Curvy Girls Can’t Date Soldiers by Kelsie Stelting

Sixteen

Apollo

I neededto watch Sex and the City.

That’s what I thought as I watched Josh walk away with his girl. He hadn’t even told me her name, but her face was caught in my mind. He’d spotted her across the gym and pointed her out. She had big curly hair framing the most unique face I’d ever seen. She was beautiful, one of a kind—I could tell from twenty feet away. But she had left the game with my roommate. And here I was. Alone.

The game didn’t seem so interesting anymore.

I decided to get up and grab some food, maybe get some air.

The line at the concession stand was long, so I skipped it, heading toward the exit. There was a couple ahead of me. A guy who looked tall enough to be on the basketball team and a slender girl. He had his arm around her waist, and she looked up at him.

She almost looked like the photo I had of Nadira, but I shook it off. I’d been talking to her so much lately, every girl with dark skin and black hair looked like her at first glance. Maybe because I wanted it to be her so badly.

Eight months without dating was a long time after a two-year relationship, and I was ready to move on. I wanted to move on with Nadira.

Which was crazy considering I’d only known her for a week, but I just had a feeling. My gut was hardly ever wrong.

I pushed through the exit and turned left. The couple ahead of me was too close. I was too jealous.

I walked along the sidewalk by the stadium, taking deep breaths. I reached for my phone and went to my messages. I was tired of texting Nadira. I wanted to hear her voice instead. Know what her laugh sounded like.

But I was worried too. Would how much I wanted to talk to her scare her away?

I let out a sigh and dialed a different number. My brother’s.

He answered after a few rings, and I heard birdsong in the background.

“What’s up?” he said.

“Just left a basketball game. You?”

“Bette and I went camping,” he said. “I can’t believe I have enough service for a call to come through.”

I felt lucky he had service, but now I realized how pathetic I sounded. I was just jealous of Josh meeting a pretty girl. The way she had smiled across the gym at me had made my stomach turn upside down. Would it feel the same way when Nadira looked at me? Would she ever look at me?

“So,” Colby said. Which was code for why are you really calling.

I let out a sigh. “I’ve been talking to a girl.”

He whooped loudly, and I imagined the birds from earlier taking flight. “What’s her name? When can I meet her?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then how is it?” he asked.

I let out a sigh. “You know how I signed up for that research study?”

“Yeah?”

“She’s my pen pal.”

He laughed. “You been writing love letters?”

“Okay, I’m hanging up.”

“No no,” he said. “What’s the deal? Are you dating her? Did you ask her out?”

“I haven’t even met her in real life,” I said. “But I want to. We’ve been talking for a week, and I don’t know how to ask without being weird, you know?”

“Yeah...” Colby was quiet for a moment. “Can’t you just ask her out on a date?”

“She’s in high school.”

“Cradle robber.”

I scuffed my shoe over a weed growing through the sidewalk. “I hate you.”

“How old is she?”

“Eighteen. She’s a senior.”

“She pretty?”

“Colby.”

He chuckled. “What? It’s an honest question.”

“She is,” I said, but it kind of annoyed me. I didn’t want to date a pretty girl—someone obsessed with makeup and appearances. I wanted to date someone real. Someone unique. Someone like the girl Josh had left with earlier. But Nadira’s personality more than made up for it. “And she’s funny and smart. We can actually talk about math without her getting bored.”

“Sounds like a winner,” Colby said. His voice crackled.

“Colby,” I said.

But his voice broke up even more before the line went silent.

I sighed and sat on a bench along the sidewalk. From here, I could see the building where I took most of my classes. It was brick. Plain. But I didn’t see it—not really. I was thinking of what it would be like to meet Nadira in person. What it would be like to have her smile at the sight of me.

I took out my phone and opened a new email, deciding to practice what I would send her.

Dear Nadira,

I’ve enjoyed talking with you. What do you say we continue this conversation in person? Maybe at a restaurant?

I groaned, quickly deleting the text. How lame could I sound?

Dear Nadira,

I want to hear your voice.

Okay, that was creepy. Delete.

Dear Nadira,

I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Have you been thinking about me?

Too needy.

I let out a sigh and shoved my phone in my pocket. I really did need to watch Sex and the City, see what the scripted, perfect guys on TV said to get a girl interested, because I was definitely rusty. If I’d ever been good at all.

I stood from the bench and walked back to the game, but instead of paying attention to basketball, my mind was filled with thoughts of one person.