as queer as a clockwork orange

7:45 AM. She’s late again and her roommate is pissed. Again. Fifteen more minutes of sleep means fifteen less minutes of bathroom time for her roommate. She jerks out of bed, runs toward the bathroom and rushes through her usual morning routine in half the usual time. As her heart pumps harder, and her consciousness starts to catch up with her awaken state, the day before her starts to form in her head. Colors rush in to fill the images of the campus, images of herself walking to the library, images of her studying. And then the dark ink of unfinished problems starts to seep into the vulnerable fibers of the day. The colors are distorted and the tension created by the clash between light and dark deepens the perpetual anxiety she feels. The upcoming chemistry exam is no longer just an exam. It is the key to her parents’ hearts. Her performance in Spanish class no longer expresses her genuine interest. It determines her ability to communicate. Lunch is no longer lunch. It is composed of the completion of unfinished homework, visits to the office hours of professors, studying, sleep. Academics is no longer anything but a war to outdo the system of the school curriculum. Life is no longer life but an endless string of complications.
8:30 AM. She grabs her bag, shoves her earphones into her ears and starts the trek to the DUC. Music rushes through her head. Everyday, the ten-minute walk is her catharsis. The music submerges everything below the realm of thought and there’s nothing else but music.
8:40 AM. Taking one earphone out, she walks into the cafe and joins the short line of students. Same people, same time, same order: plain bagel, small coffee. She sits down alone at one of the tables and stares blankly at the silent news on TV as she takes a bite of her bagel. Problems everywhere. Isolated in her own little world, the debris of her broken world start to surface once again and embraces her so completely that she doesn’t notice when he sits down beside her.
Hey.
Suddenly her world reverses back into the transparent quotidian light as she realizes his presence. Two routine worlds have clashed to form the unexpected. Students pass them by, continuing on with their disordered lives. He talks as she listens.
And for a moment. An ephemeral moment of eternity. He takes her mind off the chaos she will enter in less than ten minutes.