Annette

This girl really messed me up.

Just so you all know, this story spans almost a years worth of fail.

I met Annette a long time ago. We first met while I was still working at Publix. Back then, I really did not have an eye for her. First she was too young, and second, she had not yet developed. She was a shy girl and we never got around to talking much. I thought she was kinda cute, but I never acted on my initial thoughts, as usual of my old persona.

After I left Publix I did not see Annette for a good five years. It probably would have been better if I had never bumped into her again. As fate would have it, I would see her again at the church I used to frequent. It was some night where everyone was doing fun activities outside like basketball and kickball. I really did not go to church that often, but everyone else was going and they convinced me to go.

There, I ran into Annette again. The two of us shared a look, as if we knew each other, and then it clicked for both of us. A lot of time had passed. She was no longer the young teenager I last saw at Publix. She had grown into a very beautiful young woman. Surprisingly she recognized me too and we started to catch up that day. Still I am bad at these moments, but my friends coerced me to trouble her enough to get her digits. I did and that started one of the longest, most frustrating non-relationships I have ever dealt with.

Annette seemed like a nice enough girl. She was very attractive and I met her at a church, so that was good, right? But I did not know very much about her. We just worked together at a store half a decade ago together, but even then we were never really that close. At this point in my life I was really looking for that special someone in my life. I wanted a girlfriend, and I was really hoping she would be the one. She was Cuban, and loved to dance. I knew my family would love her.

So we started talking, a lot. We had a couple of things in common, or at least I thought we did. The closer I got to this girl, the more I noticed how much she needed some stability in her life. She had a very rocky relationship with her mother who she was living with at the time. She went to church that one day by chance, because one of her friends told her that she could use the visit. I believe it. Annette was not a bad person, but her problem was that she did not know what she wanted in life. I hope that is different now.

Our (non-committal) relationship started out nicely enough. I would pick her up and we wold go to clubs or sometimes my dads house and hang out. My dad loved her, by the way. I think it was her Cuban personality, personally. She mentioned how my father acted just like hers, and I guess that made sense.

My biggest problem with this girl was that she was starved for attention. She played it off by telling me no one ever talked to her when she was younger, and now that she had blossomed she kind of flaunted her new looks to get things she wanted. Typical. I was caught hook line and sinker by this girls act, but she insisted that that was not the case in our friendship. I really wanted to believe that. I wanted so much more out of her.

One thing she did was she had plenty of guys on stand by. She never really showed me much affection, but she always called me for help. I was her emergency contact. She could not rely on her family for help, but for some reason, she trusted me. Then, when I would come and help her, she would text and talk to these other guys while I tried to spend time with her. She never once took my feelings into consideration. there was always someone else who ignored her, all the while she was ignoring the only person who truly cared about her. She would constantly come to me with her guy problems, and I would complain to her that she is oblivious to the people who really cared about her and her life. I was never that guy. Oh, how I wanted to be that guy.

Annette had another problem. She was recently jobless, and her car was starting to give her a lot of trouble. Lucky for her I was such a nice and thoughtful guy. I helped her look for a job. I would take days off and pick her up and spend the entire day driving around trying to help her get her feet back on solid ground. It was very time consuming, but I chalked it up to me spending quality time with her. We worked on her resume, and I helped her pick out outfits for her job interviews. She was a very attractive person with a good personality, so she did well in her few job interviews.

Everyone once in awhile I would get a call from her at random times in the day. Most of the time she was frantic and panicking. It usually meant I had to go out of my way or stop what I was doing and go help her out. most of the time it was car troubles. I remember a couple times I had to pick her up because her car broke down on the side of the road. I had to push her car all by myself sometimes and move it out of the middle of the road. I was the guy she called when she needed help. Maybe it was because she trusted me, or maybe it was because she knew she could use me. Who knows.Fun times.

I was spending all my free time with this girl, but I was getting nothing back in return.

The one day that I almost had enough was when I got a call from some random number. It was a number that was unfamiliar so I ignore it. It called me again instantly, so I knew it was someone I knew. The odd number was from Orient Road Jail. Annette had been arrested for domestic violence. Apparently her mom had called the cops on her because she claimed to have been struck by Annette. Annette tells it the other way around. She told me that she called the cops because her mom had hit her, but when the cops showed up they arrested Annette instead. Whatever. I was just about done with this girl. She wanted me to bail her out of jail.

Ha!

I had helped this girl out for so long. I spent countless hours with her and had dropped so much money for her to eat and on gas and a bunch of other things. I could not take it anymore. I did not have the money to post bail. Besides, I had never done that before. I did not even  know how to bail someone out of jail. She was crying on the phone asking for my help again, but I just could not do it this time. I felt horrible. I wanted to help, and if I had the funds, I probably would have. Instead, I had an awful guilt trip for that entire day.

She called me the next day and told me she was getting out and that she needed a ride. This I could do, but there was one problem. I was at work when she called. I told my boss I had an emergency. I was very obscure with what I told him, but he sensed that I was needed elsewhere so he let me leave for an hour and I had to come back right when I was done.

I drove so fast to Orient Road. I must have broken a couple of speeding laws on the way there. Isn't that ironic? You want to know the messed up thing about this whole thing? When I got to the jail, she was not there! Turns out she had called both me and her neighbor to come pick her up, only that she never called me and informed me about the fact that someone else had picked her up. I don't know what i was feeling on my way there, but I felt anger and a little bit of betrayal on my way back to work. Again, I was wasting my time, money and patience on this girl.

Still, I could not help but feel sorry for her. She was not a bad person. She was down on her luck, she had almost no one to turn to, and it was about to get worse for her. After the fight with her mom, her family decided to move, and without Annette either. This left Annette homeless. How could I turn my back on this girl right now? I think her most vulnerable moment was when her family had moved out of the apartment they were staying at. She had no place to stay, but the bare apartment itself. There was nothing in the place, but she had the key for that one last night. She called me up in her cute, sad, desperate voice and told me she did not want to be alone that night. If I ever had an opportunity to make a move on her it would have been that night. But I could not find the strength to advance on a human being in such a state. That night the two of us spent the night on the floor of that cold apartment. She clung onto me and told me not to try anything. I obliged.

After that night things started to go better for her. She stayed with her friend for awhile and the two of us continued our job hunt for her. Eventually it paid off and she got a job. Her life started to head back in the right direction and before we knew it she had enough money saved up to start paying for a room at a house.

I wanted to show her the better side of life, so we also started going to this salsa studio. For the longest time, before I met her I had wanted a dance partner. I used to have one, but it was a weird relationship. I was still hopeful that Annette was start to see me the same way I saw and felt for her. We started practicing together and things started to look up. Annette was an amazing dancer. Much better then me. I was used to one specific style of salsa, but she was just talented in the art of dance. I loved dancing with her. I wished we did it more. She would always comment on how cute I looked during these times. I suppose she was just toying with my emotions.

When she got back on her feet, Annette started to go back to her old habits. Boys other then myself were still taking her for granted, and I would always get the short end of the rope. She would call me up and complain that she could never find anyone who truly cared about her.

REALLY?

The kicker here is that one day she told me that she wished she could find someone like me, who looked like me, and was as kind as me to be with her. I really thought she was just playing with my emotions at this point. I mean, who can be all that better then me? She specifically said she wanted someone EXACTLY like me, but not me? I just did not get her. She also told me that she thought my friend Gonzalo was cute. What is up with these girls liking Gonzalo and not me? I just do not get it.

One night we went out and she got a little drunk. She started acting real bitchy and while I was driving her home, she spent the entire car ride talking to some other guy on the phone. That really did not sit well with me. In fact it flatly pissed me off. When I got to her house I tried to talk to her, but she made the excuse that she was drunk. I wanted to know what she thought of me. She said she considered me a good friend and that was it. When I told her how I felt about her, she told me she was shocked and that she had no idea that I felt that way about her. If I was someone who had it in me to smack women, that wold have triggered my pimp hand to slap the shit out of her. The nerve of it all. What person would do all this for someone if they did not really care for the other person? I could not imagine her to be that ignorant to my feelings. It hurt.

Things started to fall apart after that. I could never talk to her about us again. She claimed to not even remember the conversation we had in the first place and assured me that she only saw me as a friend, but that maybe her feelings would change in the future.

Maybe?

Ugh. Who was I dealing with. I had to separate myself from this girl before I really started to hate myself. I had done a great thing. I had helped a human being in the brink of homelessness and depression. I had helped turn their life around. I did not want a medal, but some recognition for my contribution. I would get neither.

After awhile Annette started calling me less and less. When I tried to call her, I would usually just get her voicemail, and hardly ever a call back. For some reason I still had feelings for her. I was just plain dumb and a real hopeless romantic back in the day. Christmas time was coming around and I thought of her when I did my shopping. I bought some perfume I had heard her talk about. What I did would be the envy of most any women. She also mentioned that Cinnamon Toast Crunch was her absolute most favorite cereal in the world. I bought the cereal I methodically opened the bottom and made sure I did not rip or tear anything or leave any obvious markings of entrance. I cut the bottom of the plastic that holds the actual cereal open. After gift wrapping up the perfume, I stuck it inside the plastic, stapled the plastic closed on the bottom because no one takes the plastic out completely.  Then I used super glue on the outer box to seal it again, and voila the box looked un-tampered with. I then wrapped up the box in gift wrapping as well and was prepared to give it to her. Tell me that you would not think that would be something when you are pouring out your daily cereal and out comes an expensive bottle of perfume from within like one of those old prizes the cereals used to give away. Yeah, I know I am charming. That was sure to give me style points.

Christmas came and went and Annette did not even call me. I tried to get a hold of her, but I only got her answering machine. That was the last straw. I was done with her. All the time invested with and for her, I just could not take it any more. I even kept the gift wrapped for a long time, but after awhile I knew it was pointless and I gave it to my sister instead.

Annette later moved to New Jersey or something. I do not know what she is doing or what she has been up to, but I imagine she is still looking for someone or something she will never find. I can not say if I was at fault in this failed relationship attempt, but it was certainly not because lack of trying on my half.

Wow. This story was real taxing...