Heather's Crushes

I get silly romantic crushes all the time. Sometimes they are powerful, sometimes they are short-lived and faint. I believe that my romantic crushes are created as much by my flights of fancy as they are created by any actual knowledge of the target guy. I know that I will attribute qualities to a man that might not actually be there. This has generated some disappointments, but on the other hand it has also provided some spice, although usually just in my imagination.

My first crush was when I was about 7 or 8 years old. His name was Harvey Hinton. He wasn’t a good-looking kid, but he was about the best athlete in my grade. But the thing that got me was that he did not make a big deal about it. My girlfriends and I would watch him knock down an opponent in a playground football game, and then he'd smile and help the other kid up to his feet. To me Harvey was practically a playground superhero. How could I not get a crush?

Later in my public school career things had not changed much. I would get a crush on a boy who was never going to be a teacher’s pet, but yet underneath it all, was a nice, friendly kid. My imagination would take care of the rest. In 10^th grade the boy was Dale Corbin. I remember one time I was leaving school and I saw Dale and some of his pals at the edge of the school parking lot, sitting in a parked car and drinking beer. I recall carefully walked by them with my girlfriend, trying not to disturb them. But with a Busch Beer resting in his hand, Dale nonchalantly mumbled out, “How’s it going, Heather?” I had this feeling that if a girl was with Dale, she was in danger, and safe, both at the same time. At least that's how I imagined him. I thought he was very cool.

My current crush is on a guy who lives in my apartment building. I don’t know his name, so I’ll call him Brad. I have talked to Brad only about a half dozen times and even then just for a moment or two in passing, but I know enough about him to formulate a crush. Brad is personable without being overbearing. He has a sense of humor, a sense of humor that is often aimed at himself. He doesn’t own anything expensive and that doesn’t bother him a bit. Brad’s clothes are nice but nothing fancy, and his 15 year-old car is a prime target for his humor. Those things I know as truths, but I have this suspicion that there is something inside of the guy that he is not revealing. At least that's what my imagination wants to believe. My imagination sees a hidden dangerous side to Brad. If a girl got to know him she might find Brad a little devilish, perhaps even hazardous, but she would also know that when she is with him she would be safe, and that would be so cool.

When it comes to me and my romantic crushes, nothing seems to change much.