I Told You, Eli Oxley

Chapter Five

That was a fun story, wasn't it? You can imagine it wasn't a fun experience for me, but I like telling the story now. I try to make it as dramatic as possible.

I didn't want to go back to school the next day. Day #2 and I wanted to drop out. Crockett wasn't home. I needed to start over.

Al wasn't very consoling. She figured I should have known better, and that I shouldn't try so hard to make people like me. Maybe she was right, but I hated her at the time. I needed my friend, not a lecturing parent. I needed easy love, not tough love.

After I met Al for my lunch o' clock lecture, I went to the library to get a head start on a history essay that was due the next week. I'm a go-getter, aren't I? Not really. It's not like I had a social life, so what else was I supposed to do?

As I was reading my southern-biased history textbook (state's rights!), one of the hottest girls I had ever seen walked in. It was like one of those movies where everything goes into slow-mo and her hair starts to flow from a fan, cough cough, I mean wind, and everything around her turns blurry while sparkles trace the outline of her body.

She wasn't dressed too slutty, either. No little girls poking out, and only a little bit of cleavage, just the right amount. Despite her relative modesty, however, the carnal side of my mind took over. Not what you're thinking, though. Nothing too graphic. Barely rated R. I just imagined my body against hers.

But I didn't want to kid myself. I'd never had a girlfriend, especially one as beautiful as her. So you can imagine my surprise when she approached me. Did she catch me staring? What did she want?

"Aren't you in my Philosophy class?" she said.

"Maybe. Who do you have?"

"Dr. James. MWF 8am," she said.

I wanted so bad to play it cool. but I panicked. "Oh, yeah, I'm in that class," I stammered. "Pretty weird first day, huh?" I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed her on Monday.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm Kara." She reached her hand out.

I had to quickly wipe the sweat from my palm before coming into contact with her. "Eli."

"Cool. I'll see you tomorrow, then, I guess," she said.

"Yeah, for sure. Looking forward to it." Yes, I did say that. Dork.

She blushed, but her face couldn't have been any redder than mine.

I didn't have to wait until the next day to see Kara, though. No, I didn't stalk her, even though I wanted to. An hour later, I walked into my tiny Communications classroom, and there she was, sitting up front. We made eye contact, I smiled, blushed, then stared at the floor as I rushed to the back of the class. Real smooth, right? She was obviously a little put off because she left as soon as class was over without looking back. At that moment, I started, no really started, to regret my proclivity towards computers and not humans, particularly the female species.