It's Not You, It's...No, Wait, It's You

I love talking on the phone and I spend a lot of time doing it. There are 4 or 5 people I talk to at least once every day. I happily take their calls and don’t mind lulls in our conversations.

But at the same time I hate talking on the phone. I think it is some abnormal fear I have of getting stuck on the phone and committing to something because I’m not able to find a way out. Yeah, that is probably it. BECAUSE IT HAS HAPPENED.

One of the more memorable phone conversations that ended with me hanging up the phone and thinking “HOW DO I GET OUT OF THIS?!” happened when I was 15. Thinking about it now still makes me squirm a little.

In the middle of one of my family’s Sunday dinners my parents’ phone rang. I left the table to answer it only to discover that it was the son of someone from my Dad’s office calling to see if I would go out to lunch with him that Wednesday. Unable to come up with a good excuse NOT to, I agreed. I immediately regretted it. I had little-to-no interest in spending time with him and the fact that our parents worked together complicated things even more. Had this been an email, text message, or voicemail requiring a call back, I would have been prepared. I would have had to work that day. I would have been deathly ill. My father would have forbid it. ANYTHING.

But no. He caught me. I was trapped. I had to go to lunch with him.

The lunch was pretty painful. Before it was even over he was planning our next date. We were going to go out on his parent’s boat. We were going to hang out with his friends. We were going to see that new movie.

I didn’t take his calls for a good 2 weeks after that first date. I couldn’t understand why he kept calling- I figured 2 weeks of no response should send the message I am not interested.  Finally I answered the phone and broke it to him- This wasn’t going to work out. I gave reasons and he took them and it was over.

I wish I had handled this situation differently. I could have been more open-minded or more considerate of his feelings. But, instead, what I took out of this experience was DO NOT ANSWER THE PHONE. EVER.

We are (facebook) friends now and have gotten together a time or two since this ordeal. We text and email and keep up on each other’s lives. I actually started to like him- UNTIL IT HAPPENED AGAIN.

He sent me a text message, to which I responded almost immediately because I had my phone next to me. THEN HE CALLED. He knew I had my phone with me because of the text I had just sent. I feared his phone call and ended up sending it to voicemail with a text immediately following saying I was in class and unable to take the call.

I am normally an honest person, I swear. But something about the phone brings out the worst in me.

Eh, no one is perfect. What can ya do.