So here's my number. Call me maybe.

What a catchy song.

And also very relevant to the subject of this chapter which is all about not falling madly in love the minute you meet people.

Trust me, I've been there hundreds of times. I meet someone new and within a day of meeting them I'm picturing a future together with them. And so therefore by the law of the universe nothing ever happens with this person and I'm left far more devastated than if I had just kept a rational brain.

My number rule of falling deeply into a crush for someone is to actually speak to them and get to know them before you fall head over heels. Sometimes getting to know someone breaks that fantasy of them, and you can see them as an actual human being. Whatever the case, fantasying over someone who doesn't even know you like will only end in heartache.

BUT I CAN'T CONTROL WHO I LOVE, I hear you lovesick fools yell.

But is it really love? Or merely an infatuation which you've intensified in your brain by thinking of potential scenarios?

The moral of this chapter is to stop fantasying about life rather than live in it. I know I've wasted years fawning over people who didn't even know I existed. Start looking around at the people you know, and who knows, maybe there's someone right in front of your eyes.

So rule fiftieth of surviving Teenagehood: he's just a stranger on the street, don't commit the next four years of your life to dreaming about him.