My Name.

Tak tak tak

I heard the chalk that dotted and scratched on the blackboard but I didn't see what was being written. Quite frankly I didn't really care. I was on my laptop working on another entry to my book, and ignoring the Professor Jensen's meaningless religious prattling was a little inconvenience to me. I was writing down this epic battle between the Dwarf Kingdoms and the Goblin Hordes when I heard the doors of the lecture room swing open followed by Prof. Jensen's airy husky sigh.

"You're late. Take a seat."

Then one of the lecture hall's heavy metal chairs could be heard being dragged from across the room to a more reasonable seating area. As soon as everything settled down Prof. Jensen continued is endless prattling.

"Mr. Williams?" I stiffened in my seat. My surname felt odd and empty when he said it.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Andrew Williams? Correct?"

"Yes sir."

"Well then Mr. Williams, as it is seen that you are quite busy taking down notes, I hope you wouldn't mind sharing the implications of the Prodigal Son in the Catholic scripture."

I was stumped. My heart raced. My fingers grew cold. I saw him arc an eyebrow at me, he expected me to know this.

"E-excuse me?"

Another one of his airy sighs filled the room more fully now that everyone had silenced down to stare at me.

"The class has been discussing the Catholic scripture and I would expect that you have your own interpretations on the Parable of The Prodigal Son?"

Nothing came out of my mouth but stutters and fragments of thatched thought.

But then voice came from a few feet behind me.

"The traditional implications of the parable is that the father represents the image of their god that therefore represents the values of forgiveness and compassion."

My heart stilled. The room froze for me. But Professor Jensen did not. He straightened his glasses and looked at the student who spoke up to acknowledge him and he nodded once.

"Well done." The professor's finger traced down a list on his clipboard "Mr. Pierce is it? Brendon Pierce?"

"Yes sir."

I spun around in panic. Brendon?! Yep. He was there a few rows behind grinning at me. Ohhhh good lord …

"It seems like you got yourself out this time Williams, do pay attention next time."

I flushed a deep red in a confusing flux of emotions.

"Yes sir."

"And for you Mr. Pierce, well done. I believe that I'll be able to waive your tardiness if you keep this up."

Prof. Jensen gave him a brief smile and a quick nod and went on with his rambling.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The class ended and I found myself scrambling to replace my laptop and my pens in my bag. He was in my Theology Class? I left the lecture hall and its ambience of grumbling students. As I got out of the door the bright light that fell around the university's courtyards was almost blinding. So I squinted and I craned my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of his clothes in the swash of students that moved from room to room and building to building. What were his clothes again? A navy blue hoody! No no … may be it was a navy blue shirt? Argggh I racked at my brains trying to remember. No. His red hair.

"Hey." I left a light tap on my shoulder. I looked over distractedly, I primed to attention look for him, but when I turned my head just shut down."

"Oh hey."

"You left your charger plugged into your desk." Brendon stood there stretching out a hand with my charger dangling across his palm.

I blinked. Struck for the moment. Why did I look out the door again? No … why did I assume that he left the room?

"Thanks. For this" I took the charger into my hands and shook it for a while, then after stuffing it in my bag I continued "and for earlier. I really appreciate it."

"You're very welcome." He looked down and scratched the back of his head. "I saw that you were in a little bit of a pickle … writing another chapter?"

"It was more of an entry than a chapter, actually." I laughed. I actually laughed. This felt more natural now. We're actually having a conversation. Then the nerves kicked in. "Uh yeah … I didn't know that Philosophy Majors took Theology."

"What?" He stopped scratching his head. His eyebrows knit together. "I know I get late most of the time, but surely you should know that we have the same Theology class."

"Uhhh no? I haven't met you since the other day in the café."

His eyes softened and so did his smile. "You're weird." He threw a playful punch at my right shoulder and I weakly rubbed at it afterwards. "Well, I wish I could stay and talk but I have classes to get to. But at least I finally caught your name. Andrew was it?" he finished with a wink. "See you around."

With that note he left. But after a few paces forward he looked back to smile and wave back at me. That made me happy at the time, it was a warm flush that ran across my body. But something didn't feel right. Something was off.