Wasn't going to write this, but figured this might help some people and it'd be good to get feedback.

House party in my hometown for Halloween. It's a college town, so they're usually bumping. Feel like it's going to be a good night. Met up with a friend of mine at his place to pregame a little before his 5 friends show up to change into their costumes.

5.5, 6, 7, 5, 5. A, B, C, D, E. I knew A already, so we talked a bit and I more or less ignored the other girls until I could find a natural way to jump in.

I've done some bartending so I start pouring shots (btw - go watch some youtube videos and LEARN THIS. Great way to social proof, be the center of attention, and look snazzay. I basically just chill shots and I almost always get a "oh wow that's so cool!"), which leads me to ask them if they have any preference and rib them a little for being weak. I still don't know their names.

At one point my friend mentions how I'm old (2-ish years older than them) and they ask me how old I am. I tell them to guess; B says 25 or something, C says 28, D says 24. I tell them I'm 23, and with fake indignation go:

"Wait, who said 28???"

She meekly says "I did..." and I promptly inform her she's now on my shit list for the night. Hook.

"Nooo!! It's only cause he said you were old."

"Nope, you still said it. Sorry. So anyone else besides her want a shot?"

Banter a bit more, I ask for their names at one point but C happened to be on the phone, so I just skipped her and made no effort to get it when she got off. She must have noticed this, because later she quite deliberately introduced herself with her hand out. Cool.

I mess with them taking a picture, they mess with ours, and we head to the party. Must admit I have massive social proof at this place. I know 75%+ of the people and they all greet me warmly. I'm bouncing in and out of groups of people all night but make sure to drop by their group once in a while as they play pong. She keeps heckling me whenever she sees me by calling me "old man" and I keep telling her she's on thin ice/not getting off my shit list this way, etc. I go up with A opposite her and E playing pong, and I notice she's undone one of the buttons on her shirt. Not sure if it was for me, but if it was, it worked because the view was damn nice.

Just want to note that among all this I'm still hucking it up with other girls. I take pictures with A and E, jump into theirs uninvited so I can get kicked out, opened a group of ridiculously cute girls outside (turned out to be 16 years old. WTF are they feeding these kids), grabbing B by the hand to grab drinks, lightheartedly making fun of people's costumes, etc.

So after we handily lose that game, I wander around and end up downstairs at the bar when she shows up out of nowhere with girl B.

To B: "Hey, you guys again. You're Girl C right??" (Get slapped in the arm by C). Smile. "Shots?"

I pass them out. Girl C looks at me and tells me to "find her on the dance floor." I was just in the middle of shooting so I didn't respond. After she shoots hers, she says it again with an "OK?" at the end. Give her a small nod/smirk and turn to talk to someone who just tapped me.

Wait five minutes, go find them. Girl C is instantly on me and B gives us room as we dance. I barely started to think about how to go in for the kiss when she does it for me. I back her up onto the wall and it gets a bit heavy.

Awesome. Butttt here's also where I start to trip up; my game was high and tight all night, but for some reason I figured after I got the k, I didn't need to game anymore and reverted back to some AFC-ness.

She kept on going on about how she just broke up with a dude and doesn't know how to play around cuz she's messed up blah blah. I play along and say things like yea I know, it sucks and random lame drivel like that.

Not my problem. What I should have done was initiate some kind of freeze out. "Listen, you're cool but this is a bit too much about your ex. Are you having fun? Cool, let's keep having fun."

Anyway, apparently this hasn't been too destructive because we're still making out. I bounce us to my friend's place for a bit of alone time but the house is already full of people staying the night - bustling around, drinking, laughing. Fuck.

Her friends came back with food and there goes that opportunity. She swaps rings with me and calls herself from my phone. Not a bad way to end I guess. After she leaves, she calls me but gets another call. I wait a few minutes and call her back, she says she can't talk. Didn't think much of this at first, but must not have been a pleasant call because...

Next morning she texted me apologizing about what happened (huh?) - talked for a bit but she obviously still felt really guilty about it. Asked her to lunch, she said she was busy studying (right). Looking back, I shouldn't have pushed a meet so soon. My mindset should have been: I had fun last night but now I gotta do my own thing.

Texted her more than I should have joking about how I almost sold her ring on ebay. No good - I wasn't feeling anything from her, didn't like it, and tried to revive it with a random throwback text. Should have just let it be.

She came to my friend's place later while I was there with A and D but it was awkward as hell. We barely talked and I left to go back to the city after a few hours. Oh well, on to the next.

All in all, I might have hooked harder if I did some more push/pull. I kind of relied on gentle pushes and waited for her to come to me. Part of me feels like I couldn't have done anything on Day 2 to salvage it if she was feeling guilty already, but I definitely could have done things differently to keep my dignity intact.

Thoughts?