Don't Quote Me on This.

A random thought popped into my head tonight as I was driving home.

A few years back, I was out at some club. I remember never being a big fan of the club scene. It was a pretty boring night as I stood on the side and waited until it was time to leave. Then as I was nudging people towards the door, I stopped. Looking for the glowing exit sign above the sea of people, I noticed this guy walked in. He paused by the door with his sweater sleeves rolled up, in all black, I felt wonderstruck then. “He looks familiar,” I thought to myself.

It wasn’t until either a couple of months or a year later that I ran into him again. It was odd because it was a face I had never forgotten. I told him about that night at the club, how I saw him and was immediately taken aback. It wasn’t love at first sight but there was something. 

He started to drop by my school with McDonald’s during lunch time. It was about the sweetest thing ever. It was simple and it was always nice to see him. Then one night, he picked me up and we went for a drive. It wasn’t late but late enough that the streets were empty and the city was quiet. We drove around as he pointed to different places and told me stories about the neighborhoods. He took me on a tour that only the locals would know about. This continued several times. I loved it.

One day, a friend of mine called me. “Why are you hanging out with _____?” she asked. I didn’t understand. “Why not,” I replied. “You know that’s my ex.”

Then it all made sense -why he looked familiar that night, it was all coming back to me. I had never seen him before then but I had always felt like I knew him because I did know. I knew him from everything I had heard from her.

The next morning, I asked him to take me to school, or he offered; I don’t remember. It was a short drive. I told him that it felt wrong. She is/was a good friend of mine so I could never do that. I slowly got out of the car and I remembered he said to me, “You look pretty today,” That was it. I smiled and walked to class.

Tonight reminded me of that time: meeting him, driving around the city, and then parting ways. I don’t know why. It’s just a fascinating phenomenon when you meet a stranger you know. The day I got out of the car, I didn’t want to look at him because then the memory would replace my memory of the look of his face when I first saw him and I don’t want to ever forget that.