No friends. No social life. No romantic relationships of any kind. Sure, I was voted ‘most shy’ by my high school class, but just because I’m quiet doesn’t mean I don’t have a rich inner life going on under the surface. I was never into things other people my age were into. In high school, my classmates loved to play mindless games on their iPhones like SongPop or Words with Friends. I found them to be a waste of time. They liked to talk about what hair products or pair of shoes they were going to buy next. I never had much spending money, so I couldn’t contribute anything to the conversation. Or they obsessed over their crushes or broken hearts, but until that night in the club, I had never been kissed. I had a few people I hung around with like Jody ‘Skeeter’ Wheeler, who never went anywhere except for school, and Tony Bianco, who ate lunch ostracized from the rest of the student body. I always felt a natural affinity for loners and rejects. It’s where I belonged. In their company, the pressure to fit in didn’t exist.
