Get Him Off!

How could the day possibly go from bad to worse? Let me tell you. Three years ago, I just got to high school. Just the typical things; brand new, meeting people, and finding my crew; all that jazz. I had to double getting used to everything on top of settling into this new place and time. Thankfully, the first couple of days all went smoothly. Then that last day, I met him. Hilarious. Super mellow. Polite. And yes. Kinda cute... “Hi. My name’s Javier,” he said. “Hi. Nice to meet you. My name is Tiana,” I said. ..However, his girlfriend thought so too, so I decided to keep it on the platonic level. As friendly as humanly possible. Him, being such a genuinely good person, made it much easier to be friends. “So. Another day of class and another day of learning,” he said as we were walking out of the classroom. “Yeah. Maybe if you learned anything,” I said sarcastically. “Hey! J’ai m’appelle Francais!” he said with a giggle. “What? Now I KNOW you need that class! You just said your name is French,” I said, clutching my stomach and laughing. “Whatever. It was still French!” he said, nudging me with his elbow. He swings an arm over my shoulder and leads me towards the stairs. His scent was peaceful and sweet. I’m not usually a fan of cologne, so that surprised me too. Especially coming off of someone straight out of practice this morning. “Welp. Let’s get to it! Got a lot of stairs to get through,” he said with a sly smile. Once we got down the stairs, we did our handshake and went off to our next class with a wave. Time went on. School kept going, obviously, then finally came the time we were both single and both interested. It was four months into our Senior Year. November. After nearly two years of only speaking through texts, because our schedules never lined up, we finally saw each other in person. “Oh my goodness! It’s been forever! How long has it been? You look great!” he said with arms spread wide. “It’s definitely been a minute! Get over here!” I said as I pulled him in for a hug. The hug felt like 100 years of relief for us both. We spent the hug just breathing deeply and thinking about everything all at once. Unfortunately, the bell rang, breaking our trance, letting us know it was time to head to our next class. “Oh goodness. It was really good to see you. We really do have to catch up,” I said. “That would be awesome!” he said with an excited look on his face. I smiled back and said “Which way are you headed? I’m going this way,” I pointed right. He said as he pointed up, “I’m heading this way.” We both laughed and gave one more hug before we waved goodbye. “Text you tonight?” he shouted over the crowd of students walking by. “Sounds like a plan!” I shouted back as I started walking. Both of them heading off with a smile. That afternoon, by the lockers, I met up with my two best friends and told them all about it. “Okay. Okay. Okay. So what was so important we had to come here IMMEDIATELY after our last class?” said K. “Yeah! What’s going on?” said J. “So, you remember how I told you guys about Javier?” I said. “Only the guy you’ve been crushing on since freshman year?” said J with a little shimmy. I blushed and gave her a look. “Yes. That guy,” she said, taking a deep breath, “I saw him today, and he looks better than ever.” “So? How did it go? How do you feel? I know it’s a lot different from being only over the phone for like two years,” said K. “It feels so…different. I don’t know how I feel, honestly,” I said with a shy look. “What does that even mean?” said J with a worried look on her face. “Nothing bad. Is it just that I am nervous? Happy? Relieved?” I said, retiring my face between my hands now in frustration. “You could be feeling all those things and that is okay! Do you think you still like him?” said K, pulling me in for a side hug of comfort. “I think… I think I might. Is that bad?” I said, looking up from my hands. “Not at all! It's wonderful! Maybe you can even do something about it. You’re both single now, right?” said J. “Yeah!” I said, feeling a little better and more sure of myself, “That’s true! However, I don’t think I’m brave enough to make the first move.” “Are you kidding!? You’ve got this, and he is not ready for all the amazingness that you are!” said J, posing with that ‘firepower’ pose that she knows always makes me laugh. And it worked because I did laugh feeling a little less nervous now. “Thanks guys!” I said teary-eyed to them both. As the bell rang, we hugged each other and left for the end of the school day. He and I spent the next few weeks meeting up every morning and took the opportunity to hug whenever we passed each other in the hallway. One night, we were texting back and forth. This night changed everything. “Hey. So, I kind of have something I want to tell you,” he messaged me. “Uhhh…should I be worried? Is everything okay?” I replied. “Yeah, but, can we meet up in person? In the hallway in the morning? At 7?” he texted. “Umm.. I guess. See you then,” I responded, and went to sleep. The next day, we met in the hallway. “Hey! You came!” he said as he pulled me in for a hug. “Of course. Is everything okay? You seemed worried last night,” I said as I hugged him back warily. “So…” he said as we released the hug. He reached down, grabbed my hand, and led me over to the auditorium, “How are you this morning?” “Good, I guess. Okay. Now you are really scaring me! Are you in some kind of trouble?” I said, yanking my hand out of his. “No no. Nothing like that,” he said, reaching for my other hand this time. “I have to tell you something.” He pulled me close. His eyes, never once, leaving mine, which just made me even more nervous than before. Then, he took a deep breath, and blurted out– “I like you, like, a lot. And I asked you here, so I could ask you out in person and make it official. I’m hoping that you like me too.” After he said that, I looked down at the floor, still processing. As I looked back up at him, I realized that each passing second of my thoughts were making him more nervous. I slowly started to smile as I pulled my hands out of his. As he started to lower his head, I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him in for a short peck. “Yes. I would love to go out with you,” I said, still smiling. He cheered as he lifted me up and spun me around, planting another kiss on my lips. As the bell rang, we walked out together holding hands. Officially girlfriend and boyfriend. Dating! Two and a half weeks of pure bliss. A December like no other followed by a sweet New Year’s Day. Being friends for the first couple of years definitely sped things along. The two of us making the most of it all; every date. Every kiss. Every moment together. All was right with the world. But you know how that goes. When all is going well, the universe likes to throw a curveball and here was ours; like a thief in the night: He and I were texting back and forth. After a while, we switched over from texting to Snap Messages. *He sends a picture of him with a funny face filter* “Hey, babe!” he typed with the picture. “Hello to you too,” I say in response, laughing at the photo. *He sends another photo of him. This time, with a hair filter on.* *I sent him back one with a wild hair color on me.* *He sends over a nude picture of himself with the message* “Hi.” I took a look at the message and responded, “Um…what the heck is this?” He immediately responded, “You like what you see?” I switched to just typing the message out because I could not even begin to understand what was happening, especially through pictures. “Why would you send me this?” I typed. “What do you mean? What’s wrong?” he messaged back. “I mean, what is this and why in the world would you think it’s okay to send it to me?” I responded. “What’s wrong with sending you it? What’s the big deal?” he said. “The fact that you don’t understand what the ‘big deal’ is, is EXACTLY the big deal!” I responded. I was so pissed and so on a roll that I didn’t even give him a chance to respond before I said, “You know what? How about we just stop talking altogether, hm? Just so we never get a mix-up in communicating with each other?” His response later came one after the other with “I’m sorry. I forgot.” and “Wait! Are you serious? We’re breaking up!?” “Yes. I’m serious.” I responded just before I blocked him on everything and went to bed. And so, I broke up with him.