"Hi I'm Chris."
I peeled my eyes off the screen at my computer workstation and looked up into a face which, to my slight puzzlement, was somehow familiar. Wasn't he a coursemate from last year? But why would he re-introduce himself and use a different name?
I gave my name in the spirit of reciprocity and took a closer look at the guy who called himself Chris. His facial features resembled somebody I knew, but those blueish/greenish dental braces that showed when he smiled were unfamiliar. He was casually dressed in a smart way, wearing a backpack on both shoulders (not slung over one). Must be someone new, I thought, the style is rather adolescent-ish.
He repeated my name, turning it over his tongue delicately as if tasting it. Gesturing to the computer next to the one I was using in the library, he asked, "If I want to use a computer, do I just turn it on? Or ..." His voice trailed off and I swear he was scanning the open document on my screen, perhaps looking for information about me. Ah, sly. I reasoned that he must be a freshman, based on the the orientation itinerary I saw pasted near the elevator buttons at ground floor. Strange that orientation day was on today rather than before the semester started last Monday, as was the tradition, but I digress.
I turned slightly and hooked a thumb over my shoulder, pointing towards the counter. "You'll have to register first over there." Chris slunk away without another word in the opposite direction. Perhaps he sensed my discomfort, or he thought he was intruding on whatever I had been doing before he interrupted me. Truth to be told, I had been staring at my screen blankly for some time and contemplating what I should do next. I had mistaken tomorrow's class for today (what an elementary blunder!) and I had nothing to do, nowhere to go. That "familiar stranger" (he must somehow be related to that person I knew from last year) made my decision for me. I packed my things and fled from the library.
It's the second week of my last semester here. The place had been devoid of people and unbearably quiet for the past few months. Probably most students had transferred overseas and maybe the past few intakes had shrunk. The sky was still overcast when I hurried over to the bus stop, where a small group of students were standing waiting for the next shuttle bus. I ran the encounter with Chris over in my head again and thought that I had been rather unkind to him. I didn't reciprocate his smile and barely maintained eye contact with him. What if he is my junior? What if I meet him again? What if he participates in my study later in the semester?
Then again, I don't intend to initiate new friendships with graduation looming in sight. The existing ones are enough. I just want to finish this last leg of the journey quietly, without fuss, and the last thing I need is painful goodbyes. I'm all too familiar with separation and the feeling of "oh-if-only-we-got-to-know-each-other-earlier". It is bad enough to be on the receiving end of that feeling and I don't want to be on the giving end, right now.
I plugged my headphones in and played a random song. Out of the tail of my eye, I saw Chris approaching from a far distance. When I looked again, properly this time, he was nowhere in sight.
