In Which There is Flirtation

Things can get a little weird in Ally and I's dorm room when it's as late in the evening as it is late in the semester. Our room becomes a passing stop for equally overtired comrades, who are given the rare opportunity to witness Ally and I in our most fragile mental state. Take, for example, our practice night for Flirting Friday.

After respective cases of tummy troubles and burnout, Ally and I resigned ourselves to a night in last Sunday. A double feature of Singin' in the Rain and Return to Me was in order. We topped off the afternoon/evening with giant fuzzy blankets and room service (a.k.a. a pair of nice friends who kindly brought us dinner around five or so). The night went on, and slowly our minds unraveled. We were exhausted in every sense of the word. Between exams and the comings and goings of daily life, I think I speak for both of us when I say that I was completely and totally DONE. Honestly, Thanksgiving break should have started that weekend for me -- I don't think anything received my full attention the rest of that week. On a crazy scale of one to Norman Bates, we were about a seven. It was in this mentally unstable state that somehow, someone proposed the idea of Flirting Friday.

According to tradition, Friday is "Fluff-off Friday" for Ally and I. No housecleaning ("house" being our tiny dorm room). No laundry. No chores. Just well-deserved relaxation after a week well done. Trading it in for Flirting Friday didn't sound very appealing, but I humored Ally, as well as a friend who was keeping us company in our room.

I, Honest Abe, told 'em like it is: "But I can't flirt to save my life."

So Ally decided to show me how it was done.

Her version of flirting, or at least the version that was presented to me on that exceptional evening, was discussion of Shakespeare punctuated frequently by the word "like". (Even when she's it down, Ally still comes across as smart.) Then it was my turn. There was lots of hair twirling… Yup, that was pretty much it. I quit a few lines in. It was BAD.

So we laughed it all off and abandoned the idea of Flirting Friday. At least, I did… until the memory came rushing back during a Black Friday interaction that revolutionized my self-image*.

* That was definitely hyperbole, just to clarify. Exaggeration hand raised all the way up, peeps.

I don't know where my sisters and I got the bright idea to drive to the theater that is attached to a mall on Black Friday when there is a perfectly good theater half the distance from our house in the opposite direction, but that's what we did. I think my sis wanted to get some shopping in, and naturally she was the only one who had luck in the half hour we spent running like mad around the store. ANYWAYS. We walk in to the theater with just enough time to snag tickets and seats before the previews start. I pay for all of us -- 3 PM showing of Catching Fire for four -- and we head towards the ticket-ripper-guy. He was pretty tall, had some seriously curly, relatively long hair, and I couldn't peg an age on him. (Had to be at least eighteen.) As he ripped our tickets and pointed us towards Theater 1, he cracked a joke about not getting lost. It was pretty funny, sure. I mean, Theater 1 was in plain sight from where we were standing. Everyone gives that polite laugh that is genuine but not quite genuine because it wasn't *that* funny. Last girl standing, I hand him my ticket, and he looks at me and says something about "following my friends" or something like that. And it hit me like lightning. His tone, the look he was giving me… It wasn't a normal social interaction.

THIS GUY WAS FLIRTING WITH ME.

Instead of panicking or making some derptastic noise, I felt a surge of power. The perfect witty comeback materialized right in the forefront of my mind. I knew precisely what smile to give him. I could have even batted my eyelashes for good measure. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BLACK FLIRTING FRIDAY, PEOPLE.

But I didn't. I wasn't interested. I think I laughed politely again and booked it to the bathroom. Yet even though it was an isolated incident and I didn't follow through with it and it wasn't even that big a deal, for about two seconds I possessed the power of flirtation. It was empowering. But honestly, I'm pretty happy being my incapable-of-flirting self. Can you imagine if I had the power of flirtation in addition to all of my other numerous gifts, namely my knack for humility? A girl can only be so many things before it starts becoming unfair. You know, before people start to hate you... I think I'll leave the flirting to the professionals.

Please don't kill me. O_O

PS - Catching Fire was pretty good. DUDE, KATNISS' SWEATER THING. It's like a cocoon, but for PEOPLE.