My Life as a Spectator in a Romantic Drama--part three

When we returned to the life at school, she joined the social group of Frisbee fun and dinners. And the intensity of the flirting continued to increase. I noticed it; everyone (not necessarily the town “Everyone”, but the smaller social group everyone) noticed it. Sarah and Daniel certainly hung out a lot and they were, well… flirty. Not being flirty myself, I have a hard time figuring out how one differentiates between friendly flirting and serious I-really-think-I-like-you flirting. This one definitely felt of the latter type. So, being her close confidant and friend after our bonding experience with the stitches, she told me how much she liked the fellow, and how confused she was, and asked what on earth she should do. Me, being the guru of all relationship advice, gave her what little I had, and told her to be patient, which is always good advice because no one ever follows it and thus no one can ever blame you for being wrong. Besides that, I gave her was support I could, a shoulder to cry on, a calm ear and head. That is really what most people need, someone who is calm and levelheaded. I almost always fit that category; it makes me nice and boring. So we, eventually titled “The Girls”, started hanging out in the company of Daniel (and often his brother Ethan) more and more often. And life went on; and life was fun. Sarah especially spent as much time as possible distracting Daniel from his beloved laptop computer, the source of all homework and a good number of procrastination techniques like instant messenger. Daniel has more people on his IM than anyone I know. One day when I procrastinating some myself in our local coffee shop, Sarah came in. Daniel was behind the counter and she walked up to the counter and gave it a smack. This is her normal “Hello, I am frustrated” greeting. Daniel’s response was: “Was that a Today-Was-Rough-Day smack or a We-Need-To-Talk smack?” BING! My curiosity was suddenly engaged. “We need to talk” is a phrase more rarely heard out of a guy’s mouth when there is no expressed relationship than a house getting absolutely no junk mail for an entire year. And up to that point I had not heard of any serious discussion between them. But I figured the truth would come out soon enough, no prodding needed. Sarah rarely needed prodding to spill anything and everything. So I waited. It did come out in a couple of days, by which time I had figured out that something had changed on my own. But it is always good to have your suspicions confirmed by those who actually have the information. She was surprised that I could tell, but then I gave her the clues and she was still surprised, but acquiescent. I tend to people watch and notice strange things. Sarah said that they had run into each other in one of the buildings on campus and had a DTR, of sorts. “Define the Relationship” talks are always weird but in this one they decided that they had both been flirting and they both liked each other, but Daniel didn’t know if he liked her enough. Enough to actually date her was the concern. I am afraid he might still have been a little wary after his last experience with whatever-her-name-was-that-I-would-change-even-if-I-remembered. Anyway, the poor boy was terrified and Sarah was frustrated. Thus, the confused venting increased, poor girl. She didn’t deserve his waffling. But that is what you get when you have flirty people.

--To Be Continued...