Jennifer (1997) Age 16

I had a crush on Jen for many years up to this point. We had a few classes together over the years (when lower grades mixed in stuff like art class, because she was a grade or 2 below me), and I just felt this intense attraction to her every time I saw her. I worked up the nerve one day to call her and tell her I had a crush on her. We spoke on the phone many times over a period of 2 weeks or so. I was also in a class with her cousin, which I didn't even know until she mentioned that her cousin Jen was talking to a secret crush on the phone. I told her I was the guy, and asked her to describe me to Jen. So for 2 weeks I'm talking to Jen on the phone, and talking to her cousin in class. It was feeling like I might actually have a girlfriend soon. I kept trying to get Jen to meet up with me somewhere so we can talk in person, but she wouldn't. One day I was at Regal Cinemas seeing a movie, and me and my friend were leaving and I saw Jen with a bunch of people, heading into the theater. I said 'hey' to her, and she said 'Hi' in a really cute friendly way and smiled at me. I couldn't work up the nerve to say who I was because she was with a lot of other guys and I was scared they would attack me verbally or physically. Later that night I talked to her on the phone, and I was like "Hey we met today" and she was like "Oh really? when?" and I said "At the movie theaters, i was the guy in the black/red hoodie who said hi to you." and then I go "You looked so hot" and she goes "ew" *click*, hangs up on me. My heart broke, I called her right back but she picked up and hung up right away. I felt this intense hatred for myself. I spent a few days beating myself up thinking "why did i say that?" "why am I so stupid?", and after a few days I started to wonder if that was the reason she hung up. Maybe she remembered what I looked like, i mean we made eye contact and said hi to each other, I'm pretty sure that was fresh in her mind from just a few hours before the call. I'll never know the reason, but either way I hated myself for a long time after that...