Signatory

What at First Sight?

It was a bright morning, the sun was warm and the leaves were bright. I had just finished writing an examination and I was returning to the hostel with a friend when a group of guys from other departments who had just concluded their examinations that day caught up with us. A few of them, I knew as friends, so we all easily got along, playing around and cracking silly jokes. I remember walking past a field of really beautiful yellow flowers, plucking a stem and proposing to one of them with it. He gratefully took it but dumped it just a few steps further and I happily made a drama out of that just to amuse everyone and make them laugh.

It was all fun and games until a few steps further. I suddenly stomped my foot against a stone and stumbled. Alpha, one of the guys I knew noticed and looked back at me.

'Pat, are you falling for me?' He asked with a stupid smirk on his lips.

It was quite typical of him to flirt without intention so I decided to play along, after all, my spirits were high in drama that morning. Just then, my eyes caught a boy I had never seen before, since my first four months of being in the school. It was strange that he had walked with us all these while and I hadn't noticed him until that moment.

He was tall, slim and walked really sluggishly, he totally moved like his entire mind was off this planet. He was good looking too, although seemed careless about it.

Still in the spirit of drama, I decided to mess around for a bit. I won't deny I had an instant crush on him, something about his calm, distant and strange nature called onto me, but I never thought twice about it or took it seriously. I just processed it as an admiration that would be overlooked and forgotten in time. But for the fun of it, I pointed my finger at him.

'No, I'm falling for him.' I replied.

He never heard what I said, I doubted he even noticed me or heard my conversation with Alpha, but something about what I said really excited Alpha and he immediately called the strange boy's attention.

'Junior, somebody's falling for you.'

He turned around abruptly like he was being woken up from a slumber.

'What? Me?' he asked, clearly confused as he scanned around awkwardly and turned right back in seconds. He sounded like he couldn't believe what he was told or was unworthy of being liked or admired. That heightened my interest.

But I only smiled as I watched him drift back to wherever he was, definitely beyond the physical. That was the day and moment he walked into my mind and has ever refused to leave.

**********

It was about half an hour later, students trooped in and out of the premises with loads and boxes, some leaving while others escorted. I stood outside the hostel after seeing off a friend who had left school that day, when I spotted the strange boy limping towards my direction with a bleeding ankle. How he carelessly tried to ignore his bleeding leg was strange. That boy was strange, and I was curious.

'What happened to your leg?'

He began to stutter like he was looking for words to explain how exactly he got blood streaming out of his ankle. Making a story seemed like such a struggle, so he gave it up and just waved it aside like it wasn't so serious.

'It's nothing.'

I was baffled and a little offended that he didn't take it as seriously and also acted as though he wasn't ready to talk. My intention to ask for his phone number was immediately crushed and although I badly wanted to get to know him, the little pride I had left instructed me to just walk away. And I did.

'Alright, take care.'