I
The morning started unlike any other for Luke. He was woken by his phone alarm for which he had hit the snooze option at least five times already. He almost gave into the temptation of staying in bed a little longer; but if he did, he would be late for school, and he couldn't afford to be late anymore. He rolled out of bed and splashed some water on his face, that helped him wake up a bit.
He took a good look at himself in the mirror, his hair was messy and needed a trim, but he didn't like styling it, it was too much of a hassle for him; and besides, the black messy hair had its own thing going on.
Breakfast was nothing new, a box of cereal and some fruit, Luke ate it while watching a video on his phone for entertainment, it felt boring to eat without watching something. He lived alone so he had no one else to talk to during breakfast. After he was done, he got all his things inside his backpack and reluctantly started off his way to school.
So, by all metrics the morning was completely ordinary for Luke, on his way he went as he had done any other morning, unluckily for him he was completely unaware that he was supposed to die soon. September 17 was the date Luke is supposed to die, today was September 14.
Luke had no car or bike so he took the trolley to school, he didn't mind the trolley- it gave him time to read, draw, or just stare out of the window looking at the view; San Francisco was a pleasant city to stare at from time to time.
He was the first person onboard, and as he always did, he waited for the two people who always seemed to take the trolly at the same time as him, the two strangers that had become part of his everyday life: The pretty girl and the old man.
The first one to board was the pretty girl, she wore blue tinted sunglasses and a white scarf, but the most noticeable feature of hers was her fiery red hair- Luke thought it was the most beautiful hair he had ever seen.
She sat down next to Luke which made him blush a little, she usually sits somewhere in the back of the trolley and there were plenty of empty seats to choose from. She seemed to pay no attention to Luke as she took out a book from her bag and began reading it.
The pretty girl smells nice, thought Luke, like peaches or maybe oranges. He immediately felt like a creep for noticing the way she smells.
The old man boarded on the next stop, he was wearing his usual brown blazer and beige khaki pants.
And of course, the bug is still there thought Luke, disgusting looking thing. Following the old man wherever he went was a huge bug the size of a backpack, it resembled something in between a fly and a mosquito but much more grotesque; greenish in color with bulging purple lifeless eyes.
The first time Luke noticed it was a couple of weeks ago; at that time it was much smaller, around the size of a shoe. Luke had panicked and had tried to swat it away, but his hand just went through it as if it was a projection of some kind and the old man just stared at him, no doubt thinking that he was crazy. Luke himself stood there in astonishment.
The bug showed no reaction to Luke, the old man himself seemed to be unaware of its existence, in fact no one other than Luke acknowledged it or even seemed to be aware of it.
At first it really worried Luke, but he studied his behavior for a couple of weeks and eventually he realized that whatever the bug was, it couldn't interact physically with the world, it just hovered above the old man doing nothing.
It didn't seem to be doing any damage to the old man either- not one that he could see at least, so he thought it would be best if he didn't acknowledge it again; it was not a good idea to tell people he sees things that nobody else does. He had almost no friends as it was, and being labeled as crazy would make it worse for him. He just decided to think of it as the imaginary bug from then on.
