So, an awful lot has happened since i last posted to this. Well, an awful long time has passed, so hopefully some things have happened. I'm in France now, on my year abroad. It's odd. I've been making trips back though. Last time i was back in Sheffield, i got the number of a boy. I got it for entirely innocent reasons. (I assume. I don't actually remember it happening. I was perfectly sober at whatever time it must have happened though.) About a week later i decided, under the pretext of finding out why i actually had the number, to text this boy. (Let's just say he takes his name from an ancient empire. We'll call him Abyssinian for now.) I'd decided i liked him, and i was enjoying the confidence that being resident in another country to the objects of one's desire can bring. If i made a fool of myself at any point i would have quite some time to recover before seeing anyone who even knew about any of it.

I texted him, and he texted back. This pattern continued, until the Pipettes came on and i was rendered hors de contact. It picked up again a few days later, and again after that. We texted each other on New Year's Eve, and i was beginning to wonder if for once i wasn't deluding myself entirely. I mentioned him to my old school friends, who i pretty much only see at New Year's Eve parties nowadays. There were questions being asked of all us present, and my answer to whether there was a someone was a resounding "Maybe".

I had, in this time, been gathering advice from a couple of trusted friends. Not only trusted, but completely unconnected to Abyssinian. They, on the basis of the texts they were shown, (Via internet, of course. I don't see many real life people any more.) faithfully transcribed, (Except for the New Year's Eve, from which only Abyssinian's texts remained.) were asked to diagnose whether this might become an anything. Their replies were hopeful.

I would be leaving again soon, for France. I had been intending, on my return, to send Abyssinian a text asking him out. (I may be safe and abroad, but i'm still a bit of a coward. Plus, face to face completely destroys the safety net for if it all goes wrong.) However, i'd begun to reformulate this plan. I wanted resolution before i left. I didn't want gto be left wondering for six weeks if anything might happen. So, with Fiona's endorsement, (She, by this point, very hopeful) i texted asking if he would "like, maybe, to do something. Um, with me". After a brief thirty minutes of torment he texted back. He'd like that. (Not sounding as eager as i'd hoped. But not exactly reluctant, either.) I attempted to convey my surprise in the next text, without entirely doing the whole "Pity meeee!!!!" thing. He called it a date.

Yesterday, i got on a plane to France. A little while before i did, i sent one last text, saying i'd see him in a few weeks, if he didn't change his mind and i didn't chicken out. He said there was no mind-changing going on his end.

And that is the thing from which most of my current concerns spin off. Now that's down, hopefully i'll get round to writing down my actual worries. Not right now, though. I am tired.