Ego Much?

Studliest stud . . . yeah he was smooth alright. Still is.

Matt likes to leave out a few of the details. Certainly I begged him to come. But that was because he seemed so depressed about the breakup, now I realise it was all a manipulative ploy to get me to want him more, and it appears our whole relationship has been built on lies. Oh well, I can deal. I begged, and he agreed to come.

By the time Matt arrived at my house, Molly, Sean, Melody, Ernest, Phillip and my younger cousin Kristine were already enjoying watching MTV and passing out my gifts. My friends went in and bought me a sweet net sleeve shirt and a tee that had Kurt Cobain's face on it. It was a great birthday so far. With Molly stuck to Sean's lap, I had plenty of time to hang out with Matt, my dream guy, all by myself. He played up the sad face enough for me to invite him into the backyard, just the two of us.

"I don't even know why I'm here, I mean, other than you I don't exactly have friends here." He stated.

"Well I'm your friend and that's all that matters." I replied.

We talked about relationships, the problems he went through with Molly and how he felt that she lead him on, broke his heart and he just wasn't special. Such a little liar.

I reached out and I took his hand with a bright smile, "You're special to me." I said just as I heard the door open.

"Hey guys," Josh said and took the empty seat to my right. Matt and I continued to talk, Josh now involved in the conversation as well. Instead of a loving flirtatious conversation between Matt and I, with Josh there it seemed more like a suicide intervention on his behalf. Josh was after all, his best friend.

The others soon joined us and we began our merry little high school games. We truthed the dare, spun the bottle and eventually realised that all we wanted to do was mak eout with one another, so we decided to play "who's the best kisser". The guys loved it. Heck, the girls loved it too! Matt wasn't however the only person to have to kiss their ex, as I had dated Ernest for a bit during the early part of the year.

As we girls moved down the line, I passed over Ernest and Phil easily, knowing they were waiting for Molly anyhow. Sean came first afterwards and my crush instantly faded when we kissed. It was awful beyond all understanding. Josh was next, and though we'd been dating for a few weeks now, we hardly ever kissed, especially in public.

And then there was Matt. Molly's Matt . . .  no . . .  My Matt.

Our first kiss; I don't remember all the details. I do remember that I was nervous, and I remember feeling a spark, and staring into his eyes as we pulled away. I felt guilty immediately. Mostly because I lied when I said that my current boyfriend had won the contest, and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes focused on my present beau.

The night pressed on, and soon I found myself on the couch, a lump in my stomach as I intertwined my fingers with Joshs', wondering the whole time when Matt was leaving, and if after tonight I'd ever really see him again. Josh eventually stood, being beckoned home by his mother, and I kissed his cheek and watched him walk down the road.


"Hey, where's my shirt?" Matt said as a large white and blue van pulled into my driveway. His Mom was here and now he had to leave. I sighed and committed the moments of that night to memory, figuring that he'd never hang out with our group again, all thanks to Molly.

But then something happened.

He stood in front of me, and suddenly I felt small, frail almost, but in that good way that a girl wants to feel when she's with the guy that makes her heart skip multiple beats. He hugged me and I breathed him in. His scent was intoxicating. I didn't want the night to end. He was my dream guy and I'd settle for being just his friend as long as those hugs went on forever. And then he did it. He studded the studliest stud move in the world.

"If Josh wasn't in the picture, I'd move on you so quick."

My breath taken away, my jaw on the floor and my heart in my throat, I watched as he turned once, smiled and then walked out the door. I watched the van drive off, and about a thousand different things ran through my head, but mostly, I smiled and held my hand to my chest in order to count the number of times my heart beat in a single second.

"Something wrong?" My cousin said as she walked over, wondering what I was looking at.

"I think I just experienced a very surreal moment in life."

She shrugged and walked away. So few people got me back then. So few do now.

He was a stud. How dare he walk away on that line! It was like a movie! A horrible teen romance movie and I didn't know what my lines were! Should I run to catch the plane, get the lead in the play opposite him, or perhaps I should have stepped into a leather outfit and break into song. After a minute of watching the empty street, focused on the breaking point where Matt's van drove away, and the few steps it took to get to Josh's house, I turned around with my back against the front door and tried to focus my breathing.

The doorbell that rang moments snapping me out of my trance, and I had to try and calm down again before I reopened it. As I did, there before me stood Matt. Once tall and full of ego, the studliest stud, now looked shamefully at the ground.

He cleared his voice and spoke soft. "I umm . . . forgot my contact case."

Our romance had turned into a comedy and I knew my lines now.

"Come on in," I said with a bit of sing song in my voice, almost daring him to try and get by me without looking me straight in the eye.

Matt rushed and grabbed his things. "Bye," He said, but I wasn't going to let him get away that easy.

"Just one second," I said and shut the door. "What did you say to me before you left?" I wanted to hear it again, mostly because some part of me was afraid I had suffered some sort of brain collapse and had heard it wrong the first time.

Matt refused at first, begged me to forget he ever existed, and then finally sighed, and with much less confidence uttered, "I said if Josh wasn't in the picture, I'd move on you so quick." He repeated it verbatim, the line was obviously practiced before it ever left his lips.

I smiled, now a bit cocky myself and with my fourteen year old womanish charms, I leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "Well if Josh wasn't in the picture, I might just letcha."

And then I opened the door, allowed him to gather his jaw from the floor, and see himself out as I walked away, never once turning around to see if he was watching me.

I later hated myself for not thinking about Josh for the rest of the night, but how could I? Josh wasn't even acting like he liked me anymore, and suddenly out of nowhere this wonderful boy who I had fantasised about for over 6 months was hitting on me! I had pleanty of time to feel guilty later.

And I did.

. . . Uhhhhh. Huh. I got nothin'.

Sad thing is, my wife remembers more about my relationship with Molly than I do. There really wasn't much there.

We had spent a lot of time making out, I was really bad at it, and I spent a lot of time lying to my mom about where I was going and who was going to be there so that I could spend time with Molly. I think I have put a lot of it all out of my mind because I was ignored a lot. It was quite a bit more painful than I ever really let on. Cartoons and video games were still a great diversion for pains of the heart. I can tell you how to get the real ending with the Upside-Down Castle in "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" I can tell you that if you hide in a box where dogs are and let them pee on you in "Metal Gear Solid" that the dogs think you are one of them due to the scent and leave you alone after that. I can even tell you where the skip level flutes are in "Super Mario 3," however I cannot tell you if Molly broke up with me in a note, on the phone, or in person.

Molly was enamored with her other best friend Sean.

As such I spent a lot of time going, "What's that?" when they would have secret conversations. I hated it. Sean and I had actually been friends at the time. He had a long pony-tail and was really into Japanese cartoons and video-games.

So Molly had broken up with me and I really did not care. I was sad yes, but I was free. I also really did not want to go to Jia's birthday party. I knew Molly and her other gothic type friends would be there and I didn't want to deal with them. Josh was really the only person I really knew there that I would be cool with hanging out with. At the same time I secretly knew I was going to have fun.

Then Jia called with Molly waiting in the wings to ask if I wanted to still come. "Yes," Molly would be there. "No," she didn't care. "No," she would not make a big deal about it if I came. "Molly would be fine," if I came. I said "No," I hated coming to this. "No," I didn't want to see Molly happy, ever. Jia begged. Begged. She wanted me to come so badly. It was exactly what I wanted to hear.

"Yes," I conceded. I went and arrived late.

Jia had let me know that we would be running in a sprinkler out in her back yard so I brought my contacts case and contact solution, since I had just recently gotten them through my fathers insurance, and would be murdered and be made to look as if I had an accident in the pool if I came home without them. We never touched the sprinkler, just played games like truth or dare and spin the bottle. I had my first kiss with 4 different girls that night. Only one girl other than Jia was a good kisser, and it was really awkward kissing an ex-girlfriend due to miss spins.

Most guys don't get to make out with people before a date. Especially getting to make out with a girl and all her female friends the same night. It was the best birthday party I had ever been to.

My mom showed up a half an hour early. She came to the door. I told her I would be out in a minute. Jia had thrown an over shirt I had worn in a back room. I asked her for it, and followed her down a dark hallway a room in a that over the years I have spent a lot of time in. She gave me my shirt. We were alone in the hallway.

I never hesitated.

She said goodbye.

I pinned her against a wall.

"If you weren't with my best friend I would move on you so fast." I left as the studliest stud who ever studded a stud in all of stud-ville.

Destiny - By The Wife

He may not recall much about his ill fated relationship with Molly, but I certainly do. Molly was overjoyed at the fact that she had spent less than two days mourning her relationship with Eric, and when the second day had come to and end, her greatest wish had been fulfilled when Matt asked her to be his. I was full of jealousies of course, especially since Molly had finally won the prize we both had set our hearts on. Certainly I knew that I wouldn't get him, not without her acceptance of course, so the best thing to do was to step back, and let my best friend be happy.

Of course, that left me in the dark. Quite literally sometimes as Molly would come to school in the morning with a wicked smile on her face causing me to wonder what exactly she and Matt were doing whenever I wasn't around. Of course, that wasn't nearly as bad as when I was around and forced to observe their public affection. I was even there for their first kiss. The three of us had gone to see a school performance of Oedipus and sitting there in the back row, I observed the boy I secretly wanted, share his first kiss with my best friend.

It was that night that I swore I would turn away from them both and set my eyes on something . . . someone else.

Josh had quickly grown into one of my closest friends, and since he and Matt were friends, it made it easier for me to be around Matt and Molly since I now had someone else to talk to whenever they broke into making out. Josh and I would roll our eyes and walk away. I had actually become very bitter towards Matt, though it wasn't his fault. After all, he didn't know that I secretly adored him, and the mere idea of seeing him kiss Molly had me wanting to claw at both of their faces.

"Hey Jia, you seen Molly?" He said calling out to me one morning.

"Don't know, I forgot her leash." I bitterly commented and then walked away.

The longer Matt dated Molly, the closer I became to Josh, until one day I felt a pinch in my stomach as I looked over observing him draw in the cafeteria. I watched him the whole forty minutes because it was better than watching Molly and Matt play kissy face. I soon became enamored with Josh. After all, he was a lot like Matt. "A poor man's Matt." Molly once said. I didn't care. Josh was sweet, slightly odd, but I found him to be curious and I needed to know more. Plus he lived like three doors down, how convenient would that be!?

"Josh, I have something to ask you, but I'm really nervous about it." I began my perfect played up line that so easily worked on Justin months earlier.

"Oh yeah?" He asked as the two of us began walking home.

"Yeah, see, I'm gonna ask you out, but I'm really nervous about it." I said with a coy smile, waiting for his inevitable grin, followed by the acceptance nod. He'd then reach over and take my hand as we walked home. He'd walk me, his new girlfriend to my house, kiss me on my doorstep and everything would be right in the world again.

"Huh." He said.

"Huh?" I repeated him, slightly confused. What did he mean "huh?"

"Well, I just don't think we know each other that well." He commented. "Hey, I've got to get going." He said again and left me standing on the curb with a confused look on my face.

"Huh!?"

Days passed and my fury and confusion were fed on equal terms. No one had ever said no to me. I mean sure I had broken up with a few guys, but no one had ever said no to being asked out. My confidence quickly dropped. I became consumed with Josh, determined to win him over. We didn't know each other well enough. Well he was certainly about to know me! The two of us passed letters in the hallways, on the bus, and in the evening I would sneak out to my mailbox where another letter would be waiting for me from Josh. We asked each other questions about relationships, about love, about life. I soon found out that Josh had never had a girlfriend before. The closest was a crush he had on some girl in Utah named Angie.

After a week or so of constant communication through the written word, we knew each other pretty well. Then, during lunch, Josh passed a note to me under the table and I gladly took it. Inside it read, "Does your offer still stand?" I smiled and without words being spoken, we were a couple.

"What do you mean he hasn't kissed you yet?" Molly said as we walked from our high school to the large stadium during a bomb threat drill. Josh and I had been dating for almost two weeks and all we had done was hold hands and hug. During the three hour long bomb threats we would cuddle in the scorching sunlight. Josh was taller than me, but not bulky like Justin, it seemed a perfect and very comfortable fit. But he had yet to kiss me.

"I mean, he hasn't kissed me yet." I repeated, slightly irritated that my boyfriend was more concerned with talking about cartoons with Matt than walking beside me, holding my hand and heaven forbid showing me some affection.

That was when it happened.

"He's a good Mormon boy," Molly commented. "And you could try as hard as you want, but you'll never get him in bed."

The gauntlet had been thrown. I was challenged.

"Whatever! You think you're so hot. Why haven't you nailed Matt yet?" I asked, trying to offend her just as easily.

"Closer than you are with Josh." She fought back. "In fact, I bet you twenty bucks that you can't nail him within a month."

The challenge would be hard, but my ego had been damaged, and then, stupid me, said this, "Oh yeah! I bet I can do it within a week! Like . . . the night of my birthday party!" I set a date. May 7th, I would change Josh's world and he didn't even know it.

Oddly enough, Josh did kiss me that same afternoon. I could have swore that he overheard Molly and I talking, but he was sweet, gentle and I appreciated that. We walked home as per usual, holding hands until we came to the corner where our ways separated. I stood on the curb to make up the difference in height, and suddenly he leaned in and kissed me. It was shocking, it was gentle, it was very Josh.

It only made me think it would be easier than I thought to win the bet. Of course, after Josh and I shared a kiss, it seemed that we began to go our separate ways. Or well, it seemed that somehow whatever spark was there, was now vanishing before our eyes.

"Hey Jia, you seen Molly?" Matt asked me one day as Josh and I approached him.

"No," I said. "Why what's wrong?"

Matt looked terrible. A combination of pissed off and confused.

"Well she said she'd call last night and never did, and the last time I saw her she was goofing off with Sean and ignoring me." I was upset. The boy I secretly adored was dating my best friend and she was ignoring him. I set out on a search for Molly to find out what was going on, ignoring my own boyfriend in the meantime.

Another day passed and I had still not seen Molly. I of course had other plans. Tonight was the night of my 15th birthday party and I had a goal. Once my friends left my house, Josh was mine. It's so strange how so long ago my world was so different. Values were different and certainly the price of virtue wasn't the highest at that time in my life. After all, everyone was doing it.

The school bell rang and as I rushed to the bus I saw the handsome dark haired boy walking away, hands shoved into his pockets. I sighed and approached him. "Look, I'm gonna go find Molly and tell her to stop being such a bitch okay?" I offered a suggestion.

Matt however responded with, "Don't bother. She broke up with me. By the way, I don't think I should come to your party. Sorry Jia, happy birthday."

"What?" I asked as he walked away from me. Molly broke up with him? What was she thinking?

"Are you out of your mind!?" I asked her an hour later as the two of us set up for my party. "You wanted him for like 4 months and then just like that you toss him to the side?" I was furious.

"Exactly. I built him up for 4 months and Jia . . . he's just not for me." She shrugged her shoulders.

I spent at least twenty minutes on the phone with Matt, begging him to come to my party.

"Yes Molly will be here, but you're still my friend and I don't give a crap what she thinks. I want you here."

Oddly enough, he agreed.