Flirting? I'm Flirting!

We joke the whole way to the front desk and joke our way through checking out the books. The conversation comes natural and easy and before I really know what's happening we're out of the library and wandering through the halls.

"So where to next?" he asks me.

I shrug, gripping the shoulder straps of my back and shifting the combined weight of the books and my laptop and wondering how I'm going to possibly manage to lug this around all day.

"I don't know," I say, "I hadn't really thought beyond the library. I mean I've got to get... somewhere... but if you have somewhere else."

I don't know why I was being cagey exactly. I mean it wasn't really a secret or anything that I was going to need to be going to the whole club orientation thing on campus today. Everyone knew that was happening today and there were even signs up as a reminder to all freshman that attendance was almost mandatory.

But it was mandatory for freshman, which he was not.

That much was clear to me. Whoever this guy was he walked around campus like he knew his way around it and I guess so did I, but that's because I'd been here before. And something about the way he was chatting with me, it had the air of someone who was talking to a peer rather than a lesser and I guess... I guess I just didn't want him to ditch me because he just saw me as some kind of naive and innocent freshman.

I wanted him to like me, and I was worried that if he lumped me in with them he wouldn't.

"Coffee then?" he offers, "I mean I know a great place just off campus if you'd like to-"

"Churches?" I cut him off, referencing the little known hole in the wall spot that had easily the best coffee for miles around which was aboslutely a staple for me in all my years here.

"Yeah," he smiles broadly, approvingly, "That's the place."

"That sounds like a great plan," I smile back and together we head off in that general direction.

Talking while we go about all our other favorite spots. The pita place or the best hot dog stand on campus. The club that has the best music and the bookstore downtown that has the best selection.

We're trading favorites and finding more than a few in common with each other, all to the point where I have to wonder how I never in all my years ran into this guy on campus and then wondering if I did.

Not everything from my time at this school, the first time around, is all crystal clear to me. I mean it was a long time ago, a really long time ago, and if I'd run into him at one of these spots once or even a handful of times nothing about him would have stood out for me then.

Then. Not now.

Now I would notice him. I mean now I did notice him. And I noticed more than that. I noticed the way he visibly relaxed with each reference I made to things around campus and town and how with each little bit of distance we got a little closer and a little closer to each other until eventually our shoulders were almost brushing up against each other as we came to a stop at a crosswalk close to the edge of campus.

The light was red, the no crossing sign up. We halted and stood at the edge of the road, both of us taking it in turn to look one way and then the next only to find no cars coming in any direction.

"I guess we just go?" he asks.

"Jaywalking," I play at him with mock surprise, "You think me the type of girl who would break the law?"

Laughing he throws his hands up as he turns to face me fully, the first time he's done that since the library.

"Jaywalking hardly even counts as a law to break," he says, "But you're right I guess. You do strike me as a bit of a goodie two shoes."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I counter quickly, crossing my arms across my chest and stepping in and up to him and turning my face up to look at him, craning up to meet his eyes, "I break plenty of laws."

"Oh yeah?" he draws his words out, his tone a challenge, "Like what?"

And he's close. And he's tall. And he's handsome. And he likes me.

And he hardly knows me but he knows enough to know that he likes me.

And the last guy who knew enough about me to know one of my secrets, he politely turned me down.

So maybe this time I don't tell him, instead.

Maybe this time, instead, I take his words as the challenge they are and I show him the laws I'm willing to break.

And maybe this time, the first law is indecent exposure.

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