Diary/Journal/Whatever is Manly

Chapter 1

"Hi, name's Tyler. My friends call me Tyke."  The girl jumped at the voice that appeared from behind her. 

"Why?" She asked after she had processed the words of the stranger now known as Tyler. Which she soon regretted considering she had now given him an open invitation to continue conversing with her, something she did not have the mental aptitude to deal with right now.

"I don't know." Seeing the girls perked eyebrow was all the hint he needed; she did not believe him at all. "Okay, I may be a little mischievous. But, in my opinion they're all just really sensitive and unable to keep up with my wit." 

"Well, nice to meet you Tyler known as Tyke to his friends. I'm Misty, no friend given nickname." Was the girl now known as Misty's answer.

"None at all?" 

"I mean there's a lot of play-on terms, for example mystical, misty-eyed, mysterious, et cetera." Misty told Tyler.

"That's cool too." Tyler hummed, to which Misty proceeded to turn her attention back to her work. She hoped that would be enough to deter him so that she could get back to work. Though she had not produced anything of consequence, who knew what her brain was going to conjure up next. She certainly did not need a random stranger to come in and destroy the flow she had been working so hard to build.

"So..." Tyler drawled out, after a few moments of silence had passed between them. The only acknowledgement he got from Misty was a shrug of her shoulders. "What's got you here at ungodly hours of the night?"

"College work." Was Misty's curt reply, which had Tyler rolling his eyes. 

"Well nah duh, considering our location is a campus library. I would be concerned if you weren't here for course work." 

"Some people come here for less than innocent reasons so..." Misty told him matter-of-factly.

"Okay true but, clearly that's not why you're here." Tyler conceded.

"How do you know?" Misty questioned him, the perched eyebrow had returned.

"Manly intuition," The fact the perched eyebrow remained firm in it's arch told Tyler that he was not fooling anyone. "Or maybe it's the fact that this conversation is completely vexing and it's taking all of you to be polite and continue it. Somehow I don't imagine you coming here with anything less than class work in mind." 

Stunned at his perceptiveness, Misty decided to turn the interrogation around, not liking the feeling of being under a microscope. "How about you? What are you here for? A weekend tryst?" In answer he held up a bunch of papers and shook them. "What are you working on?"

"No need to push conversation for my sake," Tyler told Misty genuinely.

"What you're working on will help me decide whether talking to you is a waste of time or not," Misty answered.

"Brutal honesty, you're turning me misty-eyed." An unimpressed glare was all he got in response. "Okay never mind, I'll leave the play-on's to the friend. I'm working on a story for an art project. I'm trying to come up with an idea in terms of my creative major work. Everything I've tried so far has been generic and boring" Again he managed to surprise her with his answer.

"I'm not one for art, I think it's frivolous." Once again he was beaten by Misty's brutal honesty.

"One might say the same thing about English. You use too many big words so, clearly you're someone very intellectual. Someone who reads a lot. Whether it was from a technical background or from a language background, I took a guess. And by your reaction I'm guessing English was right, and it was a good thing I didn't say math or science."

"You annoy me."

"Not the answer I was expecting but, I'll bite. Why?" Tyler asked.

"You're a walking paradox. I'm guessing you didn't have to try too hard, you just naturally got the marks. You seem middle-minded, yet you speak as though you're a philosophical professor with years on his side. You most definitely belong in a frat yet, here you are at ungodly hours of the night working on your art project like it's the next big event. Annoying." Misty laid out her reasons.

"Fair enough." 

"I have decided you are worthy of conversation," Misty announced to Tyler.

"And what if I deem you unworthy of conversation?" Tyler questioned.

"That is not my problem. If you have trouble communicating with the likes of me then that's your problem, not mine. Though I would be offended. I would get over it and go back to not knowing of your existence due to the brevity of our acquaintanceship." Misty answered.

"I have decided you are worthy of conversation too," Tyler finally said after contemplating her words.