The Unexpected Balance of Daniel & Scott

*Scott, where are you?* I’d been waiting for him in the lobby for 15 minutes.

I sighed as I checked my watch, tapping my foot impatiently on the floor. It was already starting to get dark out and if we didn’t leave soon, we’d miss the last bus back to campus.

*Oh well, he can just walk home.* I thought to myself as I grabbed my bag and headed for the exit doors. As I pushed open the door, a cold gust of wind blew past me and whipped at my hair. Thankfully, it wasn’t raining right now so I didn’t have to worry about getting soaked in the downpour outside.

It was an uneventful walk back to campus. The streets were empty except for a few cars here and there and random street lamps lining the sidewalk. Not even a stray cat or raccoon to keep me company this time.

As soon as I made it to the edge of campus, however, I stopped dead in my tracks. There was Scott with his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets and his head lowered as he walked towards me. He was mumbling something incoherently under his breath that sounded suspiciously like curse words mixed with ‘Daniel’s’ and ‘a fucking waste of time’ mixed in between.

I watched him walk closer to me before I cleared my throat loudly to catch his attention. When he heard me, he jumped a little and looked over at me in surprise as he walked closer towards me.

I tried not to laugh at how surprised he looked; instead, I gave him a questioning look as we met up on the sidewalk right outside the dorms.

He quickly shook off his surprise and gave me a nervous smile, shrugging nonchalantly as he said, “Ahh…yeah? Umm…where were we going again?”