My Jeep Girl

12• A Simple Date With a Cute Australian Basketball Player, no Big Deal.

"Let's make sure Tyler never knows you said that," I said.

"I'm not trying to get murdered, Alex! Lips are sealed," Celeste said. She scooted closer to me and kept her voice low. "You know, Alexander is hot, but I'm still secretly rooting for you and whoever your mystery boy is."

"And I will once again, for the billionth time, remind you that the mystery boy has a girlfriend and I don't even know him," I said.

"But your conversations are so cute," Celeste gushed. "How are you not in love with this random boy?"

"Because, Celeste, I don't fall in love with random guys I don't know. Just like I don't instantly become attracted to guys without knowing them," I said.

"You're talking about Alexander now," Celeste said, shaking her head. "Who are you? How do you not catch feelings for men just by looking at them? Some guy the other day half-held the door open for me and I caught feelings."

"Half-held the door open?"

"Yeah, like... when a guy actually hold-holds the door for you, he opens it with his body facing you. But when he half-holds the door, his back is facing you and he's just holding the door while he's leaving so that the door doesn't hit you on your way out. Make sense?" Celeste explained

It, of course, did not make sense to me.

But I knew that if I told her it made no sense, she would ramble on for another ten minutes about the ordeal. "Makes sense."

"Well, anyway, my point is, how do you not just fall in love with every guy in the world?"

"You and I have very different approaches to being attracted to guys," I said. "I don't know, I just can't fall in love with a guy that I don't at least somewhat know."

I could think that random guys were cute or hot without knowing them (like how I thought that Harry Styles was the hottest man on earth), but I could never actually be attracted to them in the way that I would see a cute guy and immediately be like, Damn, I want to kiss the shit out of him. I felt like it was impossible for me to be into someone without knowing them, which was why I could hardly understand Celeste's boy-crazy demeanor. I loved her for it, but I didn't relate to it in the least bit.

I thought the mystery boy was an asshole who could also be sweet and sentimental. He had moments of complete and utter confidence and moments where I could tell that he had his own inner demons. I liked talking to him. I really liked talking to him. I felt like I could send him the most random, absurd things and he wouldn't give a shit, he would just humor me. (Like when I told him about the baby mop and he replied later on to ask me to please expand on my knowledge of baby mops.)

On the other side of things, I did think Alexander was extremely cute. He was tall, his hair looked as soft as a silky curtain, and he had an adorable smile. He seemed nice enough when I spoke to him briefly in the library as I was studying with Jesse. And Tyler put in a good word earlier.

"Either way," Celeste spoke, which interrupted my train of thoughts, "I think that you need to give at least one of these boys a chance."

"There are no boys, Celeste, it's not plural."

"Fine! Then you should listen to your brother," she said, nudging me and pointing at Alexander. He was on the court smiling and high-fiving Tyler. "Look at how adorable that boy is. Even if you think you don't want a relationship right now, you shouldn't just dismiss it. He's into you and you need to take advantage of that! You're blessed, Alex. Blessed."

♡♡♡

The game ended with the score being 92-80, our school's team winning. The entire crowd of students piled on the court to congratulate the team while Celeste and I took our time. We made our way down to the court once the huge crowd started to disperse. There were still a bunch of people, but it was slightly less chaotic.