It occurs to me that I'm not the best at telling people who I am, so let me show you. And the best way I know how is to tell you about Nolan.

Nolan was just about the sweetest boy you could probably find, and for some reason, he got close enough to me to know me just about as good as any boy had ever known my personality.

He was at Beth's birthday party the beginning of that summer, which was a summer I wouldn't soon forget, and it all started with a migraine.

"Come on, Michigan! The Spider!" Beth calls from the line.

I push my way through the crowd of fellow thrill seekers reluctantly. I want to go on The Spider, as it had become my favorite ride not too long ago. 

I learned to enjoy roller coasters when I was twelve. You see, I used to be very adamant that I did NOT enjoy roller coasters, at all, and no one could convince me otherwise. That was, until one of my mom's friends bribed me with a king size candy bar and told me it helped if you looked at the track instead of the bottom of the cart. That it helped to see where you were going. But my migraine doesn't seem to be on the same page with me.

It's been festering for over an hour, and while I want to enjoy myself, I fear this might be the last roller coaster I can go on for the night.

In line, Beth gushes about getting a used Volkswagen, Beetle from her dad to commemorate the fact that she can now drive with a permit. Anna, Izzy, Cierra, and the couple of boys that got invited, listen intently. Beth is an animated storyteller and it isn't just us girls that enjoy listening to her rants. 

Beth is one of the few people I've met who is genuinely nice to everyone, despite popularity and all that. She seems to look past the social norms everyone else seems to expect and see the real person beneath any layers of awkwardness. Maybe that's why we're friends.

Beth's parents, just like Anna's, Cierra's and mine, are divorced, and while Izzy is the only one with secular parents, I wonder sometimes if it's better to have parents who fight as a couple or who get along separately.

I wonder if it must be hard for someone like Beth to have platonic boy friends as Tyler seems more than a little interested in the conversation and Nolan asks if I'm alright.

This is a surprise. I look back at him, tall and handsome, with black hair and eyes that sparkle unobtrusively.

"I'm alright, why?" I ask, startled. I had thought I had been careful not to complain about my migraine.

He shrugs. If only he knew that all he had to do was walk with me for a little while. That all I needed was a familiar aura next to me, one I wasn't pressured to make eye contact with (I would feel his presence just as well without looking at him) and a constant motion of feet against blacktop. But he didn't, yet.

The roller coaster is okay, but I'm glad the others decide to eat lunch afterward because it gives me a chance to call my mom discreetly.

After I confirm that she's headed to get me, I sit down and listen to Nolan confide in Beth that he doesn't get invited to many of his work friends' birthday parties on account of his ADHD. He fears they get annoyed with him asking so many questions or else demanding too much of them.

"It could just be because you're their boss," Beth points out.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't really turn down a manager position, could I? I need the money too much," he says, after which I learn that his parents kicked him out after he refused to go to church anymore. 

I feel kind of bad for eavesdropping, but it's amazing what you hear when you pay attention. Ironically, I'm pretty sure Beth and Nolan met at church. That was before Nolan dropped out of his junior year of high school to start working full time.

He was only seventeen, but rented out one of five rooms in the basement of one church member's house. Evidently, not all church members were as obtuse as his parents.

At a lull in the conversation, I inform Beth that my mom is close by and wants me home for dinner (I use my mom as an excuse maybe a little too much). But Beth isn't offended as she stands to give me a hug and sincerely thank me for coming.

"Nolan, why don't you walk Michigan back to the ticket booth and meet us back here after?" Beth adds.

My eyes get wide and I wonder what in the world Beth is thinking by asking a seventeen year old to walk me out as though I need a babysitter. I don't refuse the company though as Nolan politely accepts.

Beth winks at me all sly as we walk away and I wonder what she's getting at.

Nolan seems even lankier when he walks and I suppose his height might make him seem older than he is. While Beth was just turning fifteen, Izzy and I would both be turning sixteen within the next few months, just in time for driver's ed class.

The age gap between sixteen and seventeen still seems severe to me, however, as I wonder what Nolan and I could possibly talk about on the long walk back to the ticket booth.

"You look pale," Nolan finally says. "I'm sorry you don't feel good."

"I never said I didn't feel good," I quickly object.

He chuckles. "I can tell."

I mull this over before deciding to tell him the truth. "I have a migraine."

"I'm sorry."

"Most people think I'm faking it when I tell them that," I also tell him. "They don't say so, but I can tell."

"I don't think you're faking it."

I can't come up with a good answer to that. Nolan doesn't seem to mind, he just stares at passersby as though they're friends rather than strangers and eyes an ice cream stand rather intensely.

"Hey, maybe you could stop by my work sometime and I could hook you up with a free dessert. We have the best rice pudding."

"Maybe," I squeak, as I see my mom wave from the ticket booth. "Well... see ya!"

I don't think too much about it on the drive home. I think about a warm bed and some warm milk to help me fall asleep. You'll find sometimes the best medication for a migraine involves no painkillers at all, as they don't usually work. And also that you get used to it.