The Perks of Dating You
Allie
There he was. Connor Sanders. All six feet four inches, broad shouldered, rock hard muscled, starting quarterback of him. As he walked toward me (well, not toward me, but in my direction), bright blue eyes smiling at all the beautiful, popular girls dripping from his arms, my heart sank down to my toes. Because if I was a GPS with Connor as my target, I really wish I knew how to program a new destination, because there was no way Connor Sanders was ever going to look at me as anything-
“Hey, Allie.”
“Oh. Hey, Connor.”
-as anything more than his best friend. Standing there, while the single hottest guy at my high school made his way to his first period AP Chemistry class, I had to wonder if fate was being kind or cruel to plunk two-year-old Connor, who would grow up to be the absolute best at everything and beautiful to boot, next to newborn little me who would grow up to be the plainest Jane in three counties. Don’t get me wrong, Connor was an amazing best friend. That’s where fate was kind. But the chances of friendship turning to something more- well, let’s just say if I ever were to meet fate- it would be with a throat punch.
“I don’t know how you can stand it.”
I turned my head just enough to see my other best friend, and pretty much my only female friend, Eden Crenshaw, standing beside me shoulder to shoulder. Her cute pixie face was characteristically scrunched with a look of disgust as we continued to Connor Stalk, watching as he and his rippling muscles led his harem around the corner. Eden has known about my crush on Connor almost as long as I have.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, although I already knew. The school year may be new, but this conversation was not. I turned down the hall toward my first period class. We have it together, so I knew she would follow, bringing her explanation with her.
“Kayla! That’s what I’m talking about. How can you just stand by and let her hang all over your man like that?”
My man. I could only wish. But alas, Connor was not my man. He was Kayla’s man, at least he had been for the last six weeks.
“We’ve been over this a thousand times, Eden, Connor is not my man. We are just friends. He’s with Kayla,” I recited the facts, knowing Connor didn’t see me as anything more than his best friend at best, little sister at worst. However, Eden was determined Connor secretly pined for me and was too afraid to admit his feelings.
“Well, he could be yours if you would just man up and make a move on him.”
“Eden!” I giggled. I couldn’t help it. Eden definitely had a way with words.
“I’m serious. One of these days while you’re in your room shooting zombies in that dumb video game you’re always playing, just lean in and lay one on him.” She punctuated her advice with a loud kissing noise.
“And send him screaming from the room and my life? Not going to happen. ‘Friends’ is better than nothing.” And that was true. Believe me, I’ve played the scenario in my head since I was eleven and Connor was thirteen and pretty much already looked like a grown man. I dreamed of one day gazing deeply into his blue, blue eyes and declaring my undying love for him.
Those kinds of dreams always ended one of two ways. A) Connor gazing at me with pity burning in his gorgeous eyes before telling me I was more little sister material than make out material. Our friendship turns awkward and uncomfortable and Connor starts hanging out at JJ’s house instead of mine to get his video game fix. Or B) Connor asks what has taken me so long to fess up to my real feelings and pulls me into his arms for a five hour make out session, completely undisturbed because my mom would never believe we were anything more than just friends.
‘B’ would be amazing- toe-curling, life-altering, the fulfillment of my every dream A-MAZE-ING. On the other hand, ‘A’(my heart stuttered in my chest just thinking about ‘A’)- A would be unendurable, leading me to curl up into a tiny ball of misery in my room, never to come out until I was an old woman and my life had been taken over by the five hundred and twenty-seven cats my mom had sent in one by one to cheer me up. No, making a move, as Eden so eloquently put it, was out of the question. Being doomed to eternal friendship with Connor was worth my silence, if speaking up meant losing him completely.
“If you say so. I just don’t understand how you can spend hour after hour every Saturday afternoon with Mr. Hottie McHotness and not just tell him how you feel.”
“If declarations of love are so easy, why haven’t you made one yourself?” I asked, staring pointedly, because there, at 2 o’clock, was Micah Porter, the only guy in school who could make Eden’s black little heart go pitter patter.
“I’ve told you, I’m going to be a nun.”
“You sound convincing, but the drool dripping down your chin gives you away.” Eden dragged her gaze from the back of Micah’s head long enough to stick her tongue out at me.
“I can’t help my biological reaction to a beautiful man,” Eden said, stalking Micah with her eyes again as we passed his locker, turning away only when threatened with looking like a scene from The Exorcist.
“Biology. Right. It has nothing to do with the fact that Micah is a skater. And he’s super smart. And he is really nice. Did I mention, he’s hot?” I teased, bumping her hip with mine as we reached our classroom.
“He really is,” Eden sighed, dropping dramatically into a seat in the back row of our physics class. “It doesn’t matter. You know I’ve sworn off guys until college. No more high school drama for me.”
“Some friend you are, leaving me to suffer all by myself.” I said the words lightly, but my heart pinched at Eden’s words, worried. Eden didn’t like to talk about it, but something happened to her last year. I didn’t know what exactly, but after that Eden vowed to live out the remainder of our high school career sans boys.
I missed whatever quip Eden might have come back with, however, because Mr. Richardson, our physics teacher, just walked into the room and immediately launched into his lecture on Newton’s Laws. So much for easing into junior year.