Today was the first day back from February vacation. When Molly and I walked up to our morning hang-out spot this morning, Dave was animatedly talking on his cell phone. He continued to do this for a few minutes after we walked up to him. Finally, I said, "Who are you talking to?"
He took the phone away from his ear for a second. "Kayla," he said, smiling.
There was a pause.
"Who's Kayla?" I said.
Tom grinned. "A girl he met on the cruise," he said. He waited for that to sink in, and then repeated, "A girl he met on the cruise." He grinned harder. "Our little Dave is all grown up!"
Finally, he said, "Look I really have to go, the bell's about to ring. No, I really have to go. Seriously." He hung up.
"What inspired her to call you at seven twenty a.m. on a school day?" said Tom.
"Probably the same thing that inspired her to call me at two o'clock last night."
"Wild phone sex?"
"...Have you been tapping my line?"
"Wait wait wait wait wait," I said. "What... How... What happened?"
"Um... I'm not exactly sure. Honestly, this was completely out of my hands."
Silence.
"Oh man, I'll bet she's gonna bitch at me for hanging up on her now."
Tom grinned again. "He may be all grown up, but he's still completely incompetant."
"That's true," said Dave.
Throughout this, I couldn't read Molly's expression no matter how hard I tried.
After I'd had two blocks to stew over the whole thing, I attacked him with questions at lunch.
"So wait, where's she from? What's she like?"
"She's from upstate New York. It's like five hours away. What's she like... Hm... Imagine Tom, only much flirtier and a girl."
"Okay. So... What happened, exactly?"
"I dunno... These cruises, I guess they get a lot of teenagers, because there were all these activities that you could do that were just for teenagers. So I was at one of those, and we were playing two truths and a lie, and I said the nerdiest things, and then she just... Randomly came up and talked to me afterwards. I..." He looked perplexed. "I really don't know why she's interested in me, frankly."
"Is she a nerd?" (For our group of friends, this is the equivilent of "is she a nice Jewish girl?")
"Well, she's a drama kid."
"That would be a 'no'."
"Well, it's a different kind of nerd," he said defensively.
"What's she look like?"
"Pf. I can't describe what people look like."
"Is this... I mean, are you guys going to travel to see each other?"
"Yeah, I think so. I'm trying to look for concerts... I figure that's a good excuse."
"So you guys definately established that you're going out."
"Yes, yes, we definately established that."
"You should bring her to the java jam. That way we get to meet her. And by that I mean, 'thoroughly investigate her and make her all nervous'."
What I wanted to ask, but didn't, was, "...Did you get some?" Although... I think that question was pretty much answered by the way he walked around all day grinning from ear to ear. And the way he kept randomly spewing out facts about her during pauses in conversation.
This is one of those things that bothers me, and that it also bothers me that it bothers me. Here are some possible reasons I've come up with for why it might bother me, arranged from least selfish to most selfish:
- Dave is very innocent and trusting, and has had no experience with relationships. He's known this girl for a week. I don't know her at all. So far, we know that she is"flirty" and kind of clingy. My first defensive-big-sister type thought is, "Obviously, she's using him." Even if she's not, I think that the potential exists here for some major soul crushing. Either that, or he'll just turn into her lackey. I don't want that for Dave.
Nah, I think that one's a little too altruistic to be entirely plausible.
- What about Molly? I wanted to see him with Molly! Don't they both deserve to be with another nice, introverted, sensitive person who doesn't have experience with relationships, rather than one of them being with some random drama queen from New York who doesn't care about him and the other being alone? What is this with people I don't know? What about our friends? It doesn't mean anything if you're not friends first, right?
That one's closer...
- Subconsciously, Dave was my backup plan. Now I have no backup plan.
Um... Yeah, probably.
- It makes me feel better about myself when someone has a hopeless unrequited crush on me. Even if I have no particular interest in him, it makes me feel good when he flirts with me. I fully planned on withholding myself from him forever but allowing him to continue liking me, and now whatsherface has foiled this plan.
I don't exactly know whether this one's true, but if it is, God, I'm a terrible person.
My overall reaction: "...What the fuck?" I guess I'll get over it eventually. Maybe once I meet her. Wow, between me, Tom, Eric and Molly, she's in for a treat when she comes.
I can say with confidence that no one saw this coming.
Also, I paid considerably less attention to Julian than I normally do today.
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