fork in the conversation

This happened to me more than once today.

I'm walking across campus. I see a medium-known acquaintance. This means that I'm not entirely dreading the fact that we happen to be walking the same direction, and I'm not going to have to submit to mindless small talk the whole time. (more on my qualms with small talk later...)

So you're walking and talking. Then all of the sudden the acquaintance sees someone he/she knows and the conversation pauses so a greeting can be given. But wait! The other person stops. Maybe the acquaintance knows this other person better than he knows you. You were cut off mid-sentence so you can't just keep walking because what if the acquaintance is only stopping for 5 seconds and will be right behind you in no time? Do you wait or stay?! You panic. You decide to wait it out. Maybe it won't be that long. But then you realize you are awkwardly listening to a conversation for like 5 minutes with one person who really doesn't know you that well, and come on, who even cares about the acquaintance of the acquaintance? Even more awkward, when this other conversation ends and you resume your original conversation (is it too creepy to remember exactly where you left off?), you realize you two are only walking together for about 10 more seconds. Baffled at your complete lack of social foresight, you walk away bearing the proverbial scarlet A (for Awkward) on your shirt. And then you get caught in this situation again.

And by you, I mean me.