July 3 - Stuck

You step out of the subway station, off the bus, out of a building and you see him or her: Some guy from work, an outlier in your circle of friends, that dude you play pick-up with every couple of weeks, the chick who hangs out at the same bar you do. Someone you know, but not that well; just well enough to feel obligated to talk to him or her even though you don't have anything to talk about and both of you know it.
You're tempted to look the other way, look at the ground, go back where you were, whatever, but it's too late. You made eye contact and you're both going the same way and now you have to walk together and that Podcast you were into will have to wait.
Small talk. Labored as hell, the anti-flow, stops and starts, and you just want to call time out and be like You're not feeling this, I'm not feeling this. If we were going to be friends, it would have happened by now. We tried. Kind of. Not really. But whatever. Let's just admit that neither of us is into this conversation . We both wish the other was 1) someone else, 2) not here, 3) more interesting, 4) two or more of the above. Let's be progressive about this. Why force it? Why not pull the plug? I was way more into my Podcast than this conversation, and I'm sure you have something you'd rather be focused on. Let's make the call. Let's not talk.
But you don't say that because, well, you don't know why. And you wish you had because it's painful, but at least you're trying, unlike the other person. You're asking questions, feigning interest, doing an admirable job of going through the motions.
But the other person isn't. No kind of reciprocation. And it's not like you want to talk about yourself, you just want to fill in the awkward silence. That's why you volunteer opening lines about what you've been up to like they were sets in conversational volleyball, hoping he/she might bump them or spike them:
I'll be doing a lot of traveling in the coming weeks.
Saw this kick ass band the other night.
Finally caught up with Breaking Bad.
Three sweet sets in a row, and each one of them would have ticked at least a few minutes off of this awkward exchange, but the other guy just watches them float by the top of the net and then drop to the ground. And so now you're stuck in this conversation, you can't think of a thing to say, and all you want to do is get to your office so you'll be out of it.
Next time you'll go the other way.