My One-Sided Affair

Anticipation and Hindsight

Seated behind a long table near the front of the room, NuNew one of 90 or so students was getting ready for his class to begin. The History of China, Part 1 of a 3-class series. Not for the first time, he wished he had picked something easy for his undergrad requirement, like American History. Who had a couple hundred years' worth of events to learn. Unlike China which had been around for a millennium.

The school day had only just begun and NuNew was already anticipating the day's end so he could get to Zee. Today was the first day they would be reunited. But before he could see Hia, he had to get through three long classes.

"Today we will continue with the Qin Dynasty. A quick refresher. It was a time that saw the first emperor, a centralized administration, standardization of weights and lengths written language, and even the width of roads. During the Qin Dynasty, they created the first version of the Great Wall of China. Does this ring a bell for anyone?", the professor said.

Instead of laughing at the professor's joke, sleepy students murmured their consent. The professor audibly sighed. NuNew gulped his chocolate latte, extra-large, in the hopes the caffeine would help him perk up. He had given extra care to his appearance today in anticipation of seeing Hia. His bags were packed in his car. He was ready to begin this next phase of his life. But first, school.

"Hmm. I believe we left off last time at the burning of the books. Bzzz bzz bzz bzzz, bz, bzz bzz bzz,", said the professor.

"What time is it? It's only 8:15?"

This was the first class of the day and he already felt like this.

"Just kill me."

The professor droned in NuNew's ears like the buzzing of a hive, his belly fluttered like it was full of butterflies, and he bounced around in his seat like a Mexican jumping bean. NuNew was a hot mess.

He was meeting Zee after school and today marked the end of their separation and the beginning of a year of scheduled events.

NuNew scribbled furiously all over the notes he was taking, then hit undo. It was a bad habit of his, but it made him feel better.

SCRIBBLE, undo.

SCRIBBLE, undo.

"What time is it?"

It had only been fifteen minutes since the last time he looked.

NuNew looked at his notes and sighed. The only things he had written down were The Qin Dynasty and a doodle of a bonfire made of books. He looked at Julian's notes. He already had several paragraphs.

"Focus NuNew! You made commitments."

After Zee had left their house last week, Dad had launched into a lecture about how distracting a relationship was. He counseled NuNew to be careful about governing his time. Never sacrifice study time for Zee time, he told him.

"If you had a paid sponsored event, would you cancel so you could play with Zee?", asked Dad.

"No, I committed, that would be very disrespectful and would damage my career.", NuNew said.

"Is it alright to skip out on schoolwork to play with Zee?", asked Dad.

"That's not the same."

"It's not? I disagree. You have committed to yourself. You have committed to school. You have committed to us. You committed to do your best. You committed to not wasting your parents' money. You committed to not damaging your future. You committed to your professors to give your best efforts."

NuNew counted 7 times that his dad had used committed.

"Dad if you don't stop, I am going to be committed; to an insane asylum."