The allure of the bad boy

Nobody makes me cream my panties quite as quickly as the bad boy. You all know one. He wears dark sunglasses and a sexy five'o'clock shadow and is often spotted with a motorcycle helmet tucked under his arm and a cigarette dangling from his lips, oozing sex appeal. Very reminiscent of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. He drinks Jack and he shoots pool and pretty girls in miniskirts are always fawning all over him. It's because he is a brooding, mysterious bad boy. You probably don't know very much about him. In fact, he's probably very difficult to get to know because he is a man of few words. Verbal communication's just not his thing. You ask him questions about where he's from, what his family is like, and what he enjoys doing in his spare time, aside from shooting pool and riding his motorcycle off into the sunset. He's your modern-day cowboy. But you're hard-pressed for answers. He answers tersely. He leaves you wanting more; this is without question the most crucial component to the bad boy allure: the constant tease of fulfillment. So when he nonchalantly mentions that he and his parents don't really get along that well, you are excited. Not because he doesn't get along with his parents, that'd be screwed up, but because he shared this precious little morsel of intimate information with you. And then you wonder why he doesn't really get along with his parents that well, but you have to wait until he's ready to share that with you. And he always gets to decide when. As the morsels slowly accumulate, you start to put the bigger picture of his personality together, and it's like you've been let in on this huge secret that no one else is privy to, and you feel special. Actually, it can go one of two ways. It's at this point that the allure either becomes solidified or begins to evaporate. Some things are better left to the imagination.

But why is he so magnetic? Why can't you stay away from him even though you know that (a) you have to have the patience of a monk because that's about how long it'll take for him to let you in, (b) your parents and close friends will disapprove (though they'll probably all secretly agree that he's super-hot), (c) he'll probably break your heart in spite of your best attempts to break him in, and (c) you can't change him?

You want to save him. You want to save him from his delicious badness (and occassionally you might even want a taste of it), from his chaotic life of booze, bikes, and billiards. He intrigues you, draws you in, and then you want to protect this tough bad boy who's really not all that tough deep down inside, and only you would know, because you've seen that deep down inside.