Not Just A Background Character
My brother Ryan and his friends (Will and Mitch) went to St. Charles Preparatory High School. While there, they became friends with another guy whose name also happened to be Ryan. Will, Mitch, and Ryan have been playing music together since their eighth-grade year and started Cousin Simple their junior year. Shortly after the band was founded, they performed in a battle of the band's competition. It was here that I officially met the other Ryan and, more importantly, for the sake of this installment, his sister Paige.
I give off, as the kids say, main character energy, and I always have. I have grown up a lot, but in 2017, when the Battle of the Bands happened, the world revolved around me. Paige is a lot quieter than I am, so even though I've known her for six years, she has been a background character in my life for most of that time. As a result, while I'm sure we did talk, none of our conversations escalated past small talk.
In Season 3, I released an installment called "The Kid Kronicles #1-Jimothy." In it, I mentioned that in December 2019, I went to an ugly Christmas sweater party, dressed up in a Grinch costume. Well, this ugly sweater party was hosted at the house of someone who went to St. Charles with both Ryans, Will, and Mitch. So naturally, Paige was there too. She was drinking a little bit, and it was, under those circumstances, she and I had our first legitimate conversation. I remember almost immediately being attracted to her as we conversed, but I caught myself. Mitchell, I thought, she's Ryan's friend's baby sister. It could be really awkward if you make a move. And so I squashed any feelings that could have developed into a crush. Not gonna lie; the pending pandemic did help!
At the beginning of March, Cousin Simple played at Newport Music Hall. As mentioned in the installment, I wrote about that show (Columbus Against The World); my grandma (Nimba) signed a Cousin Simple groupie's T-shirt. When I was still recovering from the awesomeness that was that moment, I looked up and saw Mom charging at the railing toward me. Since so much was happening, I was a little overstimulated, and it took me a bit too long to realize that Mom was dragging Paige with her!
Because I had been worried about making things awkward in Ryan's friend group, I hadn't told Mom about how I had almost developed a crush on Paige at the ugly sweater party. She just thought Paige would like to see a familiar face. Fortunately, Paige misread Mom's intentions and thought the only reason Sandra would be dragging me toward Mitchell was if he had a crush on me!
I helped Paige under the railing and into the mosh pit, and as we talked between bands, I thought, oh yeah, I definitely like this girl. Because she had already assumed I had a crush on her, she picked up on what I was thinking and started flirting with me. After Cousin Simple played their set, I turned to Paige and said, "We should hang out sometime."
"Absolutely," she replied, "What's your number?"
To Be Continued…
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