This happened to me the other week, and I'm entirely unsure as to what to do if this situation arises again (which I don't doubt it will). Any advice is appreciated.

A little back story first. I've got two friends, we'll call them Rob and Chris, who I've known for a decade and a half. They're both awesome, great guys, but they're AFCs. Total betas. Shy, tons of AA, the usual. I used to be just like them, until I got fed up with the person I was and made an effort to change it all, and I've come quite far since then. They, however, have remained the same. That's not a bad thing by any means, though.

On the one hand, when I'm out with them and their group of friends, I generally look awesome in comparison, which is great. On the other hand, they're, well, not great wings.

I don't get the chance to hang out with them too much these days as my schedule is goofy and they work banker's hours, plus they both live a solid 20-30 minutes away from me. Not too long ago, however, I had a Saturday night free, and decided to catch up with the boys and grab a beer. Didn't plan on opening sets or anything, just seeing a couple of friends I hadn't hung out with in a few months.

We go to a pub and grab a table, order a round, and shoot the shit. Laughs and smiles all around. All is well. About 15 minutes later, two HB8s sit down at the table next to us. They're shooting us glances, I'm checking them out and giving the occasional smile, nothing too overt, and for the most part, amusing the hell out of my friends with anecdotes from the recent shows I've been doing.

They both get up to go outside and have a smoke, leaving their drinks at the table. Chris looks at me and mentions how cute the two HB8s were, and I agree. Rob chimes in and says, "Yeah man, totally out of my league." Chris nods affirmatively and parrots the same thing.

I looked at them both incredulously. "Really?" I asked. "The only reason those two are out of your league is because you think they're out of your league. They're just people. Let's talk to them when they get back here."

Both Chris and Rob looked astounded, and slightly scared. As if on cue, the two girls walked in and sat down back at their table.

I leaned over, and looked at the one facing me.

"Hi, I'm [Just], how are you girls tonight?"

They answered and I dove in to making conversation with them. At first, they were incredibly receptive. I'm a very animated person when I talk, which I think helps bring people in to a conversation. However, I repeatedly attempted to bring both Chris and Rob in to the chat, by mentioning things I had done with them, yet all they could muster up was a few monosyllabic grunts for the most part. They tried, lord knows, but they were intimidated as all hell, and it showed.

Not long after the conversation started, it was over. The two HB8s made some excuse, got up, and walked away. That was it. I'm fairly certain that because both of my friends weren't engaging at all, they weren't interested in continuing the conversation. I suppose there's only so much you can do on your own in that situation, but since both of my buddies were so, well, boring at that particular junction in time, the girls decided to move on to greener pastures as it cast me in a pretty bad light.

What do you think, Seddit? Should I have done something differently? Not worried about my friends and moved over to their table? Not even tried in the first place? What would Seddit do?