Public Entertainment

4

His unexpectedly long and luscious lashes had distracted me from the man flopping over almost 90 degrees as if he'd just been stabbed. Only then did I realise it wasn't exactly his stomach that took the hit. With my breath hitching and my cheeks warming and my heart pounding, I desperately wished this was just one of the odd fantasies I would have when my phone was out of battery on my bus ride home. I'd even managed to blink twice to make sure it wasn't just the drunk man on my street coming to hassle me.

But it was as real as the damp patches forming on my favourite shirt, because he quickly stood back straight, although his face said it all.

There then seemed to be a squatting battle between me and the boy who'd just been felt up by my phone. At oscillating intervals (as if we were two kids on a see-saw), our knees would bend, and our torsos would tilt in an attempt to be the person who would go all the way to the floor to collect my belongings. But it only reminded me of the painfully difficult situations two strangers would often find themselves in: in which two people would be stuck, stepping left and right, tango-ing to try to pass one another in the middle of a busy street. And this tango went on for far too long.

"It's alright, I'll get it."

"No, it's okay-" I started as we stopped bobbing up and down, but I don't get to finish as our short sentences bled into each others. Our hand gestures made up for an interesting observation from afar.

"Oh, wait you've got it-"

"Alright, I'll just-"

"Yeah, you can-"

A second of silence passed as we both stopped moving. And then started again.

"You can just take it."

"I'm so sorry-"

"No, it's okay, go ahead-"

"I'll just stop moving and you can-"

"Ok, you can take it-"

Another second of silence. And another. We both spent this time slowly and painfully blinking away the feeling of wanting to be swallowed whole by the floor.

"I'll get it. Stay there." New Dave spoke, firmer and clearer than the monotone-ness he had previously used. I would have laughed at his seemingly intense fear of having another awkward situation if it weren't for the fact that I was his partner in said 'awkward situation'.

Now, my phone was back in the safety of my hand, and I had returned to the thoughts of wanting nothing more than to quickly end this unfortunate event, or whatever else it had become. With my ticket scanned, supported by the nod of the employee, I was thrilled to be able to take a deep breath, knowing it would end in only a couple more seconds. But then, my breath hitched, and I forced a smile when New Dave started his new sentence.

"Could I check your bag?"