A lesser peril of social interaction.

So lecture’s out and you’re walking dormward, and suddenly there’s Percy again, beautiful Percy, coming around the corner across the quad, incandescent in the twilight glow. His dreamy gaze pans across the courtyard and stops in your direction—swoon!—and you adjust your hair and flash a dulcet smile.

“Hey!” he calls, waving at you.

Could it be? You’ve actually only met that one time, in that dining hall where you flubbed your introduction in a fit of giddy nerves. Does he remember? Maybe he thought it was cute? Could he actually be into you?

He’s walking toward you now, his pace quickening. It’s now or never! “Hey!” you say, returning his wave with a wide rainbow arc.

And he gallops past you, and there’s a lively commotion behind you—You ready for tonight, Marisa? Yo Perce I’ve got the booze in my trunk! Nah I’m still on vocal rest. Hey y’all wanna hit Tony’s after the show?—and he probably didn’t notice you at all! Was your gesture too meek? Was your “hey” too quiet?

And then you realise, wait, some of his friends probably saw you wave. All the other passersby, too. Of course they noticed you. They were facing him, and you were in the way, and what are they thinking? Who does she think she is? Does he know her? Weird. People will just wave creepily at random strangers, I guess.

And your wave was definitely, unmistakably, a wave. You could try to play it off with body language—oh hey, I was just smoothing my hair! let me, um, do that again—but who’s going to buy that?

Awkward! Time to walk away as far as possible, or into the nearest creek.