part 2

At the next stop he took his chance and squeezed past the weathered leather man and hunted for a seat elsewhere. But bad luck seemed to follow him like the bad weather. At this stop many old people boarded and took all the seats in the front. All the seats at the back were gone as well so he was left standing in the gangway alone. In front of everyone else’s watching eyes. He tried not to breathe to fast or heavily or meet anyone’s gaze.

Except he did meet someone’s gaze. The pretty girl had stood up as well and stood next to him. Confusingly and worryingly she smiled at him. Even more worryingly confusing was that she began to speak to him.
“That was nice of you.”
He gave her a scared uncomprehending look
“Giving up your seat like that. I don’t think many of them at the back would have.” She subtly gestured back to where the not very nice people looked down on them, leering at her and jeering at him.

He tried to reply with a grunt a squeak came out instead. Fortunately it was quiet enough that she did not hear so he was able to resound a second time with a slightly more assured mumble of “thankyou.”

The bus jerked forward and he stumbled backwards into her. She almost fell but regained her balance by hooking her arms around one of the poles. Benjamin struggled back up as well, the weight of his wet jacket making this difficult.

“Sorrysorrysorry” he muttered, trying not to turn red and burn hot with embarrassment. He hooked his own arm around a pole. Unfortunately this was where the stop button was and it began to beep again and again and again. Benjamin did not realise it was his doing until the bus driver told him to stop doing it. Except he said so with different words.

He resolved to get off at the next stop as the situation on this bus looked like too much effort to resolve. It was still a long way off till the right stop but waiting was something that had never bothered him. You waited for something and then it came and then you waited for it to either stop or change. That was life. Waiting for death. He didn’t actually think these things. He just read them and repeated them in his own mind and the mindless repetition meant that he stopped minding about other things on his mind. Such as the way he looked clumsy and stupid in front of a pretty girl and old people and not very nice people.

Having calmed and convinced his dull linear mind that staying on the bus and waiting for the correct stop was the correct decision he turned his attention back to standing still and not falling. The girl next to him did not appear to be angry and the bus driver was no longer glaring at him in the mirror in a glaringly obvious fashion. In fact, the girl had plugged into her I-pod and was singing quietly. He recognised the lyrics and mouthed them silently, trying not to move his lips.

We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
But have we found the same old fears

The bus suddenly braked with a jolt as the driver decided at the last second that the orange light he was close to running was too close to the red light. The pretty girl fell forward and Benjamin tried to catch her. He succeeded in keeping her upright, except now he had let go of the pole to stop her from falling, he fell. It would have hurt more if he wasn’t wearing his coat but it still hurt a bit. She looked down on him with concern and concerned herself with helping him up. Seeing that he was ok she laughed and smiled and said, “Thanks for saving me.”
“Makes us even,” he muttered unevenly.

Now feeling more awkward and hot than ever, he looked around and picked up a moist copy of the Metro and did the sudoku in his head. He felt that eye contact was beyond him right now, though he imagined he could feel the pretty girl’s eyes making contact with him, along with many others. The boring eyes of the bored passengers aboard all boring into him like bore drills. It was not a very nice feeling.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity of hot wet awkward progress the bus arrived at its destitute destination of Haddon Street, where he lived and sometimes ate and slept and watched Pingu. He wanted to say bye to the pretty girl as he left but didn’t as he was worried the doors would close. So he got off the bus in a rush, glad to be out of its stifling confines, but regretting his to decision of indecisiveness. He wondered home and wondered if he would ever see her again.

“That was some adventure eh?” said a happy voice behind him. “So, do you live round here as well?”
He tried to reply without mumbling or muttering and found that he could so he did
“Yes,” he said.