Waiting in the lobby for a lift, listening to something appropriately blue from the ride into work, I caught sight of a guy... Michael that I used to work with a while back in the contact centre. Waiving and doing the polite thing I removed my headphones as he walked over and I slipped the i-pod into the front pocket of my backpack and said "hi."
"I refuse to buy one of those things," he said with a little distain, motioning to the silver nano as it disappeared into my bag.
"I don't know, this one's come in pretty handy...."
"No, no," he interupted, "I've got an mp3 player, I just refuse to buy an i-pod. I don't like doing what everyone else is doing, I mean everyone owns an i-pod," he said sounding like he was some fucking revolutionary. As we moved into the elevator, I thought with some irritation, it's too early for this.
"Making a different consumer choice about which electronic device you buy is hardly non-conformist." The suit in the back stifled a laugh.
"I don't like to follow the crowd," he said, as if I hadn't understood the first time he'd said it.
The doors opened on the second floor. "Well I guess I'll be seeing you," he said as he stept onto his floor. Not if I can avoid it you fucking idiot, I breathed as the doors closed.