Story Time

EP. 1

Oct. 5th

The Walter and Tristan triangle. Picture a third-grade little girl, with dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a smart mouth. That's me.

Tristan was this pale little boy, I'm not sure why I thought he was so cute, but he was smart. He was the only boy in class who could finish the math sheet in under 1 minute! And of course, that was so astonishing to me and so impressive. Walter was a scrawny little black boy, to whom I never really paid attention purely because he was so shy. And naturally, they were best friends.

I was a loud little third grader and therefore, I “got along with the boys”. I remember thinking that Tristan and Walter were so cool playing basketball on the court at recess. Boy, did I really really like Tristan.

Anyway, Book Fair time, and I asked Mama for money, of course, I wanted to buy myself some Bad Kitty books, and I saw a bracelet. I didn’t fall in love with this little thing by any means, still chose a book over it, but I did like it.

Moving on, the very next day, Walter comes up to me, puts the bracelet on my desk, and walks away. I thought it was weird. Because he didn’t say anything. Just dropped it on my desk and left. So, I liked it, I eventually got to say thank you and I did wear it, but I thought it was weird.

I had a crush on his best friend and all of my friends were telling me that he liked me. I was confused and ultimately, didn’t spend too much time worried about it. I never really hung out with either one of them and for having such a big crush on Tristan, as a third grader, I didn’t do anything much about it. There was no, me trying to butt into their group and hang out with them.

I just had a crush on Tristan, and apparently, Walter had a crush on me. Hence the triangle.

Now, like I said, nothing happened. Nothing became of it. Of course, we were in third grade for crying out loud. However. On the last day of school, one small thing changed.

Everyone was filing out of class, the hallways were so crowded. I turn, and find Walter in front of me, holding his basketball in front of him (like always). I smiled, said have a good summer, and he smiled and said the same.

Then, he went to turn and leave, paused, and turned back, telling me to wait. So I did. Smiling stupidly. He stepped closer to me until the basketball was pretty much at my stomach too, and he kind of leaned in… I just thought he wanted to tell me something, it was really loud, so I waited, but then he shook his head, said bye, and walked away.

Now, little third-grade me was on the bus, Walter had gotten picked up at school. Tristan came and sat next to me right before his stop, I was so giddy and excited. He asked me if Walter had done it.

“Done what?”

Then, my crush shuts down and gets sad for his friend. He didn’t ever tell me what Walter was supposedly going to do. But I did find out that Walter was moving to Texas that summer, and he wouldn’t be back next school year.

As you could guess, I was confused. I asked Tristan over and over before he got off the bus, “What was he gonna do?”

“Nothing, I promised I wouldn’t tell.”

Tristan got off the bus, and I never saw either of those boys again, Tristan left too. But, I eventually drew the conclusion that Walter definitely liked me. And he definitely was a basketball away from kissing me that day. I kept his bracelet for a while, but it eventually broke.

And honestly, even though I was just in third grade, I really regret not noticing Walter more. It makes me sad sometimes.

And for those of you who need to know, today's PSA; Feeling sad after making a tough decision, doesn't mean it was the wrong decision.