I Want You: Signs of a potential hook up

Although most of the time it is fairly obvious when someone wants to hook up (whether it’s the awkward and always embarrassing drunk texting proposals or the creepy pick up lines over beer pong), at other times people can be hard to read. We’re college students, for gosh sake! We are busy running to and from class (often in the rain), working, studying, partying, traveling and trying to figure out who we are in between. After tearing through books of calculus and Shakespeare for endless hours, studying body language is just one more thing our brains have to juggle. It can be overwhelming at times trying to decipher the Da Vinci Code of flirting. Although you may feel desperate for a tutor in this subject, you are probably not as hopelessly lost as you feel. Here are some ways to score an A+ in identifying if someone you have your eye on is “DTF”. 

FOR GUYS, us girls have a few tactics when it comes to getting you in the bedroom. Although we feel we are pretty easy to read, I have heard a lot of my guy friends comment on how girls are typically the masterminds of confusing the crap out of you. We say one thing, we mean the other; we get mad, emotional, and it’s always our way, no highway option. Fair enough. However, all of these emotions being thrown around make it hard for guys to tell if she is interested in a hookup. According to Men’s Health, there are several tips that girls have shared on how to know you’ve got a winner! The first is if she’s calling you by your first name and not some weird nickname either she and her friends have created for you or your guy friends know you as. My girlfriends and I pretty much nickname every single guy we encounter. The ones we really care about, however, we always refer to by their first name. We don’t want to be just a “buddy” or “pal”: that’s nickname territory. 

Another sure sign she’s most likely NOT into you is if she asks you to take a picture of you and her girlfriends at a party. We literally grab the closest guy near to us hoping they have some photography skill; please don’t take it as a special invitation to our “pants party” (for you Anchorman fans). Also, check out the lip action. If she’s applying lip-gloss or constantly rubbing her lips when she knows you are around, she’s trying to draw attention to her mouth. I recall my friend once asking me if I really liked a guy I was going on a date with in high school. My response was “I’m wearing lipstick, aren’t I?!” Finally, check out what we are doing and saying. If you buy her a drink and she sticks around long enough past introduction, she’s into you. We all know girls have the advantage when it comes to getting free drinks; if she’s staying around after you already got her free alcohol, she’s fishing for more than a Corona… or for us classy gals, a red solo cup of jungle juice. If she has a nervous laugh and is overly interested in everything you say, it’s another sure sign she “wants to smush.” Finally, she also might touch your hand or arm or lean in to tell you something. Touch is a sure signal she is interested and can’t wait to explore even more! 

FOR GIRLS, I can say from experience that guys can make your head spin. Don’t get me wrong; they can be very forward when it comes to wanting to hookup. But it’s always the ones we are interested in that don’t just come right out and say it. Oh, the dilemmas of girlhood! According to Cosmopolitan Magazine, however, there are different ways to tell if a guy is sexually aroused through body language. When in doubt, see it out: when a guy is aroused, his pupils dilate. This means that the small black part of the eye grows larger. Also, notice where his hands are, and I don’t mean when he’s trying to cop a feel! If a guy tucks his thumbs into his front belt loops, subconsciously he’s trying to get your eyes to focus in on the goods. When he goes in for a hug, he may rest his hand right above your buttocks. He may be craving to trace your curves with his hands.

If you notice your guy touching his nose a lot, and it isn’t from that cold that’s going around, it could actually be a sign that he is sexually aroused. According to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, “the nerves in a guy’s nose and his erectile tissue are linked.” Aside from this, notice the pitch in your guy’s voice! Cosmopolitan’s Janine Driver, author of You Say More Than You Think, says, “A 2010 study found that people lower the pitch of their voice when they’re turned on.” Not only will he lower his voice, but if you notice he is texting you frequently, inviting you over late at night, or his friends ask you about him often, then he is most likely thinking about you. 

Although reading symptoms of lust can be confusing at times, there are ways to go into the world of flirting without being completely unarmed. Just do what you do best and nature will take its course … literally. We seem to be throwing off signals without even being consciously aware! The truth is, nine times out of 10, the hookups will come without all of the decoding and riddles. It’s simply what college students do best…besides homework, of course.