I don’t think anyone understands love. Some love themselves, some love their friends, some love the opposite sex and some love the same sex. Family though, I don’t think many love their family. They’re forced to love them. I never loved mine…
But I did love someone, her name was Mitch. Yes, Mitch, not Michelle or some weird variation. She was one of those girls unfortunate enough to have a guy’s name. Not only that, Mitch was a very big girl and the brunt of some schoolyard teasing.
One day in math, I glanced her way, feeling the urge to run over and talk to her. She was sitting in the corner alone. She did not look my way. She just sat there copying notes.
“Can anyone define cosine?” said Mr. Stein.
Mitch raised her hand.

“Adjacent over hypotenuse,” she said.
The teacher nodded with approval.
The class came to an end. While we were packing up, I worked up some courage, struggled to my feet and walked over to her. The area around her desk was clear because everyone was at Meg’s desk.
I stopped in front of her desk. I felt awkward, even creepy.

“Hi,” I said. It was at that moment my thoughts turned negative. Why am I here? She thinks I’m a freak and I asked myself what I had really expected to happen.
She responded with a simple smile. It killed all doubt. But there was more, a timid, “Hi.”
Shuffling, I asked, “Do you want to do something… later?”
“Uhh, I gotta go,” she said and picked up her stuff and went over to the door. There she waited with a worried look and I went back to my seat and got my stuff, nervously wondering if there was going to be more.
The bell rang and the clot at the door was released into the hall. I was the last one out. When I walked by the girls’ washroom, a familiar voice said, “Eww. I just got asked out by a cripple.”