Vanessa watched sadly as all her friends paired off with their boyfriends to dance. She had come alone. By choice of course. Still. It was a little sad watching couples dance as she sat at one of the small two person tables.
This was the last straw. One way or another, she was going to find out how to get a boyfriend. She hated being alone on Valentine's day. She hated sitting with her friends at the lunch table, and seeing them talk about their boyfriends.
"Hey, Vanessa." Said a voice as she sat there.
It was a boy from her fourth period Psychology class. She smiled at him. She liked him well enough.
"You here with anyone?" she asked.
"No." he said smiling down at the ground. "I was going to ask someone, but chickened out. You?" he asked.
"No. Hey, wanna go get some fresh air?" she asked.
They went to sit outside in the court yard. He noticed she wasn't looking too happy.
"I'm lagging behind in all the fun." She said as they sat down with their drinks. "Everyone has a boyfriend or girlfriend, and I'm just single. It makes me feel like a weirdo." She confessed.
"Why?" Kevin asked. "Do you feel lonely?"
"No. But everyone else has someone. They look at me strangely because I don't. They look at me strangely because I'm different."
"You are pretty weird." Kevin said gently. "Just kidding." He saw the expression on her face.
"I think I need to go to therapy." She said as she took a sip of her soda. "I think my emotions are broken."
"How about, you're not ready to have a boyfriend?" Kevin said sadly. "Nothing is wrong with you. Eventually, you'll get comfortable enough to ask whoever it is you're attracted to."
That's it. She had never managed to find someone attractive in all these years. Not even a fake middle school romance. She just felt sadder thinking about this.
"Who were you going to ask?" she asked.
"I wanted to ask Selia." He muttered. "In our class."
"You dodged rejection." Vanessa said grinning. "She came with Sam."
"Those two really need to make it official." He muttered. "They break up and get back together every four weeks."
She went home sad that night. She came in around two in the morning. She'd gone to dinner alone. She stopped at a Denny's and got some breakfast. She thought about her situation as she ate.
Her friends knew about her. Or at least, three of her closest friends. She never had been attracted to anyone. She didn't want to date, she didn't want to experiment. She never talked about crushes on celebrities like others did. She didn't talk about teachers the way some girls sometimes do. She never got a crush or infatuation for anyone. Today, it all came crashing down on her.
Was she a freak? Was there something wrong or missing inside her? She felt curious. Yet, not curious enough. She was curious for the wrong reasons. She just wanted to find out what was wrong so she could get her friends to include her in their conversations. She felt indifferent about the fact that she had never dated.
"Hey, Vanessa." Said a soft voice as she walked into the house. Her uncle Cory was in the kitchen. He had a bowl of food in his hand. "How was the prom?" he asked as she hung up her coat.
"It was meh. I guess I expected more."
"Did you dance with anyone?" he asked.
"Not even once."
Cory couldn't understand it. She was so pretty. She had waist length black hair, pretty unusual blue eyes. She was perfect. She has a perfect round ass, and full C cups. He knew her size because he'd over heard her talking to a friend once. She had been in the kitchen and he had walked in on her talking.
"Wanna come downstairs and watch a movie with me?" he whispered.
"You know mom." Vanessa said grinning.
Vanessa's mom didn't very much like her brother. Her father was another story. He loved Cordilia's brother. He and Cory did stuff together all the time.
Her mom hated him. She was the younger one, and he had gotten a lot of attention during their child hood. He was older by five years.
Vanessa was told never to go downstairs at night. She had been caught at least three times. Her mother was livid. She would ground her for a few weeks, and she'd have a fight with Cory. Stuart often tried to smooth things over, but Cordilia didn't budge.
She wouldn't let Vanessa have a car or a smart phone. She had a basic flip phone, and drove her parents' car when it was available. Which was hardly ever.
It didn't matter though. As the years went by, the others got serious about their relationships. She didn't hang out with friends as much as she used to. So she didn't really have a need for the car.
Her father had convinced Cordilia to let Vanessa have a bike. She really liked it. She was very glad to have even one mode of transportation out of her house.
"Well, yeah. Oh well. I guess we can watch something tomorrow." He said smiling. "You can tell me about the prom then."
For the next few weeks, she was silent with her friends. She wanted to figure herself out. She wanted to figure out why no one was attractive to her. She biked to and from school. Summer was coming so the weather was pretty good. She reflected as she rode.
"Mom?" she asked one day after school. She was in the kitchen helping her get ready for dinner.
"Yes?" her mom asked sternly. She was a very no non-sense type of woman. She was always snappy and cold to everyone. Including her husband.
"How did you meet dad?"
"Oh, Vanessa. We met in middle school." She sighed as she cut the potatoes. "He was going out with this other girl, I really hated. He dumped her, and we hooked up. We realized we weren't a match. But mom and his family really wanted us to get together. So here we are."
Vanessa felt her stomach drop. "Mom, that's not true." She said with a grin. "You love dad."
