Chapter 1. Love at first bonk

Tom had given up all hope. His heart had been broken so many times that he wasn’t sure he could ever take a chance again. He remembered when he was 3 and Julia Parker told him he was ugly. She was his first crush, and also his first crushing defeat. When he was 7 Daniella Striegel had Chosen Nathan Alred as a reading partner instead of him. Poor Tom, he had to read alone.

When he was 13 he had finally gotten enough courage up to ask out Becky Stevens. She was the most popular girl in the 7th grade. That was the worst rejection. She simply laughed at him in front of at least half the school. From that moment on Tom had decided that girls were no good. All they did was torment him. Even when he had a crush on Jamie Jensen in high school he did nothing because he knew it would inevitably end up in some kind of humiliating rejection he didn’t think he could handle.


So here he was in his 3rd year of college. His prospects were good here, oh I don’t mean his dating prospects, those were bleak, but he was doing well in school and things were looking good.

The Saturday before the semester started Tom was shopping for his school books at the local book store. It was supposed to be cheaper then the store on campus but Tom could never tell a difference in the prices. Tom always came to this book store purely on principle, he figured it was best not to support the book system on campus. All of that is purely beside the point though because we really don’t care about how much Tom paid for his books, we care about who he met at the store.

When Tom went to pull the book off the shelf he was oblivious to everything around him. Tom liked to think he was a very focused person when in fact he really just had a tendency to zone out. Anyways this was one of those times when Tom had zoned out as he was picking up his book, consequentially he didn’t notice the dark haired girl who had not noticed him and was reaching for the very same book. The girl was in her own world as well because she was listening to her favorite song on her ipod and was fighting the urge to sing it to the top of her lungs.

They both leaned over to pick up the book off a lower shelf. Now you might think their hands met on the book and they fell in love at first touch, but that’s not quite true. You see their hands never met because their heads made contact first. Tom’s hand immediately went to his head. “Ouch, damn it!” he cried. “For the love of …” She said leaving mumbling a little. Tom sat down and she crouched on her knees. “Sorry,” Tom began “I didn’t see you there.” She still had a painful look on her face. “My fault I’m sure.” She replied.


They both sat there waiting for the pain to subside. Finally the girl spoke up again. “Sorry again, so you’re taking that class too?” Tom laughed, “Yes I am.” He hesitated. Then she said what he was thinking, “My name is Sarah.” She reached out her hand to shake his. Tom reached out in return “Mine is Tom, sorry again.” He said as he noticed just how nice her face was. They shook hands and he thought to himself ooh she’s got soft hands.

“So who’s your teacher?” She asked. Tom was in a different world thinking of soft hands and staring at Sarah’s pretty face. Seeing he must have missed the question she asked again “Do you know who you’re teacher is Tom?” Tom reacted as though he had been startled awake from a pleasant dream. “Gorgeous face” he said combining one too many thoughts into a very incomplete sentence. “What?” Sarah inquired. Tom woke up, “Oh … I mean” finding no way to recover he hoped she’d just forget “I’m not sure, I can’t remember.”

Sarah smiled, as though she knew something he didn’t. Tom always hated it when girls did that, it’s like they were reading his all to empty brain. “Well maybe we’ll have class together. Are you feeling better? You don’t look so good.” He was staring at her again. Startled again he reacted, “Good, I mean no I’m good.” She gave him a look as though she were reading his brain again. “And you, are you ok?” He asked suddenly. “I’m fine.” She said simply.

Tom stood up before Sarah could and reached down a hand to help her up. She didn’t notice and rose on her own. Tom frowned thinking he’d sure like to hold her hand again. They both leaned in to get the book, this time avoiding each other. Tom couldn’t take his eyes off her, all the rules he had setup to avoid getting hurt again had gone out the window. You’re supposed to be practical Tom. He said to himself, and love isn’t practical! Tom had a tendency to have these kinds of arguments with himself.

“Well maybe I’ll see you in class” she said as she turned to leave. “yeah, well good luck with the next book.” He said. Sarah laughed, “you too.”
Tom walked the opposite direction but tried to keep her in sight. Man she’s cute. He kept on saying to himself. The other side of his head would promptly respond. Shut up Tom!