Love at Ten Eighty – Excerpt
“New guy alert, new guy alert!” announced Jenny. She had just come back from the academic advisor’s office.
“Technically, aren’t we all new?” sassed Nana. She was always a smart-mouth. But she was right. We were all just starting the semester, but the fact that Kirk was the last student to join the class, a transfer student from Cuba, perfectly earned him that title.
“Is he cute?” I asked. For some reason, being surrounded by attractive people made school all that more interesting. Nana said she thought he was cute and then threw a “but” in there. Jenny, on the other hand, didn’t think so.
“Like, at all,” she said.
“Oh, he so is!” reaffirmed Nana.
“He’s really nice,” added Tammy, which coming from her…it must’ve been true. Tammy rarely liked anyone.
I was just perplexed that everyone but me had already met the new guy. I couldn’t wait to finally be my own judge.
He didn’t cause a major impression on me when he showed up in class that Wednesday evening. He walked with a limp; it was the first thing I noticed. He gazed down at his feet a lot when he talked, but always flashed a smile. I could see why Tammy and Nana thought he was nice and cute — he was adorably shy. I don’t know what it is about girls and shy guys. Some of us want them to be confident, but, hey, maybe not so much? Who knows…
He was very approachable and unintimidating. A thin, tall, morenito with all the Latino physical clichés to go with. He also had a smile to die for.
I’d be lying if I said his name didn’t take me by surprise, though. Kirk? That’s so white, I thought. I wanted so badly to join the stereotypical masses and ask him why he wasn’t given a more Hispanic name. But I wasn’t blunt enough to do that.
Kirk sat two rows over to my right. There were only seven of us in that Intro to Bilingual Studies class — a graduate course I was only taking to boost my resume.
I had not been in a classroom in years. But there I was, voluntarily learning. I must admit, I felt too “graduated” and mighty to be sitting in a classroom full of newbies, learning about shit I had already learned. It made me resent the system that wouldn’t pay me one more dollar because I didn’t have a silly college credit. Were twelve years of education in the same subject not good enough? I often wondered. It’s not like it wasn’t on my records — I had the receipts.
Every Wednesday, the professor would tell us to take a twenty-minute break from the two-hour long class. The girls and I would normally go to the restroom and then spend the rest of our time finding something to gossip about. Nothing interesting, just celebrities’ lives. But now we had a real-life subject, and his name was Kirk.
Like a little boy on his first day of school, he was sitting alone on a bench while flipping through pages of a book.
“Aw, isn’t he cute?” said Nana.
“What’s cute about, he’s a bit antisocial, to be honest,” said Jenny.
“Maybe he’s just an introvert, guys,” I said.
“Or maybe he’s not great at initiating contact,” said Nana, “Let’s give him a hand.”
That evening, Nana, Jenny, and I walked to the end of the long hallway and ambushed him.
“Hello, Kirk.”
He looked up, a look of major surprise on his face.
“H-h-hi!” he said, stuttering.
“Oh sorry, did we startle you?” asked Nana. “Did we interrupt?”
“No, no, not at all,” he said, getting up.
“OK, good,” said Jenny. “We just wanted to say hello, so, hello!” We all giggled and waited for him to say something.
“Hi,” he said again, waving, smiling, nodding. He was one awkward dude. To re-break the ice, I asked him about his major and why he was taking the class. It was an elective, he said. We all talked for a bit about where in the city we lived and what we did for fun. He seemed more comfortable then. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what to say when you gals came over. I’ve never been approached by a group of such beautiful ladies all at once — we should all hang out.”
What? Mister too-shy-to-say-hi was suddenly Mister Suave? Where did this Kirk suddenly come from?
The girls were enjoying themselves listening to his jokes and the subtle in-between pickup lines, but by the time he really started to loosen up, time was up. Intrigued, I thought to myself, who is this Kirk Davez?
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