three seconds looking for a clue

"hey, how's it goin?"

i looked up. a guy around my age was standing next to my chair. i was in the computer lab deliberately doing one of my papers, and this guy, whose name i couldn't even remember, asked me how's it going. what's going? going where? how on earth should i know what the hell is he talking about? what is this 'it' he's referring to? i've probably heard the line hundreds of time before, every time i bump into someone i know around campus. people just love to use that line, or sometimes they use the alternative line how've you been or whassup. the latter is just as dull as the first line. whassup. what is up. the ceiling, stupid! the sky! ever heard of it before? d-uh! if they use the other one, how've you been, at least i can perfectly tell what are they referring to. there's the word 'you' in the line, and it obviously means the subject of the conversation is me (unless they're actually talking to the person behind me). although it's none of their business either, whether i've been craving for food or been wanting to kick their hideous asses for ten years.

he's white, brown-haired, wearing a fade grey jacket on top of his orange t-shirt. his face does look familiar to me, but i couldn't remember his name or where had i met him. i tried to recall my dreary memory: anthony. no. that was one of my classmates last term, couldn't be him. martina. he's a guy, hello? hang woon. no, this guy is white, but definitely not a chinese. jason. yes, maybe it's jason, maybe i'd seen him around at the coffee meeting we're having every wednesday night. he's one of the committee member. but wait, no, jason's supposed to be skinny, and i remember he's kinda, err, smelly. while this guy seemed like the kinda guy that take shower everyday. so who the hell is he? sean? david? roger? dick? well, he does look like a dick, but i don't think that's his name, though.

suddenly i remember, i once had a little conversation with him when we were about to enter a pub crawl around four months ago. we were in the queue, he was in front of me or i was in front of him (like there's any other option?). whatever. i wonder how come he still recognized me after such a long time, even my hair was different then. he asked if i have any cigarette, and i said no, and he asked again if i have a lighter, and again i said no, and the chat went on to an interrogation of why and how i quit smoking and him saying that'd be one of his new year resolution. dumbass.

so how's it goin. what should i answer? the typical one would be 'great' or 'fine' and bounce the question back to him. dull, dull, dull. i could say: "it's bad. i've been missing my girlfriend so much and the cold's killin me and this paper's due in three hours." but i was afraid he's gonna give me one of those why-did-i-greet-this-weirdo-in-the-first-place looks, so i hesitated. i could also say: "hey whassup man, busy tryin to quit smoking, eh? remember the time when we had that little convo? it was chillin, man! we should do that more often!" but luckily i still had my insanity at that time so he didn't think i'm a lunatic and thought he could've had ignored me and went straight to one of the computers and had a good cry of how bad his gpa is instead of said hi to me. kyle. kyle! that's it! his name is kyle! hey, after all, i do have a good memory, eh? heheh. anyway, back to the question. heck, it doesn't matter anyway. so after this deep, heart-staggering and mind-exhausting thought, i vigorously replied,

"awesome."