Dear Mookychick,

Please help me with some teenage love advice. Well, I'll admit, I feel pretty silly sharing this... *sigh*

Okay, I'm a pretty shy person, so I obviously don't get out much or really even talk to anyone. I've had a few friends over the years (I guess I should mention that I'm a sophomore in high school) but they've never really been that close to me, so I don't really have any experience with people in general. And, unsurprisingly, I don't have any experience with guys either. I'm sure you see where this is going...

The only guy friends I've ever had (until now) was early in elementary school, and those friendships didn't go much past playing tag and climbing on the monkey bars together. So I was really surprised when, out of the blue, this guy and his girl friend (they really are just friends, as far as I can tell) came to sit with me at my table (I was the only one sitting there). This was about two weeks into the new school year. I had seen him before (I had a few classes with him the previous year) so he wasn't a total stranger, but we never (EVER) talked. ... So, there they were. And they started talking to me, albeit awkwardly. It was just really strange for me, and I didn't know what to say back to them (so, I was the one making it awkward).

Over the next few weeks, we (mostly just me and the guy) talked a bit each day. (He shares two classes and lunch with me.) We became friends on myspace and we left pretty=C 2substantial comments for each other about every other day. (we talk more in person than online now) The whole myspace commenting was sorta just a gush of information about ourselves, mixed in with various jokes. But, sometimes it seemed a lot more than that. Here are the small bits of the comments that I couldn't tell if he was flirting or just joking around: "Good luck, mon petite nudibranch!" (we were talking about squids, for some reason) "You should just talk more.", "How was your day pretty lady?", "Oh baby. Short hair is hotness. That's not suppose to be offensive.", "You should come hang out with us more often.", "Hey now, it was fun walking there with you. FUCK YOU... (whispered)". The last one was when I was walking with him and a bunch of our friends and I jokingly screamed 'fuck you' at him (while I had laryngitis) and he said it was cute. He's also very careful when he touches me. I mean, with him and my other friend, he does this flirty poking, punching, laughing thing with my other (fema le) friend (who already has a bf) to the point where some people think that they're going out with each other, yet, when he touches my shoulder or grabs my wrist he holds it for about a second before pulling away. But, then he sometimes give me a hug when we say goodbye (although, he hasn't given me a hug in quite a while).

Now, I'm completely torn (into little bits, actually). First off, half of me is screaming at me saying that he's making a move on me. But the other half is telling me that I'm just overreacting and that he's just being nice. Second, even if he does like me, I don't know if I like him. I mean, I really think he has the potential to be one of my best friends, but I don't know if I could handle anything more than friends (I've never really thought about actually getting into a relationship until college, yes, I know, I'm a total geek!). And to be honest, I'm still grappling with the idea that anyone would actually want to talk to me. Even as friends, I don't really know how to act around him. I really don't ever talk to people. I'm just running in circles with this.

Maybe he likes me, maybe he doesn't. Maybe I like him, maybe I don't. He wants to talk to me, but I don't know how. I want to figure this out, but I don't want to tell him or my friend what I'm thinking. I want to be friends, but I want see where this could go. And sometimes, I want to kiss him right there to get it over with, but other times I want to punch him in the face for forcing his way into my life and confusing me so much.

Help!

Love, Anonymous Me xxx