MEETINGS

The room was full of people I didn't know. And this was getting seriously unconfortable... On my behalf, at least. I hate these get-togethers my parents are so keen on. I was only trying to find in which table I was supposed to sit. That's another thing! Why the hell can't I sit next to my parents? I'm not the one who wants to socialise! "I'm never getting dragged to this kind of thing again." I grunted.

Table, after table, I was going from one way to another across the room intending to find my place and glue myself to the seat for the rest of the night. "Aha!" I finally spotted my name. Rushing there, I started wondering until when I had to stay there... I sat down on the empty table and glanced at the names of the people who would sit beside me. 'Ryan Harlow'... Never heard of him. I looked to my other side. 'Olivia Matthews' Oh. God. Why. My parents had presented me to the woman earlier. She was such a pain! Always talking gibberish, asking things and not waiting for an answer! "Why do I have to sit here?".
"If you prefer, I can sit there." Someone piped in. Did I say that out loud? I looked around to see who had made the offer, and was met with a skyscraper in shape of a guy not too much older than me. He held his hand up for me to shake. "My name is Keith. I have the pleasure of knowing how... boring Liv is... My parents invite her a lot to family dinners." He said all at once. I shook his hand and answered briefly. "I'm Lynn." We stayed quiet for a while, not knowing what to say until he spoke up again. "So?" He asked. I was confused. "So what?" Keith smiled. "So, do you want me to change places?"
Anything seemed better than having to hear that woman talk. "I don't mind. Can you do that?" He promptly picked up the paper at my left and disappeared in the crowd.

I wished I knew it was that easy... The guy reappeared again with another paper in his hand. 'Keith Mason' sat down by my side and put down the paper in front of him. "There. All set." He turned to me, asking my age, what I studied, and so on. I had just started Informatics Engineering and was thrilled about it.
Our talk went pretty well from there: dinner had been served already and it was his turn to tell me about him - with 22 years old, he was four years old than me but was still in the second year of Biomedical Engineering thanks to all the changes from course to course.

While we were on the second dish, and discussing some likes and dislikes when someone interrupted our talk. Some guy popped up between us, clearly somewhat drunk, and started speaking to Keith. "Helloo! I thought you'd left, bro." Keith shifted his focus to his friend. "Nah, I'd just decided to walk around. Well Jack, meet Lynn - the girl behind you. Lynn, this is Jack." He said in ways of introduction. I was about to say hi, when Jack promptly turned to me. "What's up chick? Was KF making a move on ya? Or... wait, I know! You're making a move on him?" What? By that time I was sure I couldn't be more embarrassed than I already was.

Jack ended up sitting in Ryan's place, who never showed up. Between his joking around and getting on my nerves, dinner ended without speaking much to Keith again. "I'm sorry, I'll have to go now." Both boys turned to me. Keith smiled apologetically on behalf of his friend, and Jack mocked pity to watch me go. "Aww... Now that we were all getting to know each other better." Keith slapped the back of Jack's head before he said anything stupid. Again. "I think it's enough." He looked at me. "Sorry, it was nice to meet you." Likewise. I smiled a bit and waved my goodbye, before dashing out of there.

We never traded contacts: phone number, e-mail account, nothing. Well, it's not like we'd meet each other soon.