The Wallflower

Anyways, so I was shopping along, totally unassumingly when this strange teenage girl of about 14 or 15 came up to me and said "Just so you know, I love your glasses." She was with a group of her giggly friends. 

"Umm...okay." I said, simpering. I wasn't sure what to make of this encounter.

But that wasn't the end of the conversation, "Do you like hugs?" the girl said.

I had seen people on YouTube or wherever doing this sort of this on the streets, kindly holding a sign saying something like 'free hugs' in sharpie on a busy intersection and I thought it was a warm if not a little eccentric gesture.

But now I was completely flabbergasted, "Umm...that's okay" I said stammeringly. 

She obviously didn't comprehend what I had said because she proceeded to give me a hug. I was taken aback by this. I wasn't really offended or flattered. I mean I was flattered that she complimented me but the hug seemed a little over-the-top.

"You can call me Jelly!" the girl told me after I had taken several steps back.

"Umm...Okay" I said, surely looking utterly humiliated.

Then the outspoken girl's curly-haired friend spoke, "You don't know him do you?" 

Was this all a setup?

"I do now." she replied.

I have several questions about this little public interaction:

1. Has this ever happened to you?

2. Have you ever been the giver of the hugs in this type of situation?

3. Do you think it's wierd to give 'free hugs'?

4. Am I totally heinous for being apalled at this?

After doing some Googling, I found that giving free hugs is no longer advocated by a few lonely individuals. No. There is actually a 'Free Hug Campaign'. They have t-shirts. They have a song. It's on iTunes. They have been on Oprah. 

Yeah.

Please get back to me.

-Jack.