Why I was Afraid of Girls

At 14, puberty triggered intense anxiety around girls; he fixated on a childhood friend, idealising their shared phone as destiny. After four years apart, they exchanged numbers; prank calls preceded a laser-tag, cinema, and McDonald’s outing resembling a date. Her mutual-feelings confession made him freeze; she left believing he was uninterested, though she helped reduce his fear.

He concludes relationships require reciprocal support; one person cannot indefinitely rescue or prop up the other.