Betsy, Emma, Alanna, and I all decided that I had to say something to Aidan, so I did after school was out that day. Even though I didn’t like Aidan, I figured if that was what I focused on my point wouldn’t really go through, so when I was done with classes, I found out what class Aidan had last, and waited for him.
When I saw him coming, I began to walk directly towards him, and apparently the look on my face was doing a great job of showing how I was feeling, because Jack R. immediately ran away when he saw me coming, and everyone else in their friend group immediately slowed their pace to avoid me. When Aidan got to me, I pretty much just told him that I’d heard everything he had been saying about and doing to me, and it was pretty awful, and that if I did like him, too, like he said, that I must REALLY have a thing for immature assholes. He was pretty quiet about it and had nothing to say, so I left.
Of course, because it was a high school where people talk, my brother heard through the grapevine that something had happened involving me, so after school I told him everything when he asked me to spill the details. To say he was angry is an understatement.
He recruited a couple of friends, both girls – one that I knew, one that I didn’t – and decided to say something to Aidan and his friends. The girl that I didn’t know as well had a little brother about my age, and apparently when she told him she was going to be involved in this little act of revenge he asked her not to because he was friends with them, but then the next day, randomly changed his tune and told her to go for it.
I’m sure people were talking, but I don’t know to what extent, but I do know that a lot of the guys and girls in my brother’s grade who had younger siblings in my grade had some “chats” with their younger siblings about their level of involvement. Even if people didn’t know me, they knew my brother, who is honestly the nicest guy in the world (and the greatest brother in the universe), so a strike against me was basically a strike against him. They all supported his plan to let these guys know that they were not out of the woods just yet, too.
The next day, my brother and the two girls – Tina and Lauren – waited for Aidan, both Jacks, Luc, and a couple of other guys that were involved by their lockers. I wasn’t there, but apparently one of the Jacks looked like he was about to shit his pants in fear. My brother didn’t even say anything, just Tina and Lauren basically giving it to these kids, while he just stood there staring them down. I don’t know all the details, I just know that whatever happened was enough to scare them from talking to me for pretty much the rest of the year. They never apologized, but I don’t expect immature sixteen-year olds to do that, anyway.
I just want to take a second here to talk even more about how great my brother is, because all of this happened not too long before Valentine’s Day and I was kind of excited thinking that I might have a Valentine that year. On Valentine’s Day, to cheer me up, he brought me all sorts of things like candy and flowers or a balloon or something, and his girlfriend even let me crash their lunch date. Also, since he was a Senior and was allowed to leave campus during the day, he’d bring me back Starbucks and Jamba Juice all the time which made me feel super cool. This is unrelated but seriously, he’s the greatest.
Also, at this time he drove a Hummer and for the rest of the year, every time he saw any of them crossing the street he’d mess with them and rev his engine so they thought he was going to run them over (he wouldn’t). He also played Varsity lacrosse, and they did as well on the JV team, and when they passed each other going to or from practice he’d start swinging his lacrosse stick a la Negan in “The Walking Dead.” And you wonder where I get the love of psychological revenge?
The story does not quite end there. Like I said, I was going to transfer after that year and this event really just reaffirmed that decision for me. I figured I’d talk to my friends afterwards, but never expected to see anyone else from this school ever again.
But that summer, my family went to Italy for a trip, and while we were standing in St. Mark’s Square in Venice, my brother suddenly said to me, “Wait, isn’t that Luc-Arthur?” And it was. I figured I had to say something because when I looked we made eye contact, so I went over and said hello, he gave me a hug, and we talked for a minute about how weird it was that we ran into each other before heading our separate ways.
He did end up actually apologizing to me later, he denied having any knowledge of what Aidan was doing, but at least he said he was sorry for some of it.
Obviously, though, this happened a dozen years ago so I’m very much over it, but considering that it was my first big crush (besides Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and it kind of set the stage for my still-prevalent trust issues with men, I figured it’s a good story to share.
But, besides all of that, and most importantly, I learned just how amazing my brother is from all of this. Even when I complain about his protectiveness, secretly, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I definitely lucked out.
And so, that brings us to the end of The High School Crush. Hopefully this brought up great memories of how weird you were in high school, and how your first crush panned out. Just please don’t start wearing two different colors of eyeliner- it’s not a good look. Trust me.
However, while I have you, I want to share another funny high school story with you.
Before I transferred, Betsy and Emma and I decided to make a time capsule where we wrote down things that were important to us at that time, wrote letters to our future selves, and included a bunch of photos of us all together. The point was that I would come to their high school graduation (a whole two years later) and we’d open it together.
So we made this beautiful, sparkly time capsule, creeped out of our dorm late at night, and hid it in the ceiling of the girl’s bathroom (it was one of those ceilings where the tiles pop up). My “important things” paper was essentially just a list of all of the guys at the school that I’d been in love with at some point or another, while my letter to my future self was essentially just me hoping to get my first kiss soon.
We thought it was safe up there, so we left it. I transferred schools and figured I’d see it in a couple of years.
But then, Emma and Betsy decided to go and check on it at the start of the next year… AND IT WASN’T THERE. To this day we have NO idea where it went or who has it but I just hope that someone in maintenance found it and tossed it because Good Lord will I be embarrassed if that ever resurfaces.
I hope y’all enjoyed this trip down memory lane! See you next week.