lovesick.

CHAPTER 1

Life is full of surprises, but I certainly wasn't expecting this one. Seth Jones, a boy I once knew, is standing in front of me, having just come off the subway. I turn in the opposite direction and start walking away as he hopelessly calls my name and asks me to come back. I walk out of the underground station and wait at the nearest bus stop and wait for my bus. Seth's voice gets louder and louder. I feel a pat on my shoulder.

"I have nothing to say to you." I say, shrugging him off of me.

"I know. and I don't blame you. just please hear me out."

I don't say anything. I just turn and glare at him, signalling him to talk.

He explains a lot of things which clears up a bit of my anger towards him and it turns out that he is hoping to book a cheap hotel while trying to find apartments in the same area as me. I offer to let him share my apartment as long as he leaves as soon as he finds an apartment for himself. He agrees pretty much immediately. The bus screeches to a halt in front of the bus shelter.

"Let's go then." I say, waving to him to follow me onto the bus.

"Alright." He says as he clambers onto the bus.

I show my day pass to the driver and we go to find seats. We find two seats at the back. Seth scoots to the window seat in the left before I even have the chance to. I give him a funny look and he laughs.

"I always have the window seat, Will. You still remember that, right?"

"Oh, yeah." I sit on the seat next to him.

"Thanks."

"For what?" I ask.

"For letting me share your apartment for a while." He replies, turning his head away from the window as the bus starts to move.

"Oh. You're welcome, I guess."

We sit in silence. This has to have been the worst and most awkward bus ride I've ever taken. Seth fidgets by the window occasionally stealing glances at me. I'm still mad at him for the things that he can't explain. He can't take back any of those things he said to me because they've already done the damage. I won't believe that he's changed until he shows it. I take out my phone and I slide my AirPods into my ears. I press play on my spotify playlist so I can relax for a second. The music enters my ears and melts my thoughts away.

The bus stops and starts to pick up and drop off passengers every few minutes. Seth taps my shoulder and I take out one of my AirPods to be able to hear him properly.

"Why does the bus stop every few seconds?" He whisper-yells at me.

"Because, that's just how it is here."

"It's so different." He marvells.

"Yeah, because this isn't our home town, Seth." I state, laughing slightly at the his annoyed expression.

"Whatever."

He turns to face the window again and I go back to listening to music. After ten minutes, we reach our stop. I tap Seth on the shoulder and he jolts awake.

"Mmh. What's goin' on?" He asks, still half asleep.

"This is our stop." I say, getting up off of the seat and helping him up.

We fight our way through the sea of people to get off of the bus. Once we're safely off, I wave him in the direction of the apartment block that I live in. He follows and asks me about my life since I left; I don't answer him. I don't want him to know, and he doesn't need to know. He's only staying with me until he gets his life together so he really shouldn't know as he's not going to be around for long. Besides, I don't need his pity. He sees that he's upset me slightly.