Age is just a number, right?

Let me start at the beginning--sometime in August and through the fall almost every time I would work with this kid, Frankie.  He's a nice kid (with the emphasis on kid--he's 19 and just graduated a year ago).  I tell him all the time he's a baby.  So when we worked together we would always talk, laugh a little and he would tell me about the problems he was having with his boyfriend.  It was a pretty good time, he could be pretty amusing and having someone to talk to at work always makes the time go by faster.

So after we had been talking for a few weeks Frankie asked if I wanted to hang out sometime (in case you missed it--Frankie is gay, so there is absolutely nothing romantic going on here)  I sort of hesitated and didn't really give him an answer but we exchanged numbers.  We worked together again a few days later and he asked again if I wanted to hang out.  Well, Christmas was coming up and I thought we could go to the mall and do some Christmas shopping.  I figured I would get my shopping done and we could just hang out for a few hours.  He said that sounded like a good idea and he needed to go Christmas shopping too.  Then he asked if I could pick him up...because he didn't have his license!  That's right--this kid couldn't even drive himself to go Christmas shopping.  He probably got money from the tooth fairy under his pillow last year--haha.  But I didn't want to be the type of person who wouldn't hang out with someone simply because of the year they were born.  After all, age is just a number, isn't it?

So we set up a time and I picked him up at his house and we were off to the mall.  We shopped for a while and went to the food court and I didn't have a bad time but after about 2 hours I was ready to go but Frankie was still shopping.  After a while I think I realized it wasn't so much the age difference as it was that we really didn't have anything in common.  I got to thinking I could hang out with anyone as long as we can have a descent, interesting conversation.  Without the distraction of being at work I didn't really have much to say to Frankie or vice versa.  

As I was driving him home, he said that was fun and I agreed that it was (not wanting to be rude) and he said, "we'll have to hang out again soon."  I smiled and nodded, really having no intention of seeing him outside of work again.  It was really like the akward ending of a bad first date.    

Time passed...Frankie got his license.

Then a few Sundays ago I was sitting around watching t.v., and waiting for my laundry to come out of the dryer when I got a text from Frankie asking what I was doing and asking if I wanted to go get something to eat.  Well I was just kind of bumming around and was sort of bored so I decided sure why not.  We went to a local diner, got some cheap, greasy diner food and talked for a while.  The subject eventually turned to going out to bars/drinking/clubbing...which (inevitably) turned to the topic of age.  Because Frankie's not even old enough to legally drink and when he goes to a club he has to go to the 18 and older nights.  He has only been old enough to buy cigarettes for a year.  Then we did the math.  I got my license when I was seventeen.  He was TWO YEARS OLD at the time.  When I graduated high school he was 3 years old.

Wow--math has never really been my friend.  But I sort of reached the same conclusion that I reached the first time we hung our going Christmas shopping--he's a cool kid to have a few laughs with at work but he certainly isn't someone I would consider a friend outside of work--age has a little something to do with it but beyond that we just don't have anything in common.