Lessons

2. who is that?

The sun awoke me later that morning, and I begrudgingly climbed out of bed. I took a quick shower, threw an outfit together, grabbed my satchel, and made my way to the bus stop. On my journey, something, or rather, someone caught my eye. I had heard tell of a new guy in town over the past couple of weeks. My best friend Pete, the Damian Leigh of my life, tends to be observant enough for both of us. I met him at our cafe the other day for our weekly "tea time".

"So, Aria. Did you hear about the new kid?" he said. By the way, my name is Aria. Should've mentioned that by now. Whoops.

"No, I haven't Pete. You know I have better things to pay attention to."

"Well, I heard that he moved here recently from the city."
    "Ooooh, an urban fellow!" I took a sip from my cup. "Is he hot?"

"Well, I haven't seen him. But I heard from Jess, who heard from Malcolm, who heard from Laura that he is fine."

"How fine? Like on a scale from 1-10?"

"Twelve, bitch."

"On a scale of one to ten, twelve? No way."

Pete often exaggerates about this kind of thing, so I take his opinion with a grain of salt.

"So you're telling me that you got all of this through the grapevine and don't even have a picture? Shame on you, Pete," I giggled. "I expected better of  you."

"Oh shush. Of course, I have a picture. What do you take me for?" He picked up his phone.

"I'm sure he's not that attract-"

Before I even finished my thought, I was proven wrong. Though it was blurry and clearly taken secretively (Pete has a bad habit of doing that), the second his shimmering sepia eyes met mine, it was as if he had reached down my throat and ripped my words from my body. You could just barely make them out, as his overgrown locs were covering his eyes, but that just made me want to stare all the more. He wore a pair of thinned-rimmed round black glasses, which only accentuated his gorgeous facial features, a dark jacket and jeans to match and a host of rings ran along his hands. God, I could've stared at that photo of him for the rest of my life.

"I told you. A dream, isn't he?"

I nodded, my mouth still agape.

And now, I was seeing him with my own eyes; and he was still just as stunning. I couldn't help but gawk stupidly. As I saw him wait at the corner to cross the street, my mind wandered to places I knew it shouldn't have. I had been staring and daydreaming for so long that I didn't even realize he was crossing the street to wait at the bus station alongside me. However, when he did approach, my anxiety ruined my pleasant reverie and I was dragged back into reality. He paid me no attention, as his headphones were covering his ears; clearly, he was listening to something. He glanced in my direction and caught me looking. I quickly averted my eyes, hoping that he didn't notice. And maybe he did, I'm not really that inconspicuous, but he didn't say anything. So neither did I.

As we boarded the bus, I sat in the back as I usually do. As I plugged in my headphones and scrolled through my phone, I watched him choose a seat; the seat diagonally across from me. Now I'll admit, part of me was a little excited that I would be able to stare to my heart's content without him noticing. However, part of me still felt somewhat anxious.

What if he caught me staring?

He'd think that I'm some weird stalker!

Do I have lipstick on my teeth?

Should I even smile??

As I was silently freaking out over some guy that I had never spoken to, let alone one that hasn't even acknowledged my existence in any way, the bus came to a slow, creaking halt.

Castle Circle. Arriving now.

I watched as he quickly gathered his stuff. But I wasn't ready for him to go. Not yet. I still needed to know more about him. Would it be conceited if I said that I wanted to look at him some more?

What should I do?

He picked up his bag.

Do I follow him?

He pulled his headphones off of his ears.

Do I search for him online?

Jesus, Aria. That's so creepy.

    He started to make his way to the front of the bus.

It's now or never, right? Fuck it. I grabbed my bag and made my way off the bus.

    What the fuck am I doing?