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Hey-hey-hey! I’m Reese and I’m 16. I want to share a story of the biggest embarrassment I've ever had in my life.
The first thing you have to know about me is that when I turned 14, I started noticing that all of my girlfriends began dating guys, while I seemed to not being able to grab someone’s attention in this respect. I was absolutely sure that it was all because of what I looked like. You see, I was always a slim girl, but while I was growing up and once I reached this age, due to some "hormonal rebellions," as my mom called them, I gained, like, 20 pounds or maybe even slightly more. I tried to hide my extra weight under oversized clothing and kept myself on a diet but I got no results by the time summer had started.
I went to my grandparents' beach house for a vacation and planned to stay there for about 6 weeks. I haven’t been there for the past couple of years, although when I was a little girl I spent whole summers there playing with a kid from the neighborhood. His name was Archie and he was two years older than me, as far as I remember, but he always looked smaller and weaker. So this time I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be shy about being overweight in my swimsuit, sitting next to far-from-perfect, Archie “the nerd.”
One day I decided to take a look at how the town had changed since I had been there the last time. I was walking our Labrador, Sundance, when he suddenly slipped out of his leash and ran into someone else’s back yard. I got totally lost, not knowing what to do, so I just ran behind him, trying to catch him without waiting for permission from the homeowner.
It turned out that a guy – who was really handsome, by the way – was there and had already caught my dog. He knew him. I mean, Sundance was definitely familiar with this guy and vice versa. Only after all the “thank yous” and “I'm sorrys” did things finally hit me. It was him – Archie. No wonder I didn’t recognize him at first glance. The changes were remarkable, he was now about six feet tall and tan, with muscles and…Oh! Even now telling you about that meeting of ours I feel tingles down my spine.
Anyway, when he finally understood who I was, he had a really hard time hiding the surprise on his face. He said that he would've hardly recognized me if I wasn’t walking my grandparents’ dog. Of course, he tried to sound polite, like, “haven’t seen you for ages! You’re so grown up,” and so on, but I strongly felt that the way I changed was not really a “wow” after all.
I asked what he was doing in this house, because I clearly remembered that he used to live somewhere else, and found out that this was the house of his friend who’d recently moved to town with his parents. To be honest, we had nothing else to talk about, so I told him to have a good day and left with my grandparents' dog. All the way home I silently cursed myself for being dressed so poorly, so that he apparently noticed the fat on my belly.
After the next couple of days we accidentally met again on the beach. This time Archie was with his friend. They were busy playing with a ball and I was with my granny and grandpa trying to sunbathe. Of course, as soon as I noticed them, I tried to cover up with a beach wrap; I just couldn’t let them see how badly I looked in my swimsuit. My nose was covered with sunscreen and I was wearing this terrible hat that my granny insisted I put on.
At some point, the guys come over to us to say “Hi.” They had a quick talk with my grandpa and were already about to continue what they were doing when my granny suddenly said the most embarrassing thing about me that she could think of. She told Archie that I was dying to hang out with him and his new friend. I met Archie’s gaze and felt like I blushed all the way to the roots of my hair. It was very nice of him to say that he’d be glad to come over some day and take me for a walk. At that moment, I wished that the earth would've just opened up and swallowed me.
Later that day, I found myself waiting for Archie. I was trying on various clothes, picking out an outfit I’d feel more confident wearing. Even though he didn’t mention an exact day that he’d come, I wanted to be ready to look perfect. Unfortunately, he didn’t come that day, or even the few days after that. Hoping to meet him, I’d put on makeup and do my hair anywhere I was going, be it the grocery store with my grandma, or the post office with my grandpa. And as luck would have it, I never saw him out, but I did see his friend Alec a couple of times instead.
Music by Epidemic Sound:
#actuallyhappened
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