It’s been a while since I met this strange woman. “Reeve”, that’s what she said her name was. I saw her sometimes roaming around the school, her head seemingly lost in the clouds. Unaware, or perhaps, uncaring of the people that passed her by. Judging stares, harsh whispers and the general cold attitude of everyone around was inconsequential to her. I was incredulous, she was in the spotlight in the worst way, and yet she didn’t care. I was impressed. I was envious. I needed, NEEDED, to know how she could muster the willpower to do something this grandiose. Were it me in her shoes I would have imploded so harshly I would have transformed myself into a black hole. There she is, sitting on a bench in the courtyard looking at her phone, all alone. This is my chance, I can finally learn her secret, time to talk to her! I muster all of my courage and walk towards her, ready to initiate contact… With a girl… I immediately turn back, how am I supposed to ask her to teach me how to be nonchalant? That’s just silly! I turn back towards Reeve again, I really need to know how she does it! …Then again maybe I’ll just come off as too aggressive and scare her or something. … Haa… I’m just stalling now, is the idea of talking to a girl really so daunting to me? Am I really this much of a fuck up? C’mon Anon man up! If dad managed to talk to mom then I can talk to Reeve! Wait, why am I bringing my old man up? He’s nothing like me he- “Yo man, you alright over there?” “You’ve been spinning for like five minutes or something.” To my never ending chagrin I failed to notice that she had stopped looking at her phone and had been looking at me instead. Way to go MO-RON! Now she must think I’m some weirdo, how the hell can I salvage this? “I’m in a… uuuh… dance school and that was… Part of my routine!” “Yup, that’s totally what that spinning was!” Her eyes widen. “Oooooh, so that’s what THAT was!” “Yeah that makes sense, sorry for distracting you bud, now I just feel like an asshole.” “N-no it’s fine, don’t worry about it.” “Phew, well in that case keep going, I’m not gonna stop you this time.” “T-thanks, but uh, there was something I wanted to ask you actually.” “Yeah? Well, ask away then.” “...How do you do it?” “Huh? Do what?” “I mean, not care about what people think about you.” “...Sorry dude but I don’t really follow what you’re tryina say here.” “Everyone in the school was glaring at you, but you just shrugged it off like it was nothing!” “Where they? Didn’t really notice.” She genuinely was blissfully unaware of everything that went around her, she didn’t know until I told her that she was a persona non grata around the school. I just don’t understand. “C’mon man don’t stare at me like I grew another head, I just don’t care about that shit.” “But… how?” “Why should I care what other people think?” “Man, you really are weird.” In the end I got nothing from that conversation, her way of thinking was way too alien for me to even begin to comprehend. I needed to do something more drastic to understand her. “Are you planning to stop staring at me like that anytime soon?” “Without mentioning that muttering you’re doing, fuckin’ creepy.” “Wanna hang out with me after school one of these days?” “Huh? What th-” “Is this what this all was about, you just wanted to ask me out?” “Wha- NO!” “I just want to understand how y-you do the things you do, there is nothing more to it!” “Dude there ain’t-” “I don’t wanna hear it, we’re gonna hang out and that’s final!” “Now if you excuse me I’ll be going, see you and make yourself presentable.” I ran off after that, not even waiting for her to reply or to even give her a date for our next meeting. Despite my lack of social cues, that was the start of our bizarre relationship.