What Not to Date (four)

In the eighth grade, I had my shortest relationship ever.  Kach Morales—thirty-nine hours.  Kach and I had had an on-again-off-again-but-never-really-together relationship for about two years.  He was a year older than me, and the cousin of one of my good friends, Sam Morales.  In seventh grade, I had my chance with Kach, but in an instance of middle school miscommunication (as in not telling someone you like him/her  “that way” when you talk on the phone every night) I went out with Aaron Butler instead, and he went out with Laurie Anderson.  That year, Kach wrote me the first note I ever got from a boy.  I can still vividly remember reading it while sitting in Mr. Johnson’s Life Science class after lunch, when he’d secretly handed it to me, folded in eighths, with my name and “Don’t show Noone” written on front.


Michelle,
So what’s up nothing here.  Are you still going out with Aaron? Are you going to get Aaron something for Valentines?  Who do you like? Do you like anyone else besides Aaron? because I still like you a lot.  I was going to ask if we wanted to see each other and go somewhere + If it went good I was probably going to ask you out, but Aaron asked you out.  But remember this I still like you a lot.  Last night I said “I don’t care” because I did care I didn’t want you to go out with Aaron because I liked you.  Better go bell’s going to ring.  Write me back! (Today)
 Love Always,
 Kach Morales
P.S. I might still get you something for Valentine’s.


He did get me something for Valentine’s, although after much debate, I got something for Aaron instead of him (my mom, of course, tried to explain that if I was contemplating who to get something for Valentine’s Day for, perhaps I should reconsider who I was going out with.  And I, like most twelve-year-old girls, didn’t heed her advice).  Had I been smart, I would have broken up with Aaron directly upon reading this incredibly sweet note, saving myself both a month of Aaron, and four months of (not talking to) Tony.  Instead, I stuck it out, and after Aaron, I moved on to Tony.  Kach and I never moved past really good friends. 

The next year, he went on to high school, but for a while we continued to talk on the phone at least a couple nights a week.  Finally, finally, he asked me out.  I called him the next day.  He answered but said he was on the phone with Sam and that he’d call me back later.  He never did.  The next day I talked to Sam, who said he had hadn’t talked to Kach the night before.  I called him after school, where he then told me he just didn’t think it would work out for us to go out since he was in high school and I was still in middle school.  When would we even see each other?  We continued to be friends throughout high school, going through phases of intense best-friendness, and not talking to each other for months.  Over the years, we took a couple more stabs at it.  The summer before my junior year we enjoyed a six-week “friends with benefits” session—which included both the traditional sense of the term, and him providing me with free food from the fast-food restaurant he worked at.  Then during the school year, at a party at my house, we kissed.  I was however, as I was in seventh grade, going out with someone else.  And, again, as in seventh grade, I should have dumped that one and tried with Kach.  But I didn’t.   But we each knew if we ever really needed anything, the other would be there, and that sense of true, but not consistent, friendship lasted until I moved.