The following Tuesday was their first practice after camp. Brian was going to ask her why she did what she did, but she wasn't at practice. He waited until their next practice on Thursday. She was there this time. After rehearsal, he asked her that question. She told Brian that his 'friend' who invited him over at Band Camp had dared her to do it, that there was no interest in him.
That night and all next day, he spent in his room, trying to glue together the million or so pieces of his broken heart and in thought. He thought, "This is the kind of friends that I have? One who jokes around with my emotions not once, but twice? The first woman that I ever strongly cared about used me as the butt of a joke."
After that, it was hard for Brian to be confident enough to ask anyone out. He would view any interest from women ask yet another opportunity for embarrassment. His college years were spent in solitude, never having a social life, a recluse.
After graduating from college, he returned to his hometown to become a math teacher at his alma mater.
Brian only had a few friends, Matt, Aaron, and Roger, and they were all married. It always made him feel a bit uncomfortable going places with them, like a fifth wheel.
There was one common ground they all had: reality TV shows. They always met at someone's house every Monday for The Bachelor, every Tuesday for Biggest Loser, every Wednesday for American Idol and every Thursday for Survivor. They watch them wondering, "Where did they find this yahoo?"
They wonder what it would be like to be on one of these shows. Since, with the exception of Brian, they were all married, they would just wish about it. They couldn't spend the time apart from their spouse. As for Brian, well, he wasn't very attractive, he couldn't carry a tune, he didn't need to lose that much weight, and he had too many fears and wasn't athletic.
Meanwhile, in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, Samantha Dawson was working as a paralegal for a major law firm. She, too, lived in a one-bedroom apartment. She knew there was something missing in her life.
She was a hopeless romantic, sometimes too hopeless. She wanted to be loved by someone, but the men she chose were all wrong for her.
Her date for her senior prom was someone she was dating for only a few weeks. After the prom, he had gotten what he 'wanted' from her, and he dumped her.