Chapter 2: Chance Meeting

Continuing from Chapter 1...

Several days later, I found myself standing in front of Wellons Hall, a 3-story men's dorm in my new kelly green jacket.  I studied the window on the second floor.  Was he sleeping again?  Or had he actually attended a class?  Either way, I needed someone.  Anyone.  The only friends I had at school were all busy at the moment, and I was too upset to sit with someone new... particularly someone new who would question me.  I wanted someone "safe" to just sit with and have fun.  It was with these thoughts that I snatched up the pinecone and hurled it at the window.  I hit it dead on.  Of course, I'd had plenty of practice that semester.  Nothing happened.  Now I was mad.  I'd spent all day trying to catch a break in the system.  When that was a no-go, I'd finished my work and gone in search of the one person who might spend some time calming me down.  I ripped another pinecone from it's resting place in the grass, took my stance.  I was mid-wind-up when the door to the building opened.  This was rare...most of the guys were busy with homework right now.

A handsome man with all the features of a young boy stepped out.  I marveled at his good looks for a split second -- all the time needed to realize this was Goofy.  Great.  Now he is assured of my freakdom and I've got to come up with a good cover-story quick.  Why is a pinecone suspended mid-air in my infuriated grip again? 

"What're you doing...?" he quizzed. 
Wonderful.  So he had noticed.  "Uhhhhhm..."
"What?"
I dropped the pinecone, deciding to ignore the initial question and answer in a different way.
"I was just trying to see if Boyfriend was in his room.  Have you seen him?"
"No.  I haven't seen him all day.  What room is he in and I'll go see if he's there." 

I was mildly impressed.  At first I argued that it was no trouble I would just go it alone.  But he insisted, so I gave him the room number and off he went.  I waited outside.  My own personal Hermes returning with the news that Boyfriend was sleeping and not to be disturbed.  Lovely.  I didn't feel horrible enough just yet.  Maybe I should just go find a TV and play dead in front of it until three or four the next morning... but I wanted to go take care of the one thing that remained intact in my life.

There was one place in this wonderful, yet - for the moment - dismal, college life where I had found family.  People cared about me, at least in theory.  We were all friends and we all spent a great deal of time getting to know each other.  In 2005, I had joined a message board called Christianrock.net; this was the only Christian message board which had not been full of 50-somethings and had not required some smartass application.  The applications at such websites supposedly guaranteed that I would live up to my Christian lifestyle standards and therefore be a safe acquaintance with which current members could think well of.  Those places were just too opinionated for me.

I felt...sad.  It was difficult to make friends amid my schedule and all of the additional work I had to do just to keep a by-the-skin-of-my-teeth passing grade that semester.  It didn't help that I was having to avoid making new friends because I felt I complained and whined about the problem too much; I allowed it to over-affect me, and that wasn't a good way to start off a new relationship of any kind.

I trudged in the direction of the Student Activity Center, fondly referred to as the SAC.

"Where are you going?"
He was walking with me?  For real?  How long was this going to last?  5 seconds.  Two minutes.  Let the countdown begin.
"The computer lab in the SAC." 
"I'll go with you."
"Weren't you heading to supper?  You'll be too late."
"I can eat later."

And with that, we walked.  Several minutes later, we were in the SAC's lab.  I sat at a computer typing in the web address to the blessed assurance that was "home" to me.  Meanwhile, in a chair next to me, he watched.  He commented on the things I did, and actually tried to be a part of them in an unobtrusive way.  He cared.  About me.  But he wasn't flirting, at least not as openly as so many guys did.

As he left in search of his supper two hours later, he commented on my jacket.  Now I liked it even more...  For the first time in months, I felt something different; I felt calm.