A Friend In Need
By
Kali Lowe
A Friend In Need
Copyright 2012 Kali Lowe
Smashwords Edition
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A Friend In Need
Tim was not one of those guys who is terrified of girls. But he was starting to believe he might become one.
"Be strong for me, Tim," Jeremy said with a grin. Tim just shook his head. He was sitting on the edge of Jeremy's bed, and Jeremy sat in a chair a few feet away. Tim glanced down. Emily's number was entered into his phone, just waiting for him to send it.
They were in Jeremy's bedroom, just hanging out before they hit the bars later. Tim was a skinny, unassuming guy, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Jeremy was tall and muscular, with clear blue eyes and wavy, shiny blonde hair that even girls were jealous of. He was the sort of person that would be pegged as a jock, except that he was also the smartest person Tim knew.
They had known each other for a couple of years. In that time, Jeremy had become a sort of big brother, always willing to help with no questions asked. He seemed to always be there to support Tim no matter what.
Currently, Jeremy was trying to help Tim with his chronic girl problems. Jeremy was the sort of guy who could always get any girl he wanted. Tim, well, wasn't. His current crush was Emily, a girl at his college, and Jeremy had finally convinced him to make a move.
Tim took a deep breath and dialed Emily's number.
It started ringing. He looked toward Jeremy as his eyes widened. His friend smiled encouragingly. Tim was so nervous he was trembling.
"Hello?"
"Hey!" Tim said, somewhat startled for some reason, as though he hadn't expected her to actually answer. "It's, um, it's Tim." There was a silence. "Hello?"
"Yes?"
"Is this Emily?" He glanced at Jeremy, who was wincing.
"Yes, speaking."
"Well, this is Tim." God, this was already a disaster. "Listen, I really enjoyed, um, talking about music with you, the other day, and stuff, um." He had had this rehearsed in his head. He'd gone over it a thousand times. He remembered none of it. "So, I was wondering if, you know, maybe tomorrow night, if you weren't busy, we could, um..." He gave up on that sentence and trailed off.
"Tomorrow night. Isn't that Valentine's Day?"
He paused. Oops. "Yeah, I guess it is."
"Oh. Well, um. I kinda have a thing..."
"Oh." He managed to keep a sigh out of his voice. "Well, of course. You don't want to miss that."
"Yeah. I'll see you in class, though?"
"Yeah, totally! I'll see you tomorrow. I mean, not tomorrow. At the next class." He paused. There was silence on the other end. "Um. Bye."
"Bye." She hung up.
Tim put away his phone and glanced at Jeremy, who was shaking his head. "I gotta be honest, man," Jeremy said. "Listening to that caused me physical pain."
"She said she had a thing. What does that even mean?" Tim held his head in his hands, despairing. "I'm just no good with girls. I can never get anywhere. I'm never going to have sex."
Jeremy shook his head again. "You shouldn't worry about it so much." He reached over and patted Tim's knee lightly. "You do this to yourself over and over again. It has to stop."
"What do you mean? It's not all my fault, is it?"
"Well, partly," Jeremy said. "But a lot of people do it. It's the sex. You're building it all up into something too big for you to handle. You're making yourself all intimidated by it. Listen." He stood and crossed the small space to his bed to sit down next to Tim. He threw an affectionate arm around Tim's shoulder.