“Are You Bored or Do You Just Have a Boring Face?”

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“Are you bored or do you just have a boring face?”

I grimaced, took a sip of my water, and looked this stranger over.

Rude, I thought. I turned to Sasha, who was preoccupied by a conversation with different strangers. I nudged her. “I want to go,” I said. “Are you ready?”

It had been a quick trip to Finn’s that evening. The bar had been busy, packed with other college students. I felt exhausted, eager to climb into bed. As we trudged up the street towards home, I relayed what had transpired. I was feeling angry. I was also feeling insecure, and I wasn’t yet able to identify the behavior that they now apparently call “negging.”

“Do I have a boring face?” I asked.

“Allie, please,” Sasha replied. “You’re just tired. Who was it, anyway?”

“That tall guy in the teal t-shirt.”

“Oh, that’s Evan Pierce.”

“You know him?!”

Sasha explained that, three years prior, she had participated in Early Fall Start, a month-long program during which entering freshman could begin classes and accrue credits. At the time, she had lived in a room in a dorm which happened to be on the same floor as Evan. Evan had become fast friends with Dane Mattison, whom we had grown to know over countless Thursday nights at Finn’s.

“He seemed nice to me back then,” she recalled.

“Well, I never want to see him again,” I declared, and promptly forgot about him.

The following Thursday, Sasha and I were walking back from Green Lake when her phone alerted us to a notification. It was a text. From Evan.

“Sasha,” I said, “Stop talking to him.”

“He wants us to come tonight.”

“No.”

I did not want to see Evan again. But I also did not want this boy interfering with my Thursday night fun with friends. And I just wanted to sing karaoke. So I reconsidered. I went.

When we arrived, I saw him almost immediately, wearing a pink feather boa, glow stick necklaces, and some snap bracelets. I was annoyed already. He saw us, too, and wandered over. Evan began to make small talk, and I ignored him. Sasha conversed with him and I glared at her. She laughed.

“Evan, I heard you told Allie she had a boring face,” Sasha tried.

“SASHA!” I protested.

“Oh, really? I don’t remember that,” Evan said. He took off his pink feather boa and wrapped it gently around my neck. I laughed, confused but amused.

“I was so mad at you,” I admitted. “I didn’t even want to come tonight.”

“Well I’m glad you did,” he said.

Evan and I spent the rest of the evening chatting and flirting. We sang together and we danced together. He took back the boa, exchanging it for a zebra-striped snap bracelet. Suddenly, I was smitten. When Sasha and I left the bar that night, I didn’t return the bracelet. I wanted an excuse to see Evan again.

I needed to see Evan again. And this surprised no one more than me.