A College Seeress' Diary

His Bracelet and Eyes

Dear Jesus,

The sound of students chatting in clusters reverberated in the wide lecture hall.

Mike walked towards my seat and I steeled myself to have my first 'normal' conversation with this mystery guy.

I could have sworn I saw all the girls he sauntered past sigh dreamily and then shoot a stink eye at me.

Oh boy! I do hope it's my imagination.
Teen angst, especially among, girls isn't a pretty sight.

"So... we're a team, Cry Baby," Mike said with a flourish and a slight, almost-imperceptible smirk.
He settled into a seat beside me.

I shuffled further away, feeling uncomfortable underneath his gaze.
All my previous encounters with him came tumbling back and I felt a tad bit embarrassed.
Especially with how he called me 'Cry Baby' because of the dinner party bumping.

In my mind, I was all, "Duh... That's what Abdul (our class rep) just told us. What's the need of restating the obvious, dude?"
But instead, I said, "Yeah, I guess... So, what's the plan?"

He seemed in deep thought. Then the ranting poured like water from a leaking pipe.

"Well, first of all, we must fully understand the project to properly tackle it. It's due in two weeks if I'm not mistaken. And we must do everything fast before the two weeks elapse. I want us to be the first to turn our project in and present it. It's going to take a lot: Research, ideas, money and other resources... We must be the best. I know what's required is that we do a compilation of common living organisms and give a brief detailing of them, but I want us to go beyond just that. I can infer that the main aim of the project, based on the topic we're currently treating in BIO101, is to help us memorize and get familiar with scientific names. How about we add some icing on top of the cake and fish out some rare zoological specimens and their scientific names too? What do you think?"

I gaped at him, my mind blown off the roof.

'He talks this much?'

Not to judge a book by its cover or anything, but not only was he an egoistic perfectionist, he also looked like the kind of boss that would joyfully wear out his workers all in a bid to get the best results.

Was I paired with the right candidate or was I about to be ruptured into smithereens by Mr Perfectionist over here?
I sure will soon find out.

I didn't say a word. I couldn't.
I just shook my head from side to side to indicate that he'd said it all.

"Okay, can I have your number?"

I whipped my head to look up at him—yeah, he's tall, alright—and gave him a face.

He must have gotten the unspoken message because he looked at me with an amused smile and said, "You know, just so we can communicate about this project better. No ulterior motives."
He raised his palms in an innocent stance of surrender.

I almost rolled my eyes. Indeed.

Not that I was paranoid or anything, but truth to be told, I knew next to nothing about this guy except that the way he looks at me gives me the creeps, big time.

"Uh... Okay?" I still wasn't comfortable about giving random guys my number, but what choice did I have?
My GPA was at stake here.
Plus, he's my coursemate. Sooner or later, he'd have to get my number somehow.
What did it hurt? It's all official business. Something told me it'll turn out to be way more than that but I discarded the thought.

I pressed my phone number onto his apple iPhone while I felt his intense stare at me.
I was almost scared of touching the screen too hard, lest it cracked and I incurred a humongous debt.