1
She stepped out into the cold. The rain was turning to slush, the pavement was not quite slippery, but every once in awhile her boots would get a little out of control, No one was around, and it was just beginning to grow dark. Shapes could still be seen, and some of the richer colors. The brick Church on the corner still looked…brick. As she walked over to the corner to wait on the bus, she wondered what the point of this excursion even was. Who has a job interview at 6pm anyway? Worrying that the bus would get her to the mall late, she contemplated walking six blocks to catch a different one. One that was a more direct route to the mall, and not one that had to go on a “Tour De Ghetto” like the one she usually caught. Just as she started to step off from the curb, to cross the street, the bus decided to turn the corner. Five minutes early. She decided that it would be easier and possibly safer to just take this bus, the grey route, just like her day.
When the bus pulled to a stop, and she started to come aboard, she saw him, the slow boy from when she was in grade school. She heard that he had disappeared from High School because he raped the librarian. Oh God, and now he is waving at her like he is a maniac. Oh how she hated living in this town, this place that she had never left since childhood. The miserable grey days, the frightening neighborhood that she knew was dangerous from experience. The horrible nosy people who always asked her about her mother. “Hey is your Mom still crazy?” Who wants to hear a thing like that every time they run into an old acquaintance? No one, especially not her.
She boarded the bus, and took her usual seat, the first seat behind the back exit door. It was calming to know she was right by the exit, but not right near the entrance. She could flatten herself against the window, pretend she was invisible, and most times she could survive the whole trip without having to talk to anyone at all. Before she completely settled in, she turned and gave her obligatory wave to J, and swiftly turned back around before he could start babbling about her ex boyfriend. A boy she “dated” back in 8th Grade, when dates consisted of meeting at the library and making out in the parking garage across the street. Oh how she hated talking to people on the bus. She slipped in her Skull-Candies, and floated off to a blissful land of heavy metal vampire music.
When she finally arrived at the terminal to wait for her next bus, she decided to spend her 10 minute overlay sitting on a bench in the cold. She loved the cold, and there was much better fodder for snaky internal commentary as she people-watched. Dressed in full goth attire, she was getting some pretty conspicuous looks herself, but she had an interview at Hot Topic, and she dressed like this most days anyway. So many people this time of year, November. She loved how easy it was to get lost and walk the around unnoticed, no matter how you looked. Across the platform she spotted a young man. For some reason, she couldn’t look away, and managed to catch his eye. Oh God what has she done, she caught some random dude’s eye. Quickly, she began to gather her purse, book, and mp3 player and stand up to go into the terminal for the next 5 minutes.
The next time she looked up, he was standing beside her. “Hi, how have you been? It’s been a long time, huh.” His voice sounded like butter dripping over popcorn, and he smelled like Axe body spray and strawberries, but she did not know him. He casually took a drag on his cigarette, as he stared at her with his piercing blue eyes, eyes like ice cubes in a glass of vodka. “Um, who…? I think you have the wrong perso-”, just then she looked up and noticed that he was talking to a girl standing behind the garbage can. Neither of them even noticed she had said anything, so she just sat back down and shuffled her items around, to look like she was busy. This always happened to her, people talking around her, but never to her, or even at her. Just around her, like she was a ghost. The only thing that reminded her most days that she was not a ghost was the delicious cold air, chapping her skin, sometimes to the point of pain. The only thing that could make her feel alive. She loved the winter.
As she casually watched Vodka Eyes talking to the girl, she made up a whole story in her head, about how he and Sorority Girl were Childhood sweethearts, and they had finally reconnected after years of searching for each other. Maybe she had parents, and he was from the wrong side of the tracks, with his cigarettes and leather jacket, and they had put their foot down. Then she saw the girl slap him, so of course she casually dialed down the volume on her music. Oh, seduced her at a party, and then left her to walk home in the snow without a coat at 3am. One of those, a bad-boy frat boy. Depressing. She dialed her music back up as the bus pulled around the corner. She darted up grabbing her items lightening fast, and made it to the front of the line to get on the Blue line. This bus usually filled up fast, and she hated to sit by other people.
She took her seat, the bus filled up, and as she was looking out of the window, she felt someone plop down beside her. It was Vodka Eyes.
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