She slid onto the seat beside me like the sun emerging from behind clouds. I swear the bus grew brighter.
”Hi.” She smiled. “I’m gonna sit beside you. Hope that’s okay.”
I nodded quickly, fiercely gripping my backpack and hoping I remembered to comb my hair this morning.
So started a wonderful, peculiar, and brief series of encounters.
I never learned why she sat beside me on the bus to university. We never talked much in high school. We were in different circles; I was with the science geeks and the D&D nerds, and she was with the yearbook crowd and the drama club.
I guess it was kicked off when I saved her from boredom. She was going to a different university than I was, but they both were located on the same campus, so they shared the same Student Union Building.
On one of the first days of university, I wandered into the lounge area and saw her and a friend of mine talking… or rather I should say my friend was talking and she was looking very bored. I sat down and diverted the conversation on to something more mutually interesting. I still don’t know how I managed to do that. I was socially inept but I wasn’t shy about inserting myself into conversations, welcome or not.
Our bus experience was like the start of a teenage rom-com. She would be played by Molly Ringwald and my part would be played by Anthony Michael Hall, minus the later drinking.
I honestly could not tell you what we talked about. University, probably, what few mutual friends we had, probably? Those conversations are lost in time.
I remember the feelings, though. Mostly bewilderment – why is she sitting beside ME, of all people? Desire, sure… anticipation for when she got on the bus each morning… warmth… but mostly confusion.
Then one day, the end of the first month at university we arrived at her stop. She got up, turned to me and put her hand on my arm, and looked at me seriously with those wide hazel eyes.
”See you later, Stephen. Remember me.”
And then she stepped off the bus. She never sat by me again.
I’m still bewildered, but I do remember her.