(Exciting title referring to bus stops)

Mami adjusted her scarf and shifted her feet besides one another a bit at a steady pace. She still looked at me every so often through the silence, and gave me a slight smile. I wasn’t looking at her directly, but I could tell when she did it. The urge to heave rose when she decided to glance in my direction, and it subsided when her expression gave content. It was heartening in some way. As if the tension I held wasn’t sure what floor it wanted to go on and could only rise and fall in extremes.

I averted my gaze from my shoes to the auburn flushed sky. A truck shot by while I coiled one of the drawstrings on my jacket around my finger. My body jolted from its lull state sending my heart into a short frenzy. Sighing, I propped my arm on my lap and put my hand near the top of my head.

“I thought it was the bus too,” I looked down towards Mami, “It doesn’t really matter if it’s running late, I don’t have a lot to do at home!” I nodded and gave a discreet smile. She softly laughed to herself before leaning forward on the bench to look up and down the street and then recline.

“Sorry if I made you uncomfortable talking to you out of nowhere,” she said while her hands were clasped together in her lap, “Me and you are here almost every day and I we’re in the same class too.” Her eyes trailed a car whirling by, “I thought it would be nice to reach out to someone else for a change. Especially if you see them almost every day.” Her cheerful expression turned plain. I felt awful .I hoped she didn’t change demeanor because of how apprehensive I was earlier.

“Eh, I shouldn’t have been anxious over nothing. My mistake,” I stammered.

Her face turned to brief confusion, and then she giggled. “It’s great you went out of your way to apologize, but I wasn’t talking about you Anon!” Mami giggled some more, with an attempt at hiding it.

I felt compelled to laugh along with her for some reason. If this were someone else I’d be annoyed that I overthought things, which always lead me to overthinking more stuff. Being with her felt reassuring. Far more than earlier. I could hear the roar of the bus coming in the distance closing in.

“Oh there it is,” I said.

“It was nice meeting you,” said Mami as she stood up and brushed off her clothes.

“Well, I really liked talking with you Mami.” The bus pulled up in front of us.

“I hope we can learn more about each other Anon,” she said while getting on.

I got on after her and found the bus packed more than usual today. Both of us pretty much had to stand in the back. She tried saying something to me during the ride, but her words were drowned out by everyone else. At least I could look forward to talking with her tomorrow.