That day it was sunless, cold and wet.       The darkened room was lit by computers and a neon light, which was stunning even more than the flickering one of the screens.

John was, now an hour and a half, barely keeping his eyes open.
And the professor seemed either not having any intention to stop.
Next to John. There She was.
Since years he have been passed trough the corridors of the school, and often their eyes have met.
A possible attraction there was. Mutual. But he never made the first move.
He did not feel able to do it.
İt had been years, and always, he looked at her, getting,
always
a glimpse of response from her.

It was almost born a relationship based only on that ‘not-talking’, on that flirting with their eyes. Certainly romantic but not practical.

It was as if every time they saw each other, they both seek each others to ensure that the other was still interested to him, to her. But nobody ever took a shot.

By reality, John, he knew.
He knew.
He felt he had to do the first step. He felt that as an obligation as man, but in somehow John was stuck just a little far frome those natural mechanisms that make the man the hunter and the woman the prey.

He was an introverted boy and full of shame.

Always lived on a level of tiptoeing. Not to make noise. Not to be noticed.

Finally, while his head was slipping from his hands, barely free from the burden that the rationality has when it is awake, then, in a state of pre-sleep, John heard:
“Let’s have a break”
He woke suddenly, and turned,

and he saw that She was looking at him and she was smiling.

“Just could not stand more,” he said
“You say it, I woke up five minutes ago,” she said.

And they laughed, along with that common feeling.

At the floor of the laboratories, a few days now, the staff of the university had installed a barrier from which you could pass only if you had the identity student card. A central passage between two horizontal iron bars attached to the wall.

“I always end to be like this: the first twenty minutes İ try to follow the sentences he says, then I realize that I’m thinking about something else, and eventually my head is pressing the keys on the keyboard and some good soul sometimes wakes me up, tapping on my shoulder” He was going well. ” to stop me from snoring or damaging the keyboard”
Bravo!

They laughed together in harmony, in tune, of course.

“Yeah, I understand,” she said.
“I … I see you always in the hallways of the school, but we never spoke, my name is Johnatan, John. What’s yours?” He said holding out his hand.
“Manuela.” She said. 

As they were speaking they had approached the bar passage.

Her: İdentity student card, bar going down, she passed. She slowed down, her head turned towards John, making him understand that she wanted to wait him.
John fumbled in his wallet, and,
‘Oh shit’ he thought.
“I think I have forgotten the card,” he said.
“I forgot my fucking ID” He came back to think

The girl said: “I go to take a coffee to the bar so I will wake up a bit” smiling.
And started walking.

“Oohh” said John quietly sad.
He stood still looking confused at the wallet. His automatic movements occured in a fixed sequence. He was nervous, was in a hurry and he did not want to miss the opportunity to continue to talk to Her.
He controlled the first side pocket, slots for credit cards, and the external hinge. One after another controlled all repeatedly. It was like a robot, like one of those robots from a production line.
Pocket, slot, hinge. Pocket, slot, hinge.
Pocket, slot, hinge. Pocket, slot, hinge.

‘Okay I’ll jump over’ he thought.

‘Oplà.aaaaa.’ He said. And,

BUM

A loud and deaf thud, turned everybody. Her, as well.

They were descending the stairs when John with a sudden and fast jump, bringing the full weight of his body above the bar, 176 pounds, projected on the other side. The bar collapsed, and as the only witness later told the curious crowd, that were created along the corridor, and by piles, John fell suddenly and triumphantly on the ground.

Let me be clear not for the weight, it was the bar that wasn’t well installed.

John stood up.

“Go ahead, go ahead,” he thought.

“All right?”

“Of..fuck,” he thought, recognizing the voice of Manuela. “Yes, all right, don’t worry” he said.

He was red-faced, sweating and he could not look anyone into the eyes.

“What he did?” He heard.
“What I have done.” He thought.

“Ei what he did?” “Miki, what happened? “” I have not seen ” ” Me neither, I was coming down the stairs ” ” Me too ” ” He tried to jump over? ” ” He tried to jump over , yep”.

Those voices flew about as far away as hundreds of meters away and instead they were all around him in about two or three steps.

He apologized mortified to the guardian of the laboratory, that in the meanwhile had occurred attracted by the shouting and laughter in the hall.

Jhon took the usual coffee, and returned to the classroom.

He spent the remaining two hours, in his personal and far world.

Perhaps, he thought that one day he could have laughed about it.