He entered the room without a knock.
In fact, he entered without so much as any vocal indication that he would be stepping into the place of residence of a person he did not know. Had Claudia not been present, he could have been pegged as a thief.
Claudia was seated at her desk, a single hand upon her laptop touchpad, lazily sliding one finger around to peruse various pages of irrelevant information. She found herself alone in the habit of researching topics she had no use for, nor scholarly obligation for. Eventually, this knowledge would accumulate itself around her and erect a wall, and the smaller factoids would trickle out from the gaps and fill in a space as the moat beyond this border. Information, the greatest defense.
The springs of the bed let out a quiet squeak, and Claudia's head whipped around, hair flicking her face.
A man, or a boy – a male person of approximate age as her, at that transitional college age where one doesn't quite feel a man or woman, but resents being called a girl or boy – sat quite comfortably on Claudia's bed, leaning back against the wall, eyes half-closed and glazed over.
"Do you need something?" Claudia swiveled in her chair, and tensed to move, in whatever way necessary.
"I needed a place to sit," the boy replied, letting the last word hang. Claudia waited for further explanation, but the man's eyelids slowly drooped further, until they shut, and no extra words came.
As per dorm-living formalities, people had introduced themselves to each other upon moving in, and though Claudia devoted no memory space to the linking of names to faces, she could certainly recognize the faces of those who lived on her floor. This was not one such face.
"Do you live here? Do you want me to call someone for you?" in all likelihood, the boy was either stoned, drunk, or dangerously fatigued, and had come upon this dorm in a confused state.
"Are you okay?"
The boy's eyes opened, and they locked onto Claudia. His mouth tightened, as if holding in words he was reluctant to part with. He decided to let go.
"A red balloon."
A few seconds passed. Claudia stared, as the words refused to click, her brain flashed red, and her stomach slowly deflated into rubbery anxiety. None of the above. He was unhinged. In her chair, Claudia planted her feet on the ground, though did not rise, so as not to be perceived as a threat. Madness was familiar, she knew how it functioned. And how quickly did a genuine madness draw out the sanity in her.
"Is there something that you need – yes or no?"
The boy let out a long sigh, not one of exasperation, but one clinging to calm. This worried Claudia all the more. He slowly rose from the bed, stretching as he did, and approached the wall with the yarn strings and pins.
Claudia's fingers whitened around the arms of her chair, and yet the boy appeared entirely oblivious to her as he leaned forward and plucked the taut yarn with a pinky.
"Embrace the senseless world," he muttered.
Recognition sprang upon the seated girl. Stomach ballooned. Dam burst and moat filled, she flew across the room to push the boy away from strings.
"Get out. Now." her hand made contact with his shoulder – more forcefully than she had intended - and he stumbled back. The collected expression that had been on his face prior seemed to be shaken away, and he now appeared pained, and withdrawn.
"No – don't. I have absolutely no time for this. Take your philosophy elsewhere. Leave." She reached out to administer another push, which the boy sidestepped and found his back against a wall.
"I thought-I heard you'd be fine with us." He said. "A recluse shunning the conventions of modern society, a thinker after our own movement."
"I don't – who?" Claudia seethed. "Who said that? I have a conscience, I respect people's space, I'm not crazy-"
"They said you ate out of shoes."
"Frak shoes. I'm not in your movement, I don't believe anything you believe, what I do is my own business."
The boy stood against the wall, eyes unfocused and aimed somewhere at the carpet. His hands came together and he began pressing on his knuckles, wringing his hands and pulling at the skin.
"Damn it." He ducked his head and turned out the door, breaking into a run before Claudia could register his reaction.
She wrenched the door from the magnetic fixture on the wall, and let it swing shut. She secured the deadbolt.