’t stop a sigh of relief from escaping his mouth—that was almost a little too awkward for him to stand. It was worse enough that a five year old girl pitied him, but then to have her mother come over here and help him get her daughter off of him? Talk about embarrassing.
In hopes of avoiding any more energetic, apparently sympathetic kids, he swiftly walked through the park.
Soon enough, he was passing by the library, and in his dazed state, he’d managed to run straight into Marie, aka the girl-version of him, complete with the nerdy, non-hipster glasses and the whole hunk of metal in her mouth. Consequently, by running into her, Alex had caused the huge stack of books she was holding to tumble straight down and her over-excited dog to run straight down the sidewalk.
“I’m so sorry!” Alex kneeled down, his cheeks flush with embarrassment. Gathering up all of her books, he handed them to her with a sheepish smile.
Marie smiled, pushing her glasses further up her nose. “No worries, but do you know where my dog might have went? I think let go of his leash when we uh, ran into each other.”
“Er…” Alex started awkwardly, wondering how he was going to fix the fact that he was now responsible for a missing dog, “No, I don’t, sorry.”
Marie shrugged nonchalantly. “Oh well, he was the devil anyways. Figures, though, he’s my sister’s.”
“I can help you look for her, if you’d like?” Regardless of whether or not this dog was the devil reincarnated, he still felt extremely obligated to help her find the dog. On the plus side, at least he’d avoid talking to Carli for another few hours.
His hopes were dashed with her words, however. “It’s alright, don’t worry about it! Every once in a while, he’ll spot a squirrel and he’ll just go crazy. He’ll probably turn up at the house as soon as he’s hungry. Believe me, it’s happened quite often.”
“I mean, if you’re sure…” he trailed off.
Marie nodded, with a smile. “Seriously. Don’t worry about it, Alex.”
Alex nodded. “Well, alright, but let me at least treat you to coffee one day,” as an afterthought, Alex quickly amended his last offer, “As friends, you know.”
“I’d like that,” Marie blushed, “I better get going, but it was nice to see you, Alex.” She rushed away quickly; her cheeks still flushed bright red.
Now alone, surrounded by strangers, Alex couldn’t help but form the hugest smile possible, giddy like a schoolboy who had just kissed his crush. He wasn’t sure what had come over him when he’d asked Marie to go get coffee—it wasn’t all just guilt, as he had played if off as. But either way, he was glad he did.
On a newfound high, it was no surprise that Alex, once again, wasn’t really paying attention to his surroundings, and somehow, by some miraculous degree of “talent”, had managed to fall into a hole, awkwardly into the arms of a construction worker.
Somehow, he’d managed to ignore all of the signs warning of the construction ahead, and managed to walk aimlessly into a hole approximately five feet wide and five feet deep. “I’m so sorry,” Alex muttered, embarrassed, climbing out of the stunned worker’s arms.
The worker could only stand there with his mouth wide open, shocked that some idiot had managed to fall, feet first, into one of the most obvious hole ever. He wouldn’t have been so embarrassed if it was in the middle of nowhere in some obscure forest, but as it did happen in a pedestrian-infested area, an audience had formed around the hole. Hearing thinly-veiled whispers like, “how’d he manage that?” or “I’m not exactly a genius, but at least I’ve never fallen into a hole,” Alex felt like face-palming himself several times for his own stupidity.
Placing his hands on the top of the hole, he pulled himself out, relieved that at least the hole wasn’t so deep that he couldn’t get out by himself. At this point, it seemed like the crowd had dispersed, with a few people giving him good-natured pats on his back, as if he was the injured soccer player kicked to the bench.
After falling into a hole, he supposed that he couldn’t get much lower than that, both literally and figuratively.
***
When he finally reached Carli’s house, he felt like he’d had an adventure comparable to Harold and Kumar’s trip to White Castle. At this point, the sadness he’d started out the trip with had morphed into a sort of acceptance. At the very least, he figured, he would be given some form of closure. He’d spent the past three years of his life pinning after this one girl, and now, finally, he felt like he could move on. Maybe even with Marie (as long as he didn’t find some way to mess it all up).
With that last thought in his mind, he rang the doorbell, wincing as he heard the loud “ding-dong” resound inside the house.
Seconds later, a taller version of Carli appeared at the door. “Who are you?” she asked, accusingly, as if he was some sort of bandit intending to rob their large estate.
“I’m a classmate of Carli’s,” he responded, hoping that the woman, who he was guessing was her mother, would be fine with just that; he didn’t exactly want to explain the entire story of his rejection and well, come off as a stalker.
She raised her immaculate eyebrows. “School project?”
Alex didn’t exactly want to lie, but considering that was the best, non-creepy explanation as to why he was here on Carli’s doorstop, he nodded and went with it.
Luckily, she didn’t need any further explanation and gestured for him to come in. “She’s upstairs, first door on the right,” she explained briefly, waving him towards the magnificent stairway that seemed to stretch for miles above.
Calming his nerves, he slowly climbed up the stairs. After all, he supposed that it honestly couldn't get much worse.
With that “motivation,” he hesitantly knocked at the door.
“Come in,” Carli hollered, from inside. Alex could imagine her, sitting on her bed, probably not even giving a second thought on the boy’s heart she just broke. Not that he was vindictive, or anything (well, maybe just a little).
He sighed one last time. It’s now or never.
Alex stared at the door handle and slowly turned the knob.