My younger brother died two months before I went off to college. One of the things I did after he died was go through all of his belongings, and pick out the things I wanted to keep. A few cd's, a couple books. I also took the majority of his clothes. Not as mementos, but because we were somewhat similar in height and build, and I didn't see the sense in throwing them out. One of those items was his high school wrestling t-shirt. I never thought anything of it. It was just a t-shirt to wear. During my first week of college, I happened to be wearing the shirt when an upperclassman approached me:

 

"Hey man, did you wrestle in high school?'

 

Not knowing how to go about explaining to this guy that it was brother's shirt, and he had just recently died that summer, I agreed:

 

"Yeah, yeah man, I did".

 

His face instantly lit up with excitement:

 

"Cool, man. So did I. We should get together and wrestle sometime".

 

I quickly gave him a "sure, sounds good", and ran off to my next class. I didn't see him for about a week, but when he saw me across campus, he came running towards me.

 

"Hey man. Whats up. When are we gonna wrestle?"

 

"Oh I don't know. I've been real busy with classes.....and....getting familar with the area... and stuff...."

 

"Well let me know when you're free. I'd love to get down on the mat with you."

 

Now I started to get a little nervous. Not only did he seem to be a little too enthusiastic about getting me "down on the mat", but the idea of wrestling this upperclassman kind of creeped me out. I had nothing against anyone who decided to take part in the sport, but for me I found no need to get that close to another guy. The jocks in my high school had always accused me of being gay for being in the drama club, but this guy made the idea of being a jock sound, well, pretty gay. But, because I had started this lie about me being a member of my high school wrestling team, I didn't know how to back pedal and tell him the truth. Also because college had put me in a new state, thousands of miles away from my family and friends, part of me didn't want to turn away the possiblity of making a new friend:

 

"Well maybe one day next week. I should have more time".

 

That seemed to satisfy him, and so we parted ways again. I had almost completely forgot about our encounters, until I ran into him outside the dining hall a couple days later:

 

"Hey man. I've been looking for you"

 

He was standing up against the brick wall of the building with a short hispanic guy with a full beard. The hispanic guy looked me up and down, and told me he had "heard a lot about me", then the upperclassman added:

 

"He wrestles too. We're gonna meet tomorrow morning in the gym. You should come by."

 

"Okay. I'll try to make it"

 

Then before I walked in to get lunch, he said:

 

"You can learn so much about someone when you wrestle them. I can't wait to get to know you better".

 

Well at this point I was petrified. What the hell was going to go on at the gym the next morning? I certainly couldn't show up. Even if I did show up and he was able to "get to know me better", the only thing he was going to learn about me is that I've never wrestled in my life. So of course the next morning I didn't show up. Later on that day, he saw me going out of my dorm, on my way to class. It was as if he had been waiting for me. I ran right by, like I didn't see him, but he yelled after me:

 

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOW UP THIS MORNING?"

 

Guys and girls walking to and from class stopped in midstep. The hippie playing the bongo stopped playing, as this guy continued to yell at me as I ran to class:

 

"I WANT TO WRESTLE YOU, MAN"

 

I just kept on going, never looking back, but he continued:

 

"DID YOU HEAR ME? WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WRESTLE?"

 

I managed to avoid him for the next couple of weeks, and then when we finally crossed paths, he avoided me. He graduated two years later, and though we never spoke again, sometimes I thought I would catch him watching from across campus.