*This is a work of nonfiction based on actual events I experienced firsthand; used with permission.
More grown men asked me out when I was a teenager than they do now. Once, when I was fifteen years old, I was browsing the aisles of a music store when I noticed an older man following me.
I didn't recognize him.
Everywhere I went, there he was. Whether I was thumbing through a rack of hanging posters, looking at t-shirts, or searching for music by my favorite band, he wasn't far behind. I have to admit he was really cute, but I could tell just by looking at his face that he was easily twice my age.
I wasn't afraid. We were in public in broad daylight, and my mother was in the store right next door. She would be meeting me any minute now, and we'd go home together safe and sound.
Nonetheless, having a grown man match me step for step as I walked around the store was starting to get a little old.
When I stopped to examine something on a shelf, he finally approached me and spoke. While I can't remember his exact words, I do remember him asking me on a date. He also asked for my phone number.
I replied in the negative to both. It wasn't that I wasn't interested. As I said, I did think he was pretty cute. However, I knew my parents would kill me if I tried to date someone twice my age who looked like him. He looked like a rock star. As it turned out, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for that.
My would-be suitor was a rock star. No, I'm not going to say who it was. I've never told anyone.
After I declined politely to date him, he told me his name, which didn't ring a bell. Then he told me he was the guitarist for a popular rock band. Well, that name did ring a bell. Immediately, I knew exactly who he was.
Knowing his identity did make his offer even more intriguing, but I was pretty shy and reserved... and my mother was walking through the front door of the store at that exact moment. So I did the only thing I could. I said, "Goodbye" and walked away from my first and last opportunity to date a rock star.
And from then on, whenever I heard them mention his band on the radio, I changed the channel.
As far as the age difference, I like to think telling him I was only fifteen would have caused him to flee into the parking lot. I assume he thought I was at least eighteen. But I made things easy on him by turning him down before he had the chance to get in any trouble.
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