Lorena

No, not that Lorena, but it's not like it really mattered. My unit never came close enough for her to touch or cut it off for that matter.

This story is pretty bland, so I will get right to the point. Lorena was my TBA love interest for the three years I attended that school. I say love interest in the most loose sense of the term because she was nothing more then someone I had a crush on.

Tampa Baptist was a strange time for me. I was leaving the comfortable life that I was accustomed to at Bethel and entering a new, hostile environment. At Bethel I was known as the class clown and I really did not look to much into my image at the school. That was mainly due to me being too young to care about such trivial matters. Needless to say I was a bit overweight when I entered TBA as a 6th grader.

Life was rough at first early on in my TBA debut. People cared more about your appearance then your personality, a trait I started to notice more and more people focused on the older I got. My jokes were old fashioned and everyone talked like they were adults. Sex was whispered about throughout the classrooms and I was on the outside of pretty much any popular topic the kids were gossiping about. The only friend I had at the school was in an honors class, so I was all alone. Thankfully I was, and still am good at making friends.

My most notable friend acquisition came in the form of my still best friend, Gonzalo. He was a little overweight as well. Gonzalo shared a simple sense in games and the two of us came from similar large families. Right when they saw me, the kids at TBA said I looked exactly like Gonzalo. My nickname for a long time my first year was little Gonzalo. Remember that little nugget of information.We also had the same sense of humor and became close friends pretty easily. Gonzalo helped me ease into my life at Tampa Baptist. It is something that I am still grateful for to this day.

Anyways, I went off on a tangent, but I suppose that side story still has merit for the main topic. Lorena was in my 6th grade class and I was instantly smitten. I thought she was a very pretty girl, but I had never approached a girl before in a romantic sense. If anything I would always talk to them with a comical attitude. It never got me anywhere, but it was the only way I knew how to talk to them at the time. I was an admirer from afar so to speak.

For the three years we went to TBA together I watched from a distance at this girl and wished I had the nerve to go up to her and ask her out. the thing was, and I suppose it holds true to this day is that I feared rejection. I started to notice my weight and thought to myself that someone that pretty would never want to date someone like me. till, I enjoyed her company. The two of us took the same bus home so every day after school I would try to sit close to her and exchange small talk with her. I could get her to smile easily enough, so my confidence would grow ever so slightly, but never high enough where I could ask her out. How did kids go on dates at this age anyways? Don't ask me because that never happened.

Eighth grade came around and I was still fawning around about this girl. At this point it was already a lost cause. She liked some of the other boys in our class, and I never heard any gossip about her liking me. The bad thing about TBA is when I went there, they did not have any school dances. I never had a chance to ask her out to any school function, which sucked for me. Though it was not like I was a charming Casanova or anything.  I had to find out what she thought of me. One day I was tired of sitting around and letting this chance slip through my hands. I had to talk to her about...us.

Cliche, but I remember it like it were yesterday.

You want to know what she told me? She told me that she did not find me attractive, but that she liked Gonzalo instead. Can you believe that? Everyone thought me and Gonzalo looked alike, but her! I was upset at myself, but for what, I do not know.

Women. Go figure.

After TBA I lost track of Lorena. She went to a different high school and that was that. Later on in life we crossed paths again. She was dating some guy that was friends with a friend that was part of my group. She ended up going to Hyde Park Cafe with us one night and I was drinking heavily at the time and tried to sow old seeds.

It did not work.