One day as E and I were chatting before a class he grabbed my hand and said "don't look now..." (which made me look around like a gopher out of its hole) "There's that weird guy from that party in B------." When it was "safe" to look I looked, and indeed, it was that weird guy from that party in B------. Who incidentally I NEVER would have remembered had E not pointed him out. I remember now though...

It was at a house party, one of those crazy events that a million dramas were occurring simultaneously at, and as I'd already run into Hot Abercrombie/Crew Guy (some guy I screwed in the interim between The Ex and E) I was trying to avoid becoming a part of the theatre of the evening. So E and I stepped out front to smoke a cig. And there was this guy, acting really strangely, I almost can't describe it. Sort of an intersection somewhere between socially inept (in the extreme), drunk, and deranged. He kept trying to talk to us, trying to touch me. I don't even think I'd have remembered if both E and I hadn't been so innately creeped out by him. Nobody knew him at the party, and no one could figure out where he came from. He just sort of walked around for a few hours making people uncomfortable, then he must have left, or I got drunk... Whatever. Be that as it may, the fast forward is that he's moved as well, and is now going to school with E and I.

After E pointing him out I started noticing him all over the place. Outside my classes both before and after, just meandering about. A few tables down at the library, not reading, just sitting. A few steps behind me on my way to different buildings on campus. Then one day, standing by my car in the parking lot. Just staring at it. I found it a little strange. But I've been pretty preoccupied lately; school, the D thing, and just daily life, have kept me in this little bubble.

Until today. I was supposed to have breakfast with E after my class. It was Critical Writing and we were workshopping a paper. My group got done early, being the efficient little workers that we are (and that half of us didn't have papers to workshop). A couple girls went ahead and left but I stayed and chatted for a minute with the last girl in my group, when I was ready to walk out she mentioned that she wanted to talk to our professor. So when I left, I left alone, being that there was still about fifteen minutes left in class and the other groups were hard at work. I dialed E's cell as I left the building, cherrily leaving him a message that I got out of class early and to meet me in front of said building. I happily sat down in the sunshine and opened my book, UFOs and Abductions, pleased to have a moment to squeeze some more research into my day (drip, drip goes the sarcasm). Then I noticed him. Just standing there, as if waiting, next to a tree. The Creepy Guy. There was nobody else in the area and for a moment campus felt as deserted as a ghost town. I glanced around a little, surely I was being paranoid. As I tried to concentrate on a chapter explaining why academia won't accept "Ufology" as a real science I could feel his eyes on me. I tried E again. His phone was still off. Slowly, students began to trickle out of the buildings, but Creepy Guy stayed put. Then my phone rang. It was E, he was headed from the library. There were several lascivious comments made about how I looked in my sweater from far away, which I responded to with "Just hurry up." When he met me by the bench I was sitting on I related to him in low tones the strange "presentness" of Creepy Guy during the past weeks, and that Creepy Guy was currently watching from his tree. E laughed a little and kissed me on the nose, saying "Let's go to breakfast, eh?" I scowled at him for a second for not taking me seriously, until I noticed the harsh strain in his voice, and the unusually loud volume at which he was speaking. As we began to walk towards the parking lot Creepy Guy turned and walked into the shadow of one of the covered walkways. As we got out of earshot I started to turn and E gently jerked my arm forward saying "Don't look back at him." I looked in his eyes, and though he was smiling at me I could see he was concerned.