you in the blue

A few years ago I was walking from class to my car, which was parked on an off-campus lot. As I crossed the lot, I heard a girl's voice yell out, 'hey you in the blue; you look good.' I felt pretty good when I noticed that I was the only one around wearing blue. I looked around but I couldn't find my admirer. So I figured that she must have been shy and shouted from a car window. I was sure the compliment was no less sincere, and went about my business confident that I looked good.

The next week, while leaving the same class, I heard the same voice yell out again. This time she was asking me for a cigarette. I was closer to the edge of the lot this time, and I could see the girl on the other side of a chain–link fence. She wasn't a student, or at least not a college student. She was in the fenced–in backyard of a halfway house for run–aways and troubled teenagers. I told her that I didn't smoke and drove away much less confident than I had the week before.