Body Language
I need to work on not giving off such strong messages of 'don't touch me.' The only touching I get, from anyone, ever, is arm's-length hugs. You know, the ones in which two people each put a hand on the other's back and then sort of bump shoulders. And I only even get those from two or three people.
My classmates, on the other hand, touch each other constantly. Especially the girls, but sometimes the girls and the guys touch, and even a lot of the guys touch each other more than anyone touches me. But the girls, they are pretty much entwined all the time. They sit in each other's laps, rub each other's heads, give each other piggyback rides, today I even saw one girl scratching another under the chin, like one would do to a cat. And the second girl was purring.
So I commented: 'Why are all these people touching each other? No one ever touches me...'
Two people heard me. One, my friend Leigh, answered, 'Because you crawl into a corner whenever someone tries.' And then they both poked me. Poked me. With one finger. On the shoulder. Thanks, you two. That's about, what, one square centimetre of physical contact. Thanks a lot. Sheese, that's worse than the arm's-length hug.
It's true, though, about the crawling into a corner - not literally, of course, but close enough. I need to stop doing that. I'm just not entirely sure how...
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Comments
I'm kind of like that
I'm kind of like that too.
Most of my friends are really touchy, I don't like this most of the time, so I make it seem like I hate being touched more than I actually do because that was the only way to get them to stop. If I express that I'm just somewhat uncomfortable with it they're touchy at the same rate, but if I express that I can't stand it they back off.
But I mean, every so often I do want a hug and I have no idea how to do that. I dunno. It's weird.
I'm actually not sure how I feel about it. I guess I just wish I knew what to do when I did want physical contact, and that wanting hugs and stuff didn't freak me out.
I don't really like being
I don't really like being touchy myself. I hate it when someone attempts to hug me when I don't want it. But there are times I really want a hug and 99% of the time, I don't get one.
It really depends on the person, though. There's a handful of people (okay fine, they're all girls) that I'd hug at any time, any day. But only a few.
I feel really awkward being
I feel really awkward being physical with anyone except for girls. My close girl friends I'm always sitting on, holding hands, cuddling, kissing on the cheek, but this is really limited to ten or so people. Most of my female acquaintances I hug and I'm a bit touchy but not overly so, just enough to come across as the "gay friend".
Then with guys... I don't touch straight guys (excluding my only two real straight friends, my "bros", that I've been with almost every weekend for the past six months), I usually just hug gay guys when I say hello and goodbye. I just don't want any of them to get the wrong impression.
Then, if I'm drunk or otherwise inebriated... I usually find one person, regardless of gender, I stick around with and I cuddle with them, if both of us are really drunk we usually end up making out.
Of course, if I don't like a person much I just don't really hang around with them...
That's a lot of friends. Ten
That's a lot of friends. Ten girls, two straight guys, and an unspecified number of others? There are only two people whom I count as friends, plus a much larger number of acquaintances-on-friendly-terms. So, 'limited to ten or so people' does not seem particularly limited to me...