An Autumn-Laced Sketchbook

| 68 | The Seat Next To Mine

Hop opened her eyes in the morning when I started blaring

the song "Take me Home, Country Roads," and she smiled

and thanked me for the gesture before rolling back in my blankets

My ass slept on the floor with my skateboard and sketchbook

I'm not doing this shit again 

I flicked her cheek and asked "So who's Bobby?"

She shot right up and said "How do you know about Bobby, you creep?"

I explained to her her weird Abyssal speech-talk and she

just blinked a couple of times and told me it was none of my concern and that I was weird

What the hell? I was nice enough to let her stay in my room 

And sleep on the uncomfortable dorm room carpet while she got my bed

And I'm the weird one. She's lucky it's Saturday. 

I walked her to her dorm in my pajamas and forced her to open her

phone so I could put my number in her contacts before her dormmate yelled at her and she slammed it shut. Everyone, even the difficult ones

deserves at least one friend

I passed by Kevin on the way back, and he was coming out of one 

of the girl's dorms, and me being the stickler I am asked him 

Whose dorm he was coming from and why he was in there

The motherfucker had the nerve to say "Autumn Blanchard's dorm" before

galloping down the hall and out the front doors of the building

And now I'm just confused. But it's none of my sticklery business

It's funny how you'll never recognize a certain person or thing's existence

until you hyperfocus your time to it

For example, Amazon doesn't read your thoughts when you think about icecream and an icecream pops up a second later

You just notice the Ad more than before because you were hyperfocused on it

Same applies with people. I would have never recognized Autumn's existence

Until I met her

Now she's everywhere. I listen to a variety of music genres but I 

heard a song on the "My Favorite Coffeeshop" playlist on Spotify

Called "Back to Autumn" by Tall Heights and I jumped when

I was sketching and heard her name being sung out of nowhere

How can you long for someone you don't know?

How can you long for someone who's in a relationship? How can you

long for someone who probably isn't or will never be attracted to you in that way?

The world works in mysterious ways.

Which is probably why the next day Kevin switched partners like I requested

Just as she switched our the class, a class with no other emptied seats

But mine.