Soap Opera Sunday: Heat of the Moment

Hey all! We're changing up Soap Opera Sunday just a little bit and it's actually very exciting! You can read about how on this post at Brillig's place.

The first and most fun change is that we have a button! Woot! Isn't it purty?

Second change is that we're going to start having guest hosts! Staring today!

This week, Thalia's Child is playing our gracious hostess. If you're playing along, be sure to head over to her site to link your Soap Opera. If you're just looking for soapy tales, head on over for the links!!
--------------------

Back when I was an awkward, weird looking high school Sophomore, I became friends with a beautiful Senior girl named Brillig. Being friends with a Senior had it's perks . . . the biggest one being the Senior boys. One in particular who sort of became my obsession for quite a long time. let's call him Charlie Edwards.

If I were to describe Charlie in detail, even I wouldn't find him super attractive. He was . . . decent looking at best. There was really nothing special about his looks . . . he just oozed charm. Oh the charm! He typically had girls falling all over him. He had two nicknames, Chotme and Heat. The first took me a while to understand so I rarely paid attention to it, but the second one I used all the time. Heat was actually an abbreviation of the phrase "Heat of the Moment." And it took Brillig's genius and most of that year in school to figure out the first nickname. It turned out Chotme should have been written C.H.O.T.M.E. It was the acronym for Charlie "Heat of the Moment" Edwards, and as I'm sure you can gather, the origination of Heat. We just didn't catch on to the second one for a while. Anyway, as you can gather from his nicknames, Charlie had the reputation of being the guy who kissed ANY girl he was left alone with. And somehow, I got it in my 15 year old mind that Charlie was the guy for me. I literally became obsessed, to the confusion of all around me.

We all knew about his reputation, me especially. I knew what he did and how he did it. The other thing I also knew about was HIS obsession with another Senior girl, Amber. Despite all his Don Juan-ing around school, he loved Amber. And she rarely gave him the time of day . . . they ran in the same group of friends, but she was the kind of girl who didn't often kiss anyone and wanted to be in love if she did. She was not the kind of girl to date Charlie. Yet he was totally and completely head over heels for her.

See how stupid I am? I knew all of this and yet I was hopelessly in love with him.

Now, in fairness to myself, I didn't actually just arrive at this obsession on my own. Charlie was always VERY nice to me. Well, more than nice. While we had yet to kiss . . . Charlie and I had our little moments. We'd cuddle in the choir room when no one was there. He'd rub my back and we'd talk for hours. He'd find me backstage during play practice and sit down with me and hold my hand and play with my hair. He was in the architecture class at school and he had designed a gorgeous home to someday build in Telluride, Colorado that he called "our" house (since a member of my family happened to own land in Telluride.). We'd talk about the floor plan and how to move things around and how to make it perfect. Charlie obviously knew I was in deep smit over him and he definitely used it to his benefit, while still seducing other girls and pining over Amber.

During all of this, I was a truly obsessed stalker. He lived just a few blocks from me and I used to drag my sister on walks, just so I could walk by his house and see if he was there. I'd go out of my way to find him in dark hallways and try to steal a few minutes for us to snuggle or whatever. And I did one thing that was the worst of all. I befriended Amber.

We started hanging out a lot. Now, I should say that I did really, really like Amber. She was so nice and sweet and fun to be around. But I had ulterior motives despite truly liking her. I wanted to find out if she'd ever like Charlie back. And it appeared that no, she never would. She thought he was a stupid, horny little boy who had no respect for women, and made sure to tell me that often. Yet I loved on and helped keep convincing her that Charlie was a no-good loser. (*hanging head in shame.*)

I truly think I was obsessed with Charlie for most of my Sophomore year. My legs turned to Jell-O whenever he was around. After I received a Superior mark (the best one you can get) at a Region Vocal Competition, he came and hugged and congratulated me. Sadly, that's the only part of that day I remember. My hug from Charlie. I, as a Sophomore, had just been the only soloist from our High School to receive such a high mark and be allowed to compete at the State level and I don't even remember what song I sang. I remember Charlie's hug. (*snacking self in head now.*)

The year wore on and graduation was close. I was still hanging out with most of that group of Seniors and was overjoyed to be invited to graduation parties and such. One in particular was up Provo Canyon at a park and I remember Charlie offered to drive me home when the party was over. I remember FLYING down the canyon at warp speed (he was trying to scare me) and Charlie holding my hand to comfort me. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I figured that now that the school year was almost over, he might have decided to stick with me and love me back.

Then, the next day I remember hearing the buzz around school. Amber had been broken. She and Charlie were together. Like, really truly together. It had happened the night before after Charlie had dropped me off at home. What's weird is that I don't remember being exactly heartbroken. I remember being weirded out. Charlie was going on a mission for our church soon and I knew Amber wasn't going to wait for him. I knew that I might get another chance. So I decided to hunker down and just wait, even if it was two years. I just decided to be patient and to wait.

---------------
Next week, come back to see if all the waiting paid off!