I see him, probably, every few days. He is tall and attractive, has brown hair, glasses and is really sweet. I swear he is from the South as I can detect the slightest little drawl. That or he just has impeccable manners. He also stutters just the tiniest bit. Not like he really has a stuttering problem but more like he has a little script in his mind for when he sees me and he gets caught up on it a little in his head. As if he is checking off little bulleted conversation starters in his mind. "Comment on her outfit"..."ask her how her day is going"..."find out where she is from."
Either way, it is adorable.
I always run into him when I look my absolute WORST. I am heading out the door to work out, no make-up, glasses, ratty sweats and, sure enough, here comes Mr. Dreamboat around the corner. Or I am stuffing my face in the cafeteria (buffet-style brings out the animal in me). Or I am readjusting my bra strap or pulling up my pants. Like clockwork, here comes Cutie Pie. It's ridiculous.
Here's the problem...I don't know his name.
I met him when I first arrived here and he completely caught me off guard. Students, as I have witnessed them here, do not start conversations on their own. So I had to start them. All of the time. Everyday. For weeks. And I still do. So you have to understand my surprise when one day, out of nowhere, I am picking up my mail and I hear, "Great pants". I was wearing (as usual) obnoxiously bright pants in, as luck would have it, one of the school's colors. We met and he introduced himself as...
Here's the thing--I can't remember. I was so taken aback that one of them was speaking to me on their own accord that I blanked out for a second. Right now, I am 50/50 on his name being either Michael or Steven.
But here's the bigger problem--I have seen him and spoken to him WAY too many times to ask him, again, what his name is. We are past the point of, "Oh, and you are__, right?" Yeah, we are way past that. But, oh, he remembers me. Because EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE HIM he says, in a really enthusiastic voice, "(my name), it is so great to see you."
And I feel like a total ass. And all I can say is, "Hi..." in my most sincere and smiley way and just launch right into conversation so he doesn't, hopefully, notice that I did not call him by his name. Yet again. For about the fifth time. Sigh.
The other night at dinner he was sitting with his friends. I was sitting with a few students (usually I eat by myself, sad but true). But a few, from different committees I advise, had joined me and we were chatting. One in particular is really, really odd. So I like to be very casual with him and see how he reacts. I got some frozen yogurt the other night, sat down and said, "Yay, fro-yo." Odd's reply: "what's fro-yo?" In short, it is very easy to mess with him so I do so on purpose. I think he likes it because he always seeks me out. Anyway, Odd and I were alone (the others had left). And I explain to him how I had met the nicest student a while back but I can't remember his name and I then pointed out Michael-Steven (my own version of Justin-Bobby from The Hills). Odd has been here for about 4 years. It is a small little community. One would think that you would know everyone in it, if not by name then surely by face.
Odd had no idea who he was. More than that, he didn't think he had ever seen him before that night.
More than that, Odd was not happy that I was paying so much attention to this Michael-Steven character. Forget about going through other students to figure this out.
For now, the mystery continues...
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