Call Me

Few weeks after joining college, I had made quite a handful of friends, mostly through Kave who was a very charismatic fella. He was quite popular too, we usually took a lot of time to get to class, lots of students knew him and they liked exchanging greetings, a word or two which was pretty annoying to me sometimes.

"Wossup bruh!"

"S'up?" Kave replied to Ethan the hip-hop swag donning guy on our way to class. He walked with Vera, the braided girl and Tati the rasta girl most of the time. That day he was in company of five more girls, they were not our classmates. He was a real ladies guy.

We were almost an hour earlier, so we all went to our lecture room. Although Ethan was a good story teller, I didn't believe half of what came out his mouth. It's not my fault though, his bag was written 'Fake It Till You make it'. I didn't need more proof. The girls like it though, they were always impressed by his stories. I was just there to pass time, and also my friend Kave liked him.

While Ethan continued to entertain us, I noticed among his girl-friends, a very beautiful girl staring at me. I wasn't a shy guy, I just did as much as possible to avoid girls, which most girls mistook for being shy. I looked down, then back at her and found her laughing, her eyes still glued at me. I guess she actually thought I was blushing, which actually made me blush even more.

After sitting there for a while the class time bell rung, and while our small meeting broke slowly, my potential crushie lagged behind her friends while they walked out only to squeeze a piece of paper into my arm secretly. Upon opening it, the words ' CALL ME' and a phone number bellow hit me unexpectedly. My heart actually jumped a beat. It was quite a gesture. I almost screamed in excitement. I showed the piece to my desk-mate Kave who was equally happy for me.

"Brow!" Shouted Kave clapping dramatically, "which girl gave you that?" He asked excitedly.

"The one on a red jacket..."

"Oh!" He said changing his facial expression. "That's Daisy, Ethan wants that girl dude." He added almost whispering.

As I was still processing the unexpected turn of events, Kave burst into an weird laugh putting his arm around me.

"I'm proud of you my guy!" He said. I got even more confused with that reaction.

I didn't even notice the teacher walking in, I looked aimlessly at my book, thinking about Daisy's smile. I felt my heart melt a little. She was too perfect, it scared me to even think I might have impressed her. How? I was a simple guy, who dressed 'normally'. I couldn't beat the likes of Ethan and the other expensively dressed classmates. To put it fairly, I was average, though when it came to looks, I think I beat them all pants down. I never believed I had good looks, but it became a reality I had come to live with as everyone I met would tell me how good I looked sometime even before normal salutations. Although it made me feel good about myself, it always felt weird.

Mastering the art of simplicity and being reserved helped me avoid bullying, throughout high school. I got quite used to being simple and that helped me to get along with nearly everybody, except of course the guys that believed they are perfect at everything. They usually felt very insecure around me, the smart ones would ask me questions just to make me look foolish in front of people, others would joke about my simple dressing code while others made me feel weak. I avoided such people at all costs, for the good of everybody. Except of course, Ethan, if I wanted to keep the girl of my dreams.