The Sunset Strip Diaries Read Online Free PDF Page B

panicked and pretended it wasn’t happening. He was a tall kid with dark blond hair that looked wet with gel; big wide-set blue eyes and some freckles. He tried getting my attention for a few weeks, and I just couldn’t bring myself to look back at him or show any interest even though I found him totally cute.
     
    I fantasized about Zack and was flattered he liked me. I never dreamed another girl would swoop in and take him away. I became friends with popular Kelly Fiorella that year. She was a talkative, social girl who dated all of the boys and somehow remained a good girl. She found Zack attractive and she wanted to date him. It took all of two days for them to become a couple. She had another girl go up to him and ask what he thought of her (which apparently was the way to get someone to go out with you in junior high), and the word was out that she was interested. The next thing I knew, they were boyfriend/girlfriend. I was crushed. I wanted to cry tears of navy blue eyeliner. I couldn’t believe he went for it!  He was no dummy; he was like, Where do I sign up?
     
    I fantasized that he would tell her in a very dramatic Days of Our Lives tone, “No…my heart is with someone else ,” but he never did. I was mean to Kelly and didn’t want to hear her lispy, lovesick ramblings. She asked me to sit with them at lunch. Both Zack and I were uncomfortable. I wondered though…what did they talk about? How did it go? How did one have a boyfriend at thirteen? We couldn’t drive…How was it done ? Did you have to do more than kiss? I felt really behind. What if something embarrassing happened between the boy and me? It was such a small school. I would have to see the boy every day. What if he laughed in my face because I didn’t know what to do with him? Everyone would know about it. I just couldn’t do it.
     
    I set my sights on another boy named Eric. He was a troublemaker who was always in the principal’s office. Now that I look back, he was not cute.  He was sort of scrawny and had squinty eyes. Anyway, we were supposed to do some performance for the school and he chose me as a partner. We were supposed to represent the 1960’s and do the Twist. I made sure I was absent that day, because there was no way I was getting on the Middleton stage and doing some lame dance. But that was all insignificant as far as I was concerned because a real live boy had requested me as his partner!
     
    Suddenly, I was in love. I wrote about Eric in my diary, filling it up with flowery prose. I think I filled two or three diaries with nothing but Eric, Eric, Eric ( cuckoo clock noise ). Then I started to become seriously psycho. I started crying over him in my room, listening to love songs and lighting candles. The Jets’ “You Got it All” would make me sprout tears and Bon Jovi’s “Never Say Goodbye” would make me do the ugly cry face and want to stab myself in the heart. I thought of nothing but squinty-eyed Eric. Every day I would put on my makeup and do my hair thinking of him, hoping to run into him. He never even spoke to me! I never even had a conver sation with this boy! I just stared at him, trying to lock eyes with him. At first he looked back. Then he started to realize I was crazy and he wouldn’t meet my gaze. He was probably thinking, I will never request a dance partner again for the rest of my life! My sister tried to comment on my obsession and I yelled, “You don’t know what love is!” through tears and snot as she looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I was a giant, heaving bowl of crazy with sprinkles on top.
     
    I still liked the blond boy, Zack, and to my dismay, he became best friends with Eric. Once that happened, they both avoided me completely. They even started to make fun of me. I remember one day hearing them snicker after I walked by in my one-inch Payless pumps with socks, wearing my mom’s ill-fitting black and white checked shirt, a long white skirt, and my clown makeup. Another