Time went on after that fateful Sunday when we met. I don't know the details, but somehow he became pretty good friends with Leslie. They hung out a few times and I didn't really pay too much attention to it. I do remember her telling us he was 25. Kenz and I ran up to our rooms laughing at Leslie for not realizing he was probably one of those super seniors in desperate search of a wife. Leslie and Jeff had a bond right from the start, but I was a little hesitant to be overly friendly with a 25-year-old.
Leslie's obsession with Jeff's last name never died. These were common phrases from Leslie, "I was texting Jeff Excell today and..." "I saw Jeff Excell at school today." "Jeff Excell asked me to give the prayer in church." On several occasions we would be talking about him and if someone just said Jeff we would look confused and ask, "...who?"
The person would have to clarify with "Jeff Excell."
We knew no Jeff. We knew him only as Jeff Excell.
We quickly realized Jeff and Leslie were just friends and Jeff was not the wife-hunting type. Leslie would tell us about Jeff's crushes and we learned he had eyes for another girl in the ward. It wasn't me. It wasn't any of my roommates. After I heard about this crush, I thought they would be cute together and enjoyed watching Jeff try to make his moves on her during church. We will call said crush Kami.
One night, Kenz and I were at the library. Kenz said, "Oh look! There's Jeff Excell!"
"Is he with Kami?!?" I said, eager to secretly watch their romance bloom in the library.
"I don't think so. He's coming over here."
At this point in our story, Jeff and I hadn't really talked other than our introductions in sunday school. Kenz and I were sitting behind computer desks and we could only see Jeff from the waist up. Kenz had seen Jeff around the library several times before this incident, but this was my first encounter with him.
He came over and said hi.
Kenz said, "Jeff Excell, you're in the library a lot."
"I love it here. It's like a party every night in the library." (These aren't exact words, but close.)
We noticed Jeff was in basketball attire and had a backpack on. I'm guessing the backpack was more for the sake of appearing like he had a reason to be in the library besides just socializing. Jeff must have noticed I was looking at his clothes. He pulled one foot up to where we could see it and he had on a high blue sock. Then he lifted up the other foot and he had on a purple sock.
He said something funny like, "Are you judging me because I have on two different colored socks?" I didn't even see his socks until he lifted up his leg. I laughed and decided Jeff Excell is kind of funny. We said our goodbyes and then I watched Jeff ping pong from person to person in the library. I became a little more intrigued with that 25-year-old and his mismatched socks.
3 comments:
That doesn't sound like the Jeff we knew at home. We thought he was a real drone (loner) and didn't socialize that much. What a surprise! David
haha. i love this. my favorite part?
"we knew no jeff. we knew him only as jeff excell."
I still like to sometimes call him Jeff Excell because that's what Sarah would always call him when she first started talking about him. It's a great name and I find myself always telling people their baby's name is not just Eli, but Eli Excell. I like the ring of saying both their names.
I think both our daughters have married guys with great last names.
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