Sitting in the Building 9 common room, I noticed a lanky guy hurriedly pace in and set up his laptop. He began furiously typing and checking his watch every so often – it was clear that he had something due in an upcoming class. After about 5 minutes he seemed to be getting into the zone and stress levels appeared to be reducing. It wasn’t long before this was disrupted by someone who took a seat opposite him and began chatting. After about a minute of small talk it became apparent that this was an old uni friend, someone he had shared a class with earlier in the course and had since drifted apart from. At first the small talk was pleasant and after the first minute it seemed to begin easing to a halt, only to be kicked back into overdrive as the old friend played the nostalgic stories card.

The lanky guy’s genuine laughter gradually became increasingly artificial as his answers dropped from sentences to breaths of acknowledgement. The old friend didn’t seem to pick up on these cues and continued to chat away. Watch checks became more frequent. The due time drew nearer. There was a moment of hope as the old friend slowly withdrew his laptop from his bag, only to be diffused as he placed the closed laptop onto the table and showed no sign of opening it, relaxing back into his chair. The lanky guy eventually gave in and snapped up his laptop, muttering something along the lines of “yeah man good to see you, just gotta head off to class but I’ll catch you around”.

After the lanky guy left, the old friend sat at the table with a closed laptop, scrolling through Facebook on his phone before packing everything up and leaving about 10 minutes later. I wonder if he roams around uni in between classes, seeking out people he knows to smother with small talk.