Hey all! Welcome to post seven. This entry is probably going to be a little more sporadic than usual because I had other intentions for what I wanted to share today that didn’t play out, so I scraped this one together last-minute. (The other thing will have to wait until next week…stay tuned.)
Tonights episode is more a scene than an actual episode in its entirety. However, it plays an important role in a much larger story regarding the horrors of the pursuit of Collegiate Romantic Interest #2, so I have decided to give it its very own hayday.
(Oh, P.S., to ensure title comprehension, “ISO” in this context means “in search of.” Excellent. Let’s move on.)
I have always been a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or rather, not being aware of my surroundings and doing something stupid in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or really, just generally, regardless of place and time, being stupid and wrong. Todays story revolves around one of these incidents, in the context of what will soon be a recurring theme in these stories: failed courtship.
Now, it was a common thing during the course of my infatuation with Collegiate Romantic Interest #2 that I would be somewhere on campus, talking about him with one of my friends, and he would walk in the door or pop around the corner or vaporize through a wall and suddenly be there. I took this at the time to be a message from the gods, the divine–an act of fate (and also hypothesized that maybe he was a supernatural being of some sorts, which ensured that I really needed to capitalize on this crush because even if he was one of the lame kind of supernatural beings like a True Blood vampire or something, it would still be really awesome) (unless he turned on me or was actually just hunting from the get-go) (although really, even if it worked out I would either have to get super old while he stayed young or turn into a vampire and just be alive for sooo long, like never get to die or take a nap again, talk about exhausting); but now I realize that it was a warning. And even though I knew, even then, that it was risky to conduct private conversations about him in public, for whatever reasons–ignorance, earnestness, the thrill, a chance TO FEEL ALIVE–I continued my behavior.
So I was with my friend in our school’s Student Union, which basically is the hub of student activity on campus. I’m pretty sure these two events occurred on the same day, so let me paraphrase, very briefly, the conversation that had ensued earlier that day. It was something to the effect of this:
(In class)
CRI2: Look at this lol!
Me: Omg lol how funnie is that!
Evil Spawn of Satan: Ummm look, I’m a terrible human being so I’m going to be super blunt and embarrass you in front of everyone. Do you, like, like each other?
(at the same time)
Me: Yes CRI2: No
Me:
Me: I have to go to the bathroom.
(End scene)
Yes, friends, the dialogue has been altered for safety reasons, but the message is the same. It. was. terrible.
And the solution? To talk to said friend about it in the Student Union. Outside of a popular eatery. I mean, by Harry Potter logic, it makes sense. Hide something in plain sight, right? If you need to discuss the coordinates of a horcrux, do it in the Butterbeer place in Hogsmead or whatever. Because it’s busy, it will drown out the conversation. By all strains of logic, it should have worked, except that it wasn’t busy in the student union that day, and that the logic was stupid for me anyway, because I wasn’t a witch going against a super-wizard apocalyptic villain, so no one was going to be spying on me if I tried to discuss my crippled love life in private in the first place. The point is: it was a terrible decision, and a terrible location. And though moderately populated, it was only populated with patrons who were respectful and never rose above using their indoor voices. Nerds.
So we sat, and I mourned. I don’t remember what I said to my friend exactly; I just remember that it was bad. I may have even uttered such sickeningly vulnerable things as “I thought he was the one,” or “I’m heartbroken,” or “I’m going to find that girls family and brutally murder them all.” The details are hazy, but clear enough for me to remember that it was a horrendously dramatic and thorough outpouring of emotions.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when I saw my friend’s eyes widen and drift to the upper right, then turned around to see Collegiate Romantic Interest #2 standing in the doorway, I almost went into cardiac arrest.
I didn’t know how much he had heard, nor what its implications might be; I only knew that I wanted to kill myself. So, I turned around and ran down the hallway screaming, “NO! I’M GONNA KILL MYSELF!!”
Turned down a hallway littered with Suicide Prevention Awareness posters screaming “I’M GONNA KILL MYSELF.”
Yes, friends, not only had I reacted like a 12-year-old cartoon character, but I also had screamed a phrase deemed offensive by an entire organization that seeks to help people, in the organizations homeland. The guilt was palpable.
In the end, I learned that College Romantic Interest #2 had only been passing through to the staircase, and likely had not heard much, if anything (though I still don’t know if he heard the screaming), so my outburst was for naught. I also learned what it’s like to get dirty/appalled looks from innocent bystanders (f ’em all, YOU DON’T KNOW ME). In that part of the student union, anyway. Everything passed, and the extent of my feelings was kept a secret, and I was able to walk away from that particular part of the student union pretty much unscathed, and totally relieved.
The moral of the story: remember where you are before you run screaming down a hallway. Also, not everyone makes jokes about death with such ease and disregard for human decency, so maybe start working on establishing a filter.
Anyway, brother has been waiting on me to take him to Wal-Mart, so I must take my leave. Let me just go over my conclusion… Alright, no attempt to apologize for belittling real problems, loose tie-back to filters, and no closing joke. Seems about right.
As always, thanks a ton for reading, and I’ll see you next Thursday, amigos!!
Your amigo, I hope,
Melanie
~Peace out~
accidentally tragic 