On why I shouldn't have been so unlucky last Friday

Last Friday was insanely unlucky for me. Maybe because it was Friday the 13th but I don't really go for that shit and anyway 13 is my favorite number. There is an explanation for that.

When I was a junior in high school, I had two best friends. We were the three musketeers. Let's call them Athos and Porthos because I want to be Aramis. I always thought Aramis was kinda gay. Well, Athos, Porthos, and I, we were almost inseparable, we sat together at lunch and we did extracurriculars together and we went home together. I guess one of the few things that we gave each other space for was when girls entered the scene and even then we weren't really good at staying away. Especially because Athos and Porthos were dating Prue and Piper so we were always building each other up with the girls.

Guess which one is Aramis. It shouldn't be too hard.*

So know that at this point in my life, I was exceedingly confused. Like I was a total horndog for guys but I loved girls, a love that was pure and chaste. In other words, total bullshit but come on, I was 16, I didn't know any better than to fall in puppy love with Phoebe.

I was totally smitten by her. She was lithe and willowy and her voice was like the tinkling of spring water. That previous sentence may be from a poem I wrote for her but never had the guts to give her. I was a total dork about the whole thing. Like I would be extra nice to her and find any excuse to hang out but I always made the excuse that it was just because our friends were dating. I was such a pussy I opted for the friend zone.

And unless you think that I am wandering ever further from any explanation of my favorite number, we're almost there.

One day I thought that I should at least make her aware of what I felt, even if she did not know who it was coming from. Doesn't every high school girl giggle at getting notes from a secret admirer? Except I did not write her actual ntoes. I bought a new sim card and spent every night composing love quotes that I would then send to her. Looking back I find this episode enduringly embarrassing but I am nevertheless proud of those messages. They were at least, original.

Nor speech is close nor fingers numb
If love not seldom has received
An unjust answer, was deceived.
I, decent with the seasons, move
Different or with a different love,
Nor question overmuch the nod,
The stone smile of this country god
That never was more reticent,
Always afraid to say more than it meant.

**

Eventually, she fell in love with that persona, or as in love as one can feel with a textmate, which, going by the replies she sent, can be quite like real love. Seeing as I am an egotist who cannot keep his mouth shut, I had to tell someone and who better to share the secret with than Athos and Porthos.

For some strange reason they insisted that I save their contacts on my secret sim card. Athos chose to save his number as "3". Porthos saved his as "Z". 3z sounds like trese, thirteen.

I decided then that it would be my lucky number. That is how much I treasure my friends.

That is also how awfully lame this story is, very much like the last Friday, Friday 13th, as well as most other days in my life.


*Image is from this website.
**The verse above, is sadly, not my own. It is an excerpt from A Letter, by W.H. Auden. You can read the poem in its entirety, as well as several others, here.