I felt my face get warmer, and undoubtedly redder, as I read each text message. This guy was perfect! I can’t wait to see that gorgeous face of yours :). I said the words in his voice over and over in my head. He had a way of phrasing things that left me unable to do anything but smile. Everything he wrote radiated his cool, confident charisma and his subtle, but hilarious, sense of humor. This was way too good to be true – now I just had to meet him.

We had been texting each other for weeks, a mutual friend had led us to do so. Now it was time for us to finally hang out together, after getting to know each other so well over the past few days. To my delighted surprise, he seemed just as excited as me. My heart pounded as I anxiously waited outside the movie theater, searching for the boy in the blue plaid shirt and Red Sox hat. When I did see him, it was less magical than I had imagined, and much more uncomfortable.

“Hey, um, are you Blake?” I smiled widely, hopefully, then quickly covered my lips over my teeth as I noticed his less than desirable reaction to my braces.

“Yeah, uh, Leah?” I noticed the disappointment in his voice, but hoped that I had misread it as his nervousness or even excitement. I nodded, and cringed a little while his eyes looked over my full figure critically. “Well, it was nice meeting you.” Blake flashed his perfect white teeth and turned his toned body away to leave without looking back.

I was left there, shoulders slumped and completely humiliated in front of a lobby full of people. My phone vibrated in my pocket. “Blake :)” popped up on the screen.

“Hello?” I whispered into the receiver.

“Hey!” Replied a voice full of cheer that I didn’t expect, “Sorry about that. Listen, you’re a really cool girl, you have a great heart. But I’m on the football team, the guys at school would tear me up if they saw me out somewhere with you. So do you want to come over to my place sometime or something?” He spoke as if one of the most embarrassing and self-esteem shattering moments in my life had not just taken place. Suddenly, his charm and smooth voice didn’t seem to melt my heart anymore. Instead, it turned my stomach. I hung up the phone and dialed my best friend. My voice cracked as I asked her to pick me up.