We’ve All Been There: The Awkward Run-In

By Lauren

So you’re finally settled back into home life for the summer. You’ve spent the last week catching up on sleep, home cooking and quality snuggle time with the dog and now it’s time to get out of the house. You rifle through the duffle bags you have yet to unpack, throw on some clothes and head out to visit your old high school haunts. Namely, the mall.

You park the car, grab a coffee from the first (of many) Starbucks in the suburban shopping center and begin wandering through the stores. You are contemplating a dress at Forever 21 when you hear someone calling your name. You turn around and realize it is an old high school “friend,” one of the many that you stopped talking to as soon as you threw your stuff on that twin extra long bed and began your life in college.

She wasn’t a good friend, but rather the kind of friend that you only had because you had homeroom together. The kind of friend that sort of drifted as soon as you got to college and realized that there were much better, cooler and more fun people in this world… and you didn’t have to talk to her anymore now that you didn’t have class together. The kind of friend that you only remember because she shows up in your Newsfeed every now and again.

“Hey!” You hope she can’t tell how fake your enthusiasm is.

“Oh my god. How ARE you!? I haven’t seen you in forever!” Her enthusiasm is most definitely not fake. “What have you been up to?”

You silently thank God that you got that coffee before you begin sorta catching her up on the past year, wondering why on earth she is the one person you had to run into. It is awkward and uncomfortable and you hope that someone will call you so you can get away. But no one calls. Fifteen minutes later you are still standing in the middle of Forever 21 trying to come up with some great excuse to bolt. And then the bomb drops.

“We’re both gonna be home all summer. We should totally do lunch!” She reaches into her bag to get her phone. “Is your number still the same?” You’re cornered. Your number is still the same and she clearly still has that programmed into her phone.

“Yeah, lunch sounds great,” you lie.  You know you won’t be meeting her for lunch, but you agree to it anyway. What else are you supposed to do, give her the finger and run away? You want to take her number so you know not to answer when she calls, but you don’t want to offend her by asking for a number you deleted 6 months ago. So you don’t and vow to yourself that you will be screening your calls for the next 3 months.

Luckily, homegirl is late for lunch with her mom and has to go.

“It was so great seeing you! Talk soon!” She hugs you goodbye as she runs off to the food court. You put that dress down and run out of the mall.

Oy.

The awkward run-in – been there, done that, avoided those calls like the plague. Good luck, people.