Monday morning. Today's the day.
I woke up at 5:30AM to clear blue skies. I always found the deep blue entrancing, and I sat there, looking out my window in anticipation of our first date.
This was my first date ever. Immediately, questions circulated through my mind. What kind of things would we talk about? Where would we go? What would I wear? Would you like me now that you're talking to me in person?
I left the house for the bus stop extra early unintentionally. Maybe it was the excitement.
I had to meet Gianna, one of my schoolmates, since she was in the Manhattan School of Music Summer Program right across the street from Columbia, and she wanted to commute with me for the first day. I arrived at the bus stop about ten minutes early, and while bus after bus passed, Gianna wasn't here. I texted her, and I found out that she had already rode the bus to Jamaica 179th Street Station without me. We agreed to meet at the subway station. I guess I'm riding alone today.
Whether on the bus or on the subway, I always find myself in deep thought, looking out the window, thinking about really anything in the world. Its always a time where I ignore all else around me, and dwell on the streets and buildings that pass by in a blur. Today, it was all about you. The whole bus ride, I was thinking about possible things we could talk about, where I could take you, what I'd do with you. I decided that I would take you to a pretty good pizza place nearby, since I heard the food at the residence halls were sub-par, and I wanted to show you real New York pizza. I ran through scenarios, conversations, questions, answers. Truth be told, I really didn't know what I was doing.
That was when I realized that everyone on the bus had left.
"What's the next stop?" I asked the bus driver.
"169th Street Station Bus Terminal, last stop" he replied.
Ten city blocks away, unsafe neighborhood. And I still had to meet Gianna on time.
You'll never see a small Asian boy run as fast as I did through the streets of Jamaica, Queens. I ran ten city blocks in ten minutes. Not bad for having quit track since ninth grade, but I didn't even realize that I was running through one of the most unsafe neighborhoods in Queens.
Eventually I met up with Gianna at 179th Street, and we took the subway into the city. I played it off real cool, saying the bus didn't stop at the right station. She didn't know I was lost in thought thinking about you.
We ended up getting to Columbia with five minutes to spare, a great difference from the usual forty-five minutes of free time that I had every other day.
Later she told me that she'd take the LIRR for the remainder of her program because it was less complicated
Damn.
~
I came into class on time however, and just as I walked in, I saw you. We both said "Hi" to each other, shy, blushing, as if we possessed a secret that no one knew. We did.
In class, we were doing the cell shearing lab we learned of in the previous week. For the past seven days, I didn't even realize that you were right across my table, covered by the jumble of computers and lab equipment that separated our lab groups. Today I noticed, and I couldn't stop myself from taking peeks at you while I was setting up the apparatus. The whole time while I was talking to Lea-my lab partner-about the experiment, I was never truly present in the conversation, often losing track of what I was saying immediately upon unintentionally grazing my eyes upon you. What was this spell you had cast on me?
