It’s the classic love story: Girl meets Girl. Girl and Girl share strange infatuations with sci-fi and Shakespeare and immediately become best friends forever and ever. Then Girl meets Girl’s incredibly breathtaking brother. Cue the head over heals. It really was baffling, because I never went for Roger’s type. He was big and brawny; at the time, I was into lean and scrawny. He was confident and preppy, a football player. I was normally only attracted to those who went against the grain, perhaps a garage band member with untamed hair of questionably natural color. But for some reason, some inexplicable twist in my mind’s wiring, I was drawn to Roger the moment I met him.
And he was entirely off-limits.
Now, I had always been rather mature for my age, not to strum my own guitar (player). I hung around the upper classmen in high school from the moment I entered and was often mistaken amongst my community theater friends for being much older than I really was. But Roger was five years older than I, and while I didn’t seem to be able to find a reason why our relationship would seem inappropriate, I was sure many others would.
So I kept my feelings under wraps; never telling anyone, even my best friend/his sister Rachel. But I felt it was rather obvious, since I was a fairly new player on the field of dating, my affection for Roger. I dropped subtle hints whenever he was mentioned in the conversation. Every time we ran into each other, whether at the movies or at Rachel’s or any random mundane location, he’d pick me up and swing me around. I didn’t pretend to be an expert in the world of male-to-female greetings, but to my delirious mind this meant his clandestine affection for me was nearly matched with my affection for him.
One summer we were both cast in a Shakespeare play at a local college. He, of course, was the valiant male lead, sought after by both female characters at some point throughout the show. I of course dreamed of playing opposite him, wanting nothing more than to portray the lover he spends the rest of his life with at the end of the story. No such luck. The place being a small theater, and rather bereft of an excess of males; and my being a character actress, I was cast as a neurotic and slightly dim-witted craftsman who writes and directs a horrid play within the play. The role was complete with my cross-dressing; that is to say, a hat to hide my hair, and a beard. Ah yes, fate must have had a hand in this romantic circumstance. What guy wouldn’t be attracted to a girl posing as an old man slightly off his rocker? I’m sure I’ve seen it in a romantic comedy, actually…”My Best Friend’s Brother”.
Needless to say, we didn’t get far that summer. I have no idea how or why, but my attraction to him seemed to truck forward despite my embarrassment. Must’ve been that manly-strong nature of mine everyone else seemed to be picking up on. However, my hopes were crushed when he began dating a mutual friend of mine and Rachel’s shortly after the show. I held out hope for a little longer, figuring I could act as a rebound as a last resort. But they held on for over a year, and I felt it was finally time to throw in the towel, or rather in my case, the hairnet.
So ends my tale of the classic American covet – when friend falls for friend’s sibling. True, it never grew to more than a simple crush, but I still recognize it as a milestone of my teenage years. Certainly to be revered up there with things like over-hemming my uniform skirt and then falling down the stairs at school the next day, or going all the “all-lettuce and orange juice diet” my friends were into. Experiences that I will carry with me always. Hey, I may not have learned much from ‘em – but they sure give my friends a hell of laugh now, and that’s the big picture coming full circle for you there. Or some such analogy.
