She was staring at a perplexed face. He sat across from her and always looked like a puppy that is being potty trained, wondering why his master is scorning him. She thought he was the only entertaining thing about the class. She smiled to herself at every new bored face. He was so bored on this even of class that gum fell out of his mouth and onto the floor. He made a quick glance around the room, looking for potential witnesses, and quickly scooped the gum up into his mouth.

He thought no one noticed and smiled victoriously to himself. She let out a loud giggle and everyone looked at her. She blushed but couldn’t help but keep her smile for a few seconds longer.

The thought quickly entered his mind that she might have seen him and that might be what she was laughing about, but he just figured he was too methodical to be caught. Both of their minds quickly went back to the inescapable boredom.

“I could be watching T.V.,” he told the older guy sitting next to him.

“I could be finger fucking a moose,” the older guy quickly retorted.

They both laughed at the absurdity of the comment. The teacher gave them a look of disdain. They quickly stopped laughing, but both of them were happy to have something break up the monotony. She was across the room watching his laugh. His laugh was hardy and honest she thought. She liked that he wasn’t afraid to stand out and look stupid.

He often spent his time in class writing short stories that he liked to give to random people he met on the streets. For the first time he noticed her. He liked her eyes and deemed them worthy of a story. The problem was finding a topic fit for those eyes. He decided to write a story about a suave humanities student who could pick gum off the floor he dropped and have no one notice. He thought maybe she had seen after all.

He gave it to her after class and she smiled and didn’t know what to say. He walked away laughing. He was sure she would think he was a little crazy for giving her a story about something so random. Of course, being a little pompous he put his number on the story anyway. She called ten minutes later.

“Hello,” he said.

“I totally noticed you,” she said.

He smiled.