"Talking"

The Meeting: 
So you're at a party, or a bar, or whatever and you bump into this cute guy and start having a conversation with him. This is the stimulus stage where you are attracted to superficial characteristics like looks, cool shoes, or nice hair.  One thing leads to another and by the end of the night he has your phone number.  If he asked for your number at all he's probably at least a little bit into you, or he's just super drunk and his beer goggles are extra foggy that night.

Texting:
The general waiting period for a guy to text you is between 3-5 days after the initial meeting.  So don't freak out if you wake up a little groggy the next morning, check your iPhone, and there's not a passion-filled lovetext waiting for your reply. If there is, delete his number and drop him immediately.

Initially conversation will be pretty surface level, the typical "Hey what's up, this is ______ from the other night." "How you doing?" which will eventually lead into playful banter.  You want the guy to think you're "pretty chill" and totally normal in this stage (and let's be real we all have our quirks, no matter how normal we seem on the outside). So please don't tell him about your roommate that leaves her socks on the kitchen table or how your dad left you when you were 6, unless you genuinely want the guy to go running for the hills--bad idea.  Play along.  During this stage people will get to know each other and determine if they have similar enough likes and dislikes to actually hang out. This goes beyond superficial characteristics and people will decide if they remain attracted.

Hanging out:
This could really be anything from meeting up with mutual friends or hanging out on your own, it's usually pretty casual.  During this stage deeper conversations will begin to take place and you will learn what the other person is actually like.  Pretty sad, considering you spent all that time trying to convince him you're just stereotypically normal. Nobody actually wants to be normal. This is where you take the complete opposite route and start telling him everything amazing about yourself so he'll want to stick around. Tell him you have practice later and won't be here this weekend. When he asks say "Oh I'm on the track team...it's the national meet...yeah I hold the school record in the 100 hurdles *insert bashfully humble blush and smile*" Make yourself awesome.

Maybe it'll work out, maybe it wont. If it does you'll start hanging out more and eventually be dating, if it gets really serious probably become FBO.

Stages of "talking" all follow general role expectations.  As a girl you are expected to wait until the guy initiates conversation, seem coy and slightly uninterested but bashful and witty.  Texting back too quickly breaks role expectations and will send a red flag up that you're a crazy clinger even if you're not and just being punctual. People who date "too soon" totally break role expectations. This whole crazy circus of "talking" was invented as a prerequisite of actually getting to know each other, which precedes dating. What ever happened to love at first sight?