I entered the University of Delaware as a virgin.
This was not by choice. I was gawky. Unattractive. No confidence. No game. Oddly, little interest. Sure, I liked girls, and noticed particularly attractive ones. But I’d spent my high school years focused on sports and academics. Girls? Even the girls I liked, well, I was out of my league.
Anyhow, at the start of my sophomore year of college I was still a virgin, and it was getting increasingly depressing. As my friends left and right bragged of their conquests, I was the 20-year-old virgin, silently standing by, nodding but saying little.
Then, Mandi came along.
Mandi and I both signed up to be RAs in the Russell Hall dorm. She was a year older than me, and absolutely smokin’. Brown hair, brown eyes, very curvy and flirtatious. We had a training week before school started, and Mandi and I spent a ton of time together. There was an undeniable … something in the air, and had I known then what I know now (pardon to the cliche), I would have, for lack of a better term, made my move. Of course, I didn’t know then what I know now. So I simply asked her out for dinner on a first date. It went well, and afterward I walked her back to her room and … eh, shook her hand.
I shook her friggin’ hand.
Second date—I used a friend’s apartment to cook her dinner. I don’t remember the exact menu, only that it made little sense. Probably a pasta with a potato or something. Anyhow, we sat on the floor, eating and laughing … and, once again, I did nothing. Not a thing. Wished her good night, probably stuck out my hand, that was that.
Shockingly, she stopped returning my calls; stopped popping her head into my room. I was a cowardly kid, lacking the knowledge on how to move in on a woman; how to lean in for a kiss; how to maneuver my hands; how to do anything. I was lost. A boy. A know-nothing.
For weeks upon weeks, I hated myself for my limited skills. I replayed the dates in my mind, wondering why I was such a sack-less wimp.
Then, one day, I ran into Mandi’s friend on campus. I asked how things were going.
“Mandi dropped out of school,” she said. “She’s pregnant.”
