Excerpt from some exploratory creative writing: enjoy. 

The following is documentation of love at second sight. Maybe it was one sided, maybe it wasn't, that isn't what's important about it. It happened,  to a realist like myself even, which in and of itself deserves documentation.

It was fall and I saw him. Not for the first time, but for the second or maybe third. 

The first time was passing each other on the staircase of my house while he was returning to his then girlfriend’s place and I was exiting down to my then boyfriends place. I remember that glance even though it was years ago and only for a few seconds. My thoughts were “Dang, where does she even find these guys?!”  Then gave no more thought to it.  

But you know those seemingly inconsequential moments in time that your mind will absolutely never let you forget? Days that seem like any other day but also seem to have a little magic to them after reflection of the things that occurred. They are those days you wake up and feel beautiful. When your hair is messy but in a beautiful way that you could never do on purpose,  and you only have time to put on a touch of mascara and your freckles don’t look so childish and annoying for some reason today. Those days full of inappropriate warm weather and sweet breezes. It was one of those days where you don’t realize at first there seems to be magic in the sunlight but after, everything was meant to be beautiful today. It was one of those days that beautiful moments are compelled to happen; moments that your brain will play back in slow motion every time you hear a crooning acoustic song with complimentary piano with just a hint of strings to really get you. 

I was waiting for the bus on the other side of the street. I had actually gotten semi ready for the day and not just rolled out of bed and threw on yoga pants and a flannel per usual. I was wearing a skirt and Birkenstocks because the sun was shining and it made me blissful. My messy long brown hair was lightly waving in the fall breeze and the sun was rolling out its last bits of golden morning light. I was listening to music in my headphones, something soft and appropriate for a sunny fall morning.  The feeling was incandescent and contented. I was cozy with the anticipation of the bus ride and the walk home passed the elementary school with the tree-lined path.

Then the magic of the day was brimming and had to dispense itself, and I saw him coming off the bus on the other side of the street. I saw him and for a moment I didn’t recognize him. Usually I can’t recount my exact thoughts at exact moments in time, but for those small magically haunting times I can.  The thoughts came to me as if I was speaking to my best friend. “Whoa, who is that guy? He’s tall and handsome, it’s not everyday you see someone like that on this campus.“ The ensuing moment I realized it was him. It was you. 

I intently observed him because with all of his evident college guy normalities, he had a blatant unicorn-esque quality about him that made it humanly insufferable to look away. 

You know when you’re across the room from someone and you feel the unexplainable phenomenon of someone looking at you so you turn to look at them? Well, he must have felt that phenomenon from across the street. I don’t know if phenomenons have a maximum distance capacity but luckily this one was within the allotted boundaries of phenomenons. Not even a flock of wild flamingos bounding down the street could have tore my gaze from the unicorn man at this slow motion moment. After thoroughly securing that I had no hitches about flagrantly seeming interested, the phenomenon materialized as he turned to me and our eyes matched from across the street. 

Our gaze held despite each step away he took. I’m confident an outsider would think this particular occurrence mildly awkward, but the more we saw of each other the more it seemed the synchronized interest flourished. “Who are you? What made you the way you are? What are the hidden bits of you? Have we met before? When, where? Could you mean something real to me? You look like my type, and that’s exciting. Are you kind? Are you interested in me? Why are we still looking at each other? Do you think I am a creep? Is this weird? Will I ever meet you? Where or how? What is your daily routine? Where are you going? Who are you?” I didn’t shy away from the gaze, and neither did he, because it wasn’t uncomfortable, it was absolutely necessary; not even necessary, it was obligatory.  And after the thousands of unanswered questions passed through my mind, the time came where he had to either stop walking or turn the corner.

And he turned. 

And then he was gone. 

And in that moment I felt myself change. 

 And I think maybe I felt awake, for the first time in a long time. 

That’s the beautiful and terrifying thing about magic, it is wholly out of your control, and indisputably fated.