Don’t judge me, but back in the day, I was VERY into “Teen Wolf.” And by ‘back in the day,’ I mean five years ago.
I’d like to say that I was mostly interested in it because Tyler Hoechlin is a beautiful man, which is true. Or, because I fell for Dylan O’Brien’s comedic timing, which is also true. But, really, I’m just a nerd who was very into supernatural-like shows (including “Supernatural” itself… still crying over that finale).
In any case, when I went to Orlando for my first college program and discovered that my neighbor turned best friend, Tanner, was also a big “Teen Wolf” fan, I was very excited. We talked about it. We watched it. It was just one of the many things we were able to bond over throughout our program.
The day that we discovered that Orlando would be hosting a Teen Wolf convention at a nearby Sheraton – appropriately called BeaCON Chills – we were over the moon. We immediately bought basic tickets (Disney doesn’t pay a lot, okay?) and were thrilled to go. We requested different work schedules and everything. Dedication.
The first day, we got there early to scope out the hotel. This proved to be a great idea because after taking weird videos in the hallways, we hung out in the lobby. There, we were able to meet and get photos with Dylan Sprayberry and Arden Cho by ‘casually’ bumping into them while they were checking in. I think that’s also how we met Eaddy Mays.
Once we got registered, we were invited into the main room where most of the events would be held. It was around this point that the organizers – and the actors – realized that BeaCON Chills was not going to be as popular as they might have hoped. So essentially, it pretty quickly turned into a pretty low-key event. The actors just kind of hung out with the barely a dozen or so of us that decided to attend.
Also, to be clear, none of the official “main characters” were there. It was Arden, Dylan, and Eaddy, who all played minor or supporting roles. Also, one of the main character’s dads (Sheriff Stilinski/Linden Ashby), the actor who played the lacrosse coach, another supporting side character that Tanner had the hots for, and another actor that was on the show for only a bit. He is the main subject of this story.
I’m still going to give him a fake name because that’s kind of my thing at this point, but I’m fully aware that y’all can just Google this and find out who it is. But, he’s a twin, a few years older than me, and he was also on “Desperate Housewives.” I’m going to call him Ed.
Ed is pretty attractive. Maybe more so to the sexually repressed virginal version of myself that I was at this time, versus my perception of his looks today. So being the person I am, always looking to go big or go home, and forever on the hunt for an entertaining story, I decided pretty quickly that my mission for the weekend was to lose my virginity to him. I had realized by that time that the whole “waiting for marriage” thing was not going to pan out for me like I’d planned. But, I hadn’t gotten involved with Christian just yet, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
To be fair, this wasn’t a completely baseless decision. There was some definite sexual tension with me and Ed.
For instance, when we first got there and the organizers realized it was going to be a small group, for the ‘kickoff’ event they basically just had us all sit in a circle and talk to the actors. I ended up right next to Ed. I could tell that the other girls were a bit jealous about this, but I was actually pretty chill about it. At the end of the day, he’s just a human. Really, I don’t get very starstruck for even A-List people, and I think he was into that.
I don’t remember what, but at one point he said something kind of sassy to me. So I told him he was an asshole. It looked like the other girls were going to kill me the way they looked at me. But he thought it was funny, he laughed. Then we all got talking about horoscopes and star signs, and he told me to guess his sign. I guessed he was a Virgo, and he went, “I’m definitely not a Virgo” and winked. To that, I rolled my eyes. Again, he thought it was funny that I was clearly not fawning over him like he was probably used to. He also would occasionally touch my arm or something. So, again, mild sexual tension.
Tanner and I had a great time at the convention. There was a really fun scavenger hunt, lots of Q&As, and just some fun times. There was one day where for extra money you could go to this separate room and take a bunch of pictures with them. But we didn’t have money for it. So instead, we hung out in the other room. We took selfies saying, “Help us, we’re poor,” and tagging them in it. One of the actresses thought this was hilarious, and ended up inviting us in anyway. I’m pretty sure this was another moment where everyone who actually paid more hated us.
Tanner went to more of the events then I did because I refused to call out of work for it. On one of the days Linden Ashby found out I wasn’t there because I didn’t want to call out of work. Everyone knew we were a package deal, so they’d all been asking for me. When I got there later in the day, he told me he was proud of me. He’s like, TV Dad goals, so that was pretty amazing. He said this to me during the Halloween party night where I was Ariel and literally wearing nothing but a mostly sheer green skirt and a purple bra. This costume was mostly done to make progress on my mission, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
The biggest bit of progress I had was one day where they had a break between panels. During it, I went up to Ed and told him that I was really cold, and asked if he was going back to his hotel room at all. When he said yes, I told him to bring me back a jacket. He said he would.
But he forgot. He did go up to his room, but forgot to grab me a jacket. So when the panel resumed, I asked him where my jacket was. He felt so bad for forgetting that he literally jumped off the stage and came over and took the jacket he was wearing off to put it on me. The other girls there swooned.
I, of course, went to the bathroom and took a lot of selfies wearing this jacket. Then I had a great idea that I probably stole from an outdated “Seventeen” article. I’d put my phone in the pocket. Then, when I gave it back to him at the end of the day I’d ‘forget’ to take it out of the pocket. This would force him to have to figure out how to get it back to me.
This failed. The second I gave it back to him he was like, “Uh, you forgot your phone.” So that was a bust, but I was kind of proud of my attempt.
Other than that, he was actually really nice. I told him that I’d wanted to be an actress when I was younger and he gave me some solid advice about how to break into it if I ever decided to pursue it. He even followed me on Twitter so I had a way to get in touch with him if I had more questions.
By the last day, I knew I was running out of time with my mission. Hence my very slutty mermaid Halloween costume. I looked cute, though. To be honest, I’m pretty sure my tactic for seducing him (besides my clothing) was basically just like, existing. I was in WAY over my head. At this point, all I’d ever done was kiss, and he could probably tell. I mean, I remember when I told Christian I was a virgin like it was some big secret. Instead, he laughed because it was so blatantly obvious. Ed seems like a decent person and not a self-proclaimed virginity collector like some people I know. So, that was probably was a turn-off instead of a turn-on. Which is understandable. Can’t fault him for that.
My last attempt was at the farewell event which was basically a very awkward dance party. I invited a friend of mine from work, Courtney, which was fun. She taught me how to do the Bernie (remember when that was a thing?). But alas, no progress was made that night other than him signing my shirt. He started doing autographs and I couldn’t find any paper, so he offered to sign my shirt instead. (It seemed cool at the time.) So I ended that night, and a week of being one of the more normal ones at a “Teen Wolf” convention, still holding that V-card.
I’m pretty sure he was also dating a girl from the show at the time. That also probably contributed to the fact that the mild sexual tension never went any further. Again, decent person. We had like one Twitter message conversation a while after that, but then I deleted that account.
Tanner thinks I should just send this to him but I’m (fortunately or unfortunately, I can’t decide) kind of losing my crazy streak. So I feel like I’ll just keep this one to myself.
So, that’s the story of my failed attempt to lose my virginity to a supporting actor at a fucking “Teen Wolf” convention. Which was held at a very touristy Sheraton. Clearly, I had low standards at the time. Considering how I did end up losing my virginity, and who it was to, unfortunately my standards did not raise much in the few months after that. Seriously, Madeline, a Macaroni Grill was your idea of a romantic date? But, fortunately, I have a great sense of humor. And, I realized that it was not nearly as big of a deal as I made it out to be at the time.
I would love to run into Ed again someday just for the fun of it. Especially because now that I think about it, he owes me a game of “Guitar Hero.” But for now, I get to have the memories of a very strange but entertaining convention, and an amazing week with my best friend.