The Blockbuster Chronicles - Chapter 2: Two Girls, a Guy, and a Video Store

When I think back on my time at Blockbuster, I sometimes think of The Sandlot. Not because we spent our shifts playing baseball, although we probably would have if there had been room between the New Releases wall and the candy display, but because it was a period of innocence, confusion, growing up, and making the kind of stupid mistakes that seem funny only after enough time has passed. If Blockbuster was my Sandlot, then Megan was my Wendy Peffercorn: beautiful, older, and so far beyond my reach that merely speaking to her felt like an achievement. Megan was the kind of person you noticed as soon as she entered a room. She was tall, slim, athletic, and had long blond hair. She looked like the pretty girl in a teenage movie, the one the awkward kid spent ninety minutes trying to impress before learning an important lesson about being himself. I had not yet learned that lesson. When Megan walked into the store during my second weekend on the job, I mostly stood there and stared. She…