It took me a couple of weeks to learn of my friend's dislike for me. I would message him on snapchat asking if he would want to hang out. No response. I messaged my other friend, he came up with another excuse. I tried and tried, to no avail. Then, it hit me. They were not my friends. They were people I followed home. I invited myself over to his house. He did not invite me. I learned that the only person who was not annoyed by me was my crush. I then felt sad, but not nearly as sad as I was before 7th grade, being bullied as much as I was. I then thought that they thought I was annoying because I was full of myself, constantly claiming I was a chick magnet, when in reality, maybe two girls liked me. When I saw him in the 8th grade orientation, I tried to tell him I was full of myself, again, to no avail. It was the first day of school. I walked with my former friends as I did in 7th grade, talked, etc. I did a many number of annoying things on that walk home I regret, except one thing. She had to walk to her friends house to pick up her young sister. They than started walking home. They were far ahead of me when I started running. I ran, and ran, until I found her walking home. I did not know it then, but it was rather weird for me to do that. I ran to her, and I was introduced to her sister. They looked exactly the same. We then talked about the new teachers, how our math teacher seemed really funny. I then bolted home. It was the second week of school the next time I talked to her. The realization that her friends disliked me made me shy, which started a long cycle of being shy, as when I am shy, I feel like I cannot talk to her, and the more I do not talk to her, the more weird it seems to talk to her again, so an infinite amount of shyness was bestowed upon me for a long time. The next time we talked, it was when we were partnered together for a project. I made up a southern accent, a Dr. Phil, Bill Clinton esque accent. She erupted in laughter. A few days later, I saw my friends walking home. To my surprise, they were walking without my crush. I decided to walk with them? Specifically to annoy them. If there is one thing I am good at, it is being annoying. I did this because since I started liking her, I told them about it, I also made them promise not to tell her. I could tell she knew because of them. I found that rather rude. So I walked with them, except this time, they were rather vocal about how annoying I was. The topic of my crush came up in conversation. He asked if I still liked her. I said yes. I also said, "you probably told her right?" He threw me a look. I gave him a smug smile, as if to tell him I am not some dumbass that you can go back on your promises with. Our social connections were cut down to the occasional " 'sup" in the hallway.