Senior Year/Lunch with MAB
It was my second Saturday in a row I had to go to school for SAT tutoring. I did not want to be there, but by will of my parents, I was. To my surprise, the second week of studying brought a new study partner.
The girl I had spent the majority of my early teenage years dreaming about, the one and only Megan Alba Biel. Nearly four years of school had passed, and we only shared one class the entire time. I think we possibly shared two sentences worth of conversation as well.
I really don’t remember a lot of the actual STUDY part of that day, but I do remember that Megan was wearing a green short sleeve shirt, shorts, and flip flops. Her nails were painted pink, and she fidgeted with her pencil a lot while sitting across from me.
I also remember being extremely hungry.
I was embarrassed by the fact that my stomach was growling so loudly and often.
“No breakfast this morning?” she asked me with a smile.
“Not really” I replied, turning a little red.
We helped each other with the study session, and finally got through it. As we were getting our stuff together to leave, she asked if I was going to get some food on the way home. I can’t remember if she asked me, or the other way around… but regardless, we found ourselves eating lunch together at Burger King not long afterwards.
I was unusually at ease with her as we sat down to eat. We talked about how bad it stunk to be at school on a Saturday, and about how much we each dreaded taking the upcoming test.
The topic of college came up, and I told her that I didn’t have a clue where I wanted to go or what I wanted to major in. She rattled off a few schools she was interested in going to, but said she didn’t know what she wanted to major in just yet.
I told her of my new found passion in radio, and about spending time at the station after the school. I knew that was my calling, I just wasn’t sure how I was going to get there.
She expressed her excitement over her upcoming Macy’s Parade trip to NY with the band. The time spent in a city that big can mean a lot to a small town girl. We talked more and more about the endless possibilities that laid ahead of us in the coming months, and years.
In the midst of the conversation, she threw me a curve ball.
“What’s been going on with you lately? You don’t seem to be yourself.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, not really knowing what she was talking about.
“When I pass you in the hall, you always seem to have your head down”.
I really didn’t know what to say. My first reaction was that I was shocked she even really paid that much attention to me. We just occasionally crossed paths in the hall, but it wasn’t like we knew each other that well.
I really didn’t want to get into the whole breaking up with Katie thing. So I just blew off it off, and tried to change the subject. I put the focus of our conversation back on her.
“Oh, everything is fine” I said. “Tell me about what you want to do when you get to
I was talking about life with Megan Alba Biel over a double cheeseburger and coke at the BK Lounge, it all seemed a bit surreal to me at the time. I played coy for a little while, but eventually gave in and told her about the break up and how I hadn’t really been myself since.
She said she had recently broken up with her boyfriend as well, but she refused to let that bring her down that much. It hurt, but she wasn’t going to let it ruin her senior year.
“We only get one Senior Year, and I’m not going to let anybody take that experience away from me. You shouldn’t either. You deserve better than that.”
She made me promise that I would try to make the most out of my last year in High School.
She had said what many others had been trying to tell me for months, but I hadn’t listened. However, because it was coming from her, this time, and I was listening. It was the first day of me finally getting over what had happened months before. The light at the end of the tunnel had gotten a little bit brighter thanks to her.
Her eyes seemed to soften when she listened to me. Her smile was genuine and warm. Her laugh was the kind of laugh that made you want to constantly think of something witty to say, just so you could hear it again. The way my heart beat heavily while sitting there with her, yet at the same time, feeling unusually comfortable was a strange feeling.
Talking to her was easy. It was more natural than I ever imagined that it could be. It made me wish I hadn’t waited until my Senior year to actually HAVE a conversation with her.
I know this may sound kind of funny... but somewhere in our deep talk, I noticed a little mustard on the corner of her mouth. I chose not to tell her about it. The slight imperfection made her all the more attractive to me. It made her seem real, and not just the dream girl I had made her out to be.
I had spent years thinking about the blond girl across the classroom in 9th grade. She was the focal point of many a daydream for me during the long boring days of mundane classes and too often lonely lunch periods. All that time I had focused on how stunningly beautiful she was, without really knowing exactly who she was.
I began to realize that Megan Alba Biel wasn’t too much different than me.
She had dreams, like myself that were to big too be contained in our small town. She felt the excitement of the unknown that came after high school. She knew the future was wide open, and yet it was right around the corner. The feeling is both exhilarating and terrifying.
Megan was more than just another popular girl.
She was even more than a pretty girl.
She was a real young woman. She had thoughts, dreams and feelings that she was willing to share with me over an impromptu lunch. It was flattering for her to open up to me in such an honest way, and to allow me to do the same.
Like I had said many times before, Megan Alba Biel set the mark for everything that was beautiful to me. Only after spending over two hours with her at lunch, I realized that her beauty far surpassed her appearance.
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