I was waiting for the bus. I sat down on a picnic bench next to a guy with hipster glasses and smoking what looked like an e-cigarette. He was reading something on a kindle.

“What are you reading?” I asked.

“This is kind of embarrassing,” he said, looking at me. “You know those guys who pick up chicks?” I nodded.

“I’m kind of reading one of those books right now,” he said.

“Have you ever day gamed before?” I asked him.

He told me his name and that he was biology major. It turns out we were waiting for the same bus. It also turns out that we shared a passion in “pick up” (the “art” of flirting with girls).

We ended up talking the entire bus ride back. It was like one of those things where you have a secret that you can finally tell someone. I couldn’t usually talk about picking up girls and daygaming (the practice of hitting on girls in broad daylight) so freely before.

“So,” he said, looking over at me, “how many girls have you slept with?”

“Zero.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t really try to, I guess it’s not that important to me,” I told him.

“Are you gay?” he said, not unkindly.

“No-”

“I don’t mean,” he said apologetically, “but serious question…are you? Because some people…”

“No, it’s ok. I‘m definitely attracted to girls. I guess I would rather not have sex with random girls, it’s not worth it.”

“But it feels good,” he said.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “maybe when I actually do have sex, I’ll regret not having sex before. But for now I don’t really care.”

The rest of the ride back, I told him stories of all the people I’d met in my life, how when I was middle school I started a non-profit magazine and won a grant from Best Buy, how I went out and hit on girls in the street. I just finished telling him about how I went to the Stamp Student Union once to try to talk to a hundred random strangers in one hour when we got to our stop.

“How many people wanted to still keep in contact after you talked to them,” he asked me while we were getting off the bus.

“I dunno, like one or two,” I said.

“So, not very many.”

“I guess, I didn’t really care, I didn’t really want to keep in contact with most of them either.”

“Really?” he asked in surprise.

“Well, since I met so many people in life, I realized that we are all pretty much the same. I’ve talked to sorority girls and engineering girls and I realized that we are all the same. We all have the same basic fears of being alone, and being wanted and appreciated. I realized I could be friends with anyone, and that is all the more reason to be picky. The details matter. Why should I be friends with anyone who I don’t really connect with if I could be friends with anyone? “

“Wow,” he said, “That was really deep.”