Dating : You’ll Never Know Why People Act The Way They Do

3.

Some people peak too early and with such ferocity that it’s hard to tell who is around out of friendship and who is around to watch the final flameout.

You were one of those people. Tall and slick, sharp and smart in a non-bookish way. Everyone adored you with a near-obsessive reverence and everyone wanted to be near you.

You were shining too bright and moving too fast.

The first time I saw you, you were shrouded in a cloud of dust and smoke. That’s how I’ll always think of you; indistinct, bright, hazy, laughing.

I never understood why you decided you liked my company. We were not even remotely alike. Perhaps it had something to do with the knowledge that I did not revere you, that I didn’t clamor to be near you and to siphon off sips of your incredible appeal. Perhaps you wanted to be near someone who cared too little about your witty jokes and your reckless displays of strength.

We lost touch, as people do.

The last time I saw you was a night where you walked into a bar where I was on a date, as were you. Not wanting to seem rude, I didn’t say hi. I regret that.

But something of you rubbed off on me amid the time we spend together, brief as it was. I would not be who I am today without you. Not even close.

You did that; you left a maddening sort of residue on me. People who’d gotten too close to you formed a strange sort of club. It was there in their eyes somehow.

Still: I will never know what you saw in me.