Looking For Space // Josh Kiszka

I

**edit from @scarletbegonnias on tumblr**

His loud, squawking laugh broke my concentration--I looked up from the weighty poetry textbook, letting my pen roll to the center and cradle itself between the pages. I couldn't stand Josh. He was so loud all the time, he never shut up. He talked over all of us, never letting anyone get more than a sentence in during a discussion. What made it all even more frustrating is that he wasn't even a writing major--he was a film major. He took the poetry workshop on a whim just because he felt like it. I couldn't even imagine how obnoxious he must have been in his own classes.

I leaned over to Bev, who was still bent over her own book, scribbling away in a notepad. "I can't stand him," I whispered hoarsely.

Bev chuckled, lifting her head up. "I still don't get it."

I rolled my eyes. "He's so annoying. How'd he even get in this workshop anyway?"

Bev smiled and shook her head. "I'm surprised you don't find him endearing. You love the Lord of the Rings."

I stared at her, trying to articulate an argument. "He may be a hobbit," I finally said. "But he's still annoying."

Bev clucked her tongue and returned to her book. I stared across the room at Josh, furrowing my brow. He may have been cute, with his sandy curls and dark eyes, but he still irritated me beyond all comprehension.

---

Leave it to Steve to assign us all to write an epic poem as our midterm. Leave it to Steve to go the extra mile and assign us all partners in which to collaborate on the poem with. As soon as he voiced the plan, I groaned internally. It was a lot of work no matter what but especially with randomly assigned partners--or maybe not so random, since it was Steve--it would be one hell of a feat.

I silently cursed the heavens when Steve declared Josh and I to be partners, then turned to Bev, mouthing the words "kill me" to her. She only snickered.

Everybody shuffled around the room, moving to sit with their partners. I looked longingly at Bev as she gathered her books and left me, Josh being the one to take her place next to me. He smiled at me, flashing his impossibly white teeth, but I couldn't manage to smile back.

"So," he began, uncapping a pen and twirling it between his fingers. "Any ideas?"

Steve hadn't given us a lot of guidelines. It had to be epic and it had to be original. It also had to focus on the human condition, although who knew what that meant to him.

"Not really," I admitted, glancing down at my notes from the past few classes. "He's so vague."

Josh smiled. "It is a challenge, isn't it?"

He was already annoying me and for no reason. Just, why was he so up all the time?

"We haven't even read any epic poems this semester," I grumbled.

"You've read Beowulf, right?"

Did he think I was stupid? "Yeah."

"What about something like that?" Josh asked, beginning to move his hands around as he spoke. "The human condition of, well, you know--the hero. The bane of the hero."

"What about Omeros?" I replied. "That poem has no hero."

Josh considered that. "The island is personified, right? Helen?"

I bit my tongue behind my teeth. I figured he hadn't read Omeros and, if so, I would have been able to feel smug for once.

"Yeah, sometimes it's personified," I affirmed. "But maybe it's like--the human condition revolving around no hero, literally no hero. It's not like the island is the hero."