"I'm Cringing As I Write This": People Are Confessing The Mortifying Interaction With Their Childhood Crush That They'll Never Live Down
It was almost inevitable that one day we were going to have to look back on those bizarre things we did as kids, ESPECIALLY when it came to having a crush on someone. Well, I'm here to tell you that, unfortunately, that day has come.
OWN / Via giphy.com
No, but seriously, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to let us know what their most embarrassing childhood crush stories were, and these brave souls decided to help us live down our own childhood shame by sharing their most mortifying and downright hilarious moments that happened in front of their childhood crush:
1."I had this guy I was obsessed with in grade school and high school; I didn't know why then and really don't understand why now. He was a year older than me, and we never had classes together, but we rode the same bus. One time I was in a cute skirt walking in front of him because I wanted him to get a good look at me, and I face-planted when I missed a stair."
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"Another time, I put a note in his locker that was basically a redeem me coupon ("allow 6–8 seconds for delivery") — got nowhere shooting that shot (and it was such a cute idea, I'm kind of bummed I wasted it for him and his friends to laugh at). He had nothing but disdain for me for over a decade, but once he graduated, the spell was thankfully broken."
2."My fourth-grade crush was horsing around with his friends at the end of class. I dropped my pencil while getting up from my desk, and when I bent down to pick it up, he went to kick it out of the way, so I swatted at his leg. He turned at the same moment I swatted at his leg, and I ended up hitting him in the groin. I wanted to die right then and there."
3."My embarrassing moment came in my first year of high school. I had a huge crush on this guy, so I changed my MSN Messenger status to say that I loved him — I never thought he'd see it because we were just classmates. However, one day he did give me his MSN, and I added him, forgetting about my status as it had been set like that for weeks already. He came online a few hours later and immediately sent me a message asking about my status. I literally fell out of my chair."
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4."Oh, man. I had the BIGGEST crush on the same guy from second grade until I graduated high school. I always did things to try to get his attention, like really stupid things. Like deciding to go try to jump a hurdle while he was watching, which I did not clear, but instead took a tumble onto the pavement. Or the time I thought it would be funny or he would pay attention to me if I pulled his chair out from under him in geometry class. He didn't think it was cute."
"But the worst was in the cafeteria one day. I was walking to put my tray away and I slipped on some food on the floor and BUSTED my ass in front of the whole school. Everyone busted out laughing, and I just got up and ran as fast as I could to the bathroom, and I had to finish out the day in PURE embarrassment."
5."I transferred to a new school my junior year of high school and immediately developed a huge crush on a cute guy. We had one class together that was in a portable classroom (think shipping container). It was a few weeks into the school year, and one day while in class, my book fell off my desk in the middle of the lecture. The teacher was strict, so the classroom was always very quiet except for his voice. I was a little embarrassed but tried to play it cool."
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"As I leaned over to pick up the book, both me and the desk I was on fell over, making a huge bang that reverberated through the classroom! Everyone turned to stare at me, including my crush! I wanted to cry so badly, but I knew that would make it much, much worse. I held it together, but my face must have been beet red. As utterly embarrassing as the experience was, it's one of my favorite funny memories today. Maybe because I still got the guy in the end."
—Anonymous
6."I shit my pants in front of my crush. I grew up being really afraid to use public bathrooms and only did so when it was absolutely necessary. I was in second grade, and my teacher was seven months pregnant and just really done with all of us by that point. We were on the carpet for reading time, and I felt my insides drop and knew I had to go. I raised my hand to ask if I could go to the bathroom, and she said no and scolded me for asking at the wrong time. I slowly scooted to the back of the group on the carpet and tried to release some gas to alleviate the boiler pressure building in me. You know what they say, never trust a fart."
"So I somehow managed to silently crap myself and had to sit in it for the next 10 or 15 minutes just praying, until people started to smell it. I tried blending in and pretending like I also didn't know where it was coming from, but it did not work. My teacher called me out in the hall in front of everyone and asked me, 'Should I have let you go to the bathroom?' OF COURSE YOU SHOULD HAVE, YOU WITCH. But the damage was done; I got sent to the nurse, got my parents called, got sent home for shitting myself at eight-years-old, and for the rest of the year, my crush made jokes about having extra toilet paper on him in case I needed to go in front of everyone again. Needless to say, he never reciprocated the feelings."
—Anonymous
7."I found out my crush was dating the popular girl, so I sat in front of him on the bus, put my headphones in, and played 'My Happy Ending' by Avril Lavigne on full blast while sobbing. Yeeeeeeesh."
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—Anonymous
8."I lived in a cul-de-sac next door to the cutest boy ever. I was trying to show off by riding a little Honda XR-50 dirt bike around. Being cocky, I went too fast and ran straight into his family's minivan which had stopped in front of our house to talk to my parents. Straight up, I crashed into them with his entire family of six people inside. I still cringe thinking about my epic fail at impressing him, but at least his family and mine got a good laugh out of it!"
9."I wrote a love letter to my crush in high school, then gave it to my best friend to give to him. When she handed it to him, before he read it, he asked her on a date. She said yes, and then asked if he had a friend who would go with me so we could double date. I ended up dating his friend for a couple of months until his friend admitted, ON MY BIRTHDAY, that he had a crush on my best friend, too. Oh, and instead of him getting me a birthday gift, he bought her a bracelet."
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—Anonymous
10."Yearly, my elementary school would have the presidential fitness testing (not sure if that is common or a nationwide thing, but this was the '90s), and one grade at a time would go to the gym to be tested, and only four students at a time would go in front of everyone else in the grade. When it was my turn for sit-ups, my partner to hold my feet was the same crush I’d had for two years. The entire fourth-grade class gathered around the mats while I and four other students laid down for our sit-ups and four students held our feet."
"The gym was completely silent when we were about to start and was instructed to remain that way. The timer began, and on my very first sit-up, I came up, and all the air in my stomach was forced out of my ass, producing the loudest fart I’ve ever personally ripped to this day. It echoed through the entire SILENT gym. Right. In. His. Face. He still ended up in my DMs later in life as an adult, so I guess it didn’t completely scar him for life."
11."My crush was walking me to class. I was a sophomore, and he was a super hot senior. I was being silly and jokingly swinging my arms, just being stupid, and because he was way taller than me and took double my strides, I hit him right in the balls. Hard. I felt AWFUL. Worst part? After he graduated we lost touch, and two years later, I’m registering for my freshman year of college, and guess who’s my tour guide? HORRIFYING."
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12."I remember that between me and my friends, we would come up with code names so we could talk about our crushes in class. I’m sure we were not slick or sly when talking about it, so it was probably pretty easy to associate the nickname with who the person was. We sure turned bright red when "Paprika" figured out his nickname and put together the pieces that we had been obsessing over him for the last several months. Whoops!"
—Anonymous
13."When I was a 15-year-old boy, I was meeting my girlfriend’s family for the first time. The family dog, a Chow, kept very aggressively sniffing my crotch in front of everyone, and I tried to very subtly push the dog away. Finally, the dog latched onto my crotch, and I couldn’t get it off. I wanted to die. I was so mortified. Her mom and dad ended up having to pry the dog off my crotch! Definitely my There’s Something About Mary moment."
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—Anonymous
14."When I was in middle school, I had a crush on this boy who would put a rubber band around his face so it would smush it. I sat next to him, and one day while I was walking to my desk, he had a rubber band on his face. So, I thought it would be funny if I flicked it off. My finger missed the rubber band and went right into his mouth. I was mortified, and I think he was too. I’m cringing right now as I write this."
15."I was around 11 years old, and my crush was leaving sixth grade early for vacation. So, my best friend had the bright idea that we should have him sign our yearbooks. But she asked him when my yearbook was in my bag, and she just said, 'Will you sign?' So he thought she meant...us? He then signed my hand, gave me a weird look, and then went off with his friends. They were staring at us and laughing. Suffice to say we never spoke again."
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—Anonymous
16."It was year one, and everybody had been working on their science project (a car powered by a balloon) at home for a couple of weeks. My crush was in my friend group, and he probably knew I had a crush on him. I was a very emotional kid and cried very easily when I was happy or sad. The day came to finally race our cars..."
"Mine got stopped at the beginning by someone else’s car, and I laughed it off, then suddenly I saw something out of the corner of my eye... it was my crush's car! He won the race, and I was so happy for him that I just couldn’t hold it in. So naturally, as an emotional kid with a big crush, I started bawling my eyes out with happy tears. It wasn’t just a small cry. It lasted for about two hours after we did the race. He probably thought I was really weird, and after that, he most definitely knew that I had a crush on him."
—Anonymous
17."I went to Catholic school, and in third grade, we did a reenactment of the Stations Of The Cross. My crush was Jesus, and I was Mary Magdalene. I had to wipe his face with a cloth at one of the stations, and I was so nervous I poked him in both eyes."
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—Anonymous
18."Not just a crush, but my first love. We were together for a while when I was 13, and the breakup was heartbreaking. Fast forward four years, and he drives past me. In shock and with all those feelings coming back, I replied with the FULL address of where I was going and quickly walked off without saying another word. I wince every time I go past the place it happened."
—Anonymous
19."I went to a street dance because I knew he was going to be there. I wore these skin-tight beige jeans to go with my outfit. They had bleachers for people to sit on, so we made our way to the very top to see the band. As soon as I made it to the top and sat down, my jeans ripped right through the crack. I had to walk crab-style away from people against the wall. When my crush approached me and asked me to dance, all I could say was, 'No, maybe later.' It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. He looked at me like, 'Why won’t you move away from the wall?' Never trust skin-tight beige pants!"
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—Anonymous
20."This was in elementary school. I had been crushing on this really cute boy for a while. One morning, I woke up not feeling so hot. My tummy was upset, and my nose was runny. I told my mom that I wanted to stay home that day. She informed me that that was absolutely not happening. Then, she forced me to finish eating my malt-o-meal and sent me to school."
"I'm sitting at my desk with my head down, trying desperately not to throw up. The cute boy hears that I have the sniffles and decides to bring me a tissue. I know — super sweet, right? As he was handing me the tissue, I proceeded to puke all over his shoes."
—Anonymous
And to end it all, this last brave soul gave us a prime example of how our fight or flight system works:
21."I was in the seventh grade. We were in the hallway about to go to two different classes, but the rumor was that he was going to ask me out before the end of the day. He stopped me in the hallway, and I knew it was going to happen, and I was TERRIFIED. We both liked each other, but I was so scared to be asked out for the first time and actually confess that I liked this boy. Well, as he stood in front of me, about to ask me, I decided that I should just run to my class down the hall and immediately leave the situation...fight or flight, much?"
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"Turns out, he was stepping on my shoelaces unknowingly, so I fell right onto the ground with my binder and papers flying everywhere. He immediately helped me, asked me if I was okay, and helped me grab all my papers. We both just went to class after that, and he ended up asking me out on another day, and I decided not to flee. This was forever ago, but I still consider it to be one of my most embarrassing moments."
—Anonymous
Did you find yourself relating to any of these? Or do you have your own embarrassing childhood crush moments you want to share? Please feel free to drop those thoughts and moments in the comments below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
