The Shark Agenda

Write about two people seeing each other for the first time.

The first thing he noticed was her hair. It was a bundle of dark curls outlining her face like the perfect picture frame. The second thing he noticed was her eyes, a golden brown with flecks of green. She had her headphones on, a large red pair of Beats by Dre and a massive book in her hand. He tried to figure out what she was reading but it was missing the jacket cover. She uncrossed and crossed her legs a couple times, seemingly to get more comfortable. There's nowhere to get comfortable on a subway. He felt bad all of a sudden. Stop staring, he thought to himself.

She peeked out of the corner of her eye. Yep, this dude was still staring at her. What an oddball. She hoped and prayed he wouldn't attempt to talk to her. She hated when guys tried talking to her when she was out in the wild, without a drink in her hand. Especially when she had her headphones on. Nothing else in the world says "DO NOT APPROACH" more than giant headphones attached to your head. She moved around a little. She hated taking the subway, she wasn't used to it quite yet. Her commutes back home were bike trips or walks everywhere. Oh, good. He's not staring anymore.

His stop was coming up soon. He really wanted to say something to her. He'd never seen anyone look quite that beautiful before. He didn't want to be a creep, however. God, this was so hard. How do people approach other people anymore? Have dating apps trained them all to only reach out when you're certain it's a match? Yikes. He was ranting in his own head again. Shaking his head to get rid of his thoughts, he looked at her again. This time she looked back.

Shit. Shit. SHIT. She made eye contact. Now he was going to try and talk to her, wasn't he? He smiled a little. His eyes were strange, one green and one gray. She realized she was staring back, glared at him and blocked her face with her book.

Mortified. He was mortified. She did not reciprocate his weak ass smile. Got to get the fuck off this thing now. He looked around and saw that a stop was coming up, just a couple blocks from his and decided to get off. He stood up and she did too.

You have go to be fucking kidding me, she thought to herself. Of course, this was his stop too. The doors opened up and a rush of people trying to get off or come in shoved her right into him. He caught her and grimaced.

"Sorry," he said. "Here, let's push together." They eventually got off the train and stood there awkwardly, looking at each other.

"Thanks," she said to him with a smile. He nodded.

Come on, say something else. She started backing away when he shouted, "Number?"

Dude, that was smooth. She smiled, shook her head and walked away. Well, at least he tried.

Well at least he didn't try to murder me, she thought, scurrying away.

“Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”