C2 Chapter 2: I knew you were trouble
It was Tuesday, mid-July. It was one of those days in which you reconsider your whole life, you wonder what you are doing, why you are there, but you know that, for some reason, your place is there and you decide to stay. And so it was... There were 10 minutes left of the music theory lesson. I was very distracted, looking carefully at the posters of some musicals that I had never heard of that were hanging on the wall, and I was thinking that if the clock's second hand was tapping a pulse of quarter notes, the fan on the ceiling would be tapping a pulse of eighth notes with every turn it made. It's not that I wasn't paying attention or that I wasn't interested in the lesson, it was just one of those moments in which your mind drifts away. Besides, I don't mean to show off, but the subject that we were learning about was a piece of cake . The professor noticed that I was pretty absent-minded, so he challenged me to read exercise 7 of the book out loud. It wasn't a problem for me at all and I did it correctly the first time.
“Very well, Dante. But you have to pay more attention anyway...” he dared me.
“I know, sorry professor” I said, feeling a bit guilty.
He gave us some homework to do and with that, class was dismissed. When I left the classroom, I stopped by the water fountain and there I saw two guys that I had never seen before at the institute. The institute had 200 students at the most... I mean, I knew almost everyone in there. Drama class was next (my favorite), but the dean told us that the drama professor wasn't coming that day and that we would have class with him instead. We all entered the classroom, as did the two guys I had just seen when I was drinking water. The dean made us sit on the floor in a big circle. He gave us the lyrics of a popular song and made each one of us sing a stanza. As I was waiting for my turn to sing, I caught myself staring at the two guys I did not know. They were completely different: one was tall and skinny, his skin pale white like a ghost, his hair as dark as the night, and his clothing pretty basic. The other guy was shorter than him and had a more toned body, tanned skin and his hair was a bit messy on purpose; it suited him. He was well dressed. The pale guy realized that I was staring at them and he kept his coffee-brown eyes locked on mine. He wasn't staring at me with hatred or resentment, it was more like a friendly look that said “Hey, I'm...” and that's when I realized that I had no idea what his name was. I must have blushed because I suddenly felt warmer, especially my face. The guy smiled at me which made me feel much better. When his turn came up he sang very well; I was shocked. His voice was tender and high-pitched, which made me think he was a tenor. Although, I must say that the other guy did way better than him... His eyes met mine a couple of times more during the rest of the class and I still didn't know his name. He would smile at me gently and I would nervously laugh and try to look away. By the end of the lesson, I came to Malena (Male, for short), my best friend, to ask her something. I grabbed her arm and pulled her to a corner where we could talk more privately.
“Heyyy!” she said.
“Sorry...” I said, letting go of her. “Who were those two guys in class?”
“Oh. Fran and Nico, from the morning shift.”
Suddenly, this Fran/Nico showed up (the pale, tall guy) and Male hugged him.
“Hello, friend. How are you?” he asked Male.
“Good, and you?” Male replied.
“I'm good, thanks...”
“Oh, you two know each other?” I interrupted.
“Oh, hi. I'm Fran” he introduced himself, kissing me on the cheek.
“I'm Dante... pleased to meet you” I said.
“Dante... What a lovely name, like the writer * ...” he pointed out.
“Exactly!” I said with a stupid laugh.
“Yeah, my dad teaches literature” he clarified.
I had nothing to say about that, so I didn't. He kept talking to Male for a while and I left them alone and stepped aside. He left, quickly saying goodbye and Male came back.
“Why were you asking me about the guys?”
“Oh, because the one that just came to talk to you looks like someone I know...” I lied.
“Hm, that's weird” said Male surprised.
“And what is this guy's last name?”
“Stegman”
“Oh, then it's not him...” I lied again.
I said goodbye to Male and the rest of my classmates and everyone went home. When I got to my apartment, I turned on the laptop, opened Facebook, and wrote his name: Francisco Stegman. There he was... I hesitated for a few minutes before finally sending him a friend request. Clearly, I had no idea what I was getting into...
* Referring to Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet who wrote the Divine Comedy.
