Living With a Sweetheart

❦4

The bus door swung open, with an aroma of high-school men sweat and gym socks. The bus man slowly looked over at me, him half–asleep. "Any day now," He says, barely holding onto the steering wheel. I take a step onto the stair that lead me straight into the loud, crowded bus. I look back at the house, then sigh. "Sorry," I mumble, looking at my feet as I slowly take steps into the bus aisle.

The bus door slammed shut behind me. No turning back now. I looked at the row of seats that were awaiting my presence. I gripped onto my one backpack strap as I walked through the aisle of talking teens. I try to find a seat as someone catches my eye. It was a blonde-haired girl, her hair down to her hips. She had large hooped earrings, almost as large as my fist. She had beautiful, admiring makeup on, along with a pink denim leather jacket that faded into white at the bottom. Under it was a black T-Shirt with a label saying "It's not easy to be a Princess!" Her appearance was overall inspiring. Her backpack was on the floor, just inches away from her feet. I shrug, and look beside where she was sat. It was an empty spot. I walk closer to her, and she was on her phone, taking a selfie. I take a few steps closer, and she catches a glimpse of my feet. She put her phone down, and looked up at me.

"Hi?" She said, raising her eyebrow. I waved, out of words to explain everything. I point to the seat that was empty next to her, and she looks over at it. "Sure?" She replies, scooting over to that side and grabbing her backpack, putting it next to her feet. I sit on the side that she was recently sitting on, and I put my backpack on my lap. "Who might you be? I've never seen you around before." "I'm.." I try to reply to her question, as I nervously fix my necklace. She keeps staring at me. "I'm Faith.. I recently moved from Florida to here," I finally answer, losing my nervous grip to my necklace and resting my hands on my backpack.

She nods. "Welcome to Colorado. Don't be so nervous by the way, you'd get used to it," She says, turning on her phone again. "Use to what?" I ask, as the bus pulls off the curb into the street. "Everything. Drama, fights, relationships, and more. But don't worry," She says, turning on her camera, putting it in self-portrait mode. I don't reply, but I give her a smile and look down at my shoes.

She then unzips her backpack, and grabs lipstick from inside. She holds it up in the sunlight shining through the window, and smiles at it. She looks at the flashing screen in front of her, and puts on the lipstick. Once she was done, she put the accessory back in the backpack, and looked over at me. She held out her hand, her long red fingernails distracting my nervous position. "I'm Janice. How are you, Faith?" She asks, looking at me. "G-Good.." I stutter, snapping out of the admiring nails. "Nice name.. How are you?" I ask, taking out a Gatorade from my side pocket in my backpack.

"I'm very good. Thank you. Nice name to, Faith." I smile, opening the tight twisted cap on the energy drink in my hand. "Want some..?" I ask, holding up the Gatorade. She holds up her hand in front of the beverage. "I'll pass on the Gatorade. But, thank you." I nod, and take a sip. "Once we get to school, I'm meeting my friends near the Oak tree out front. Wanna come with?" Janice asked, tilting her head. I put the drink away, and cup my hands. "I don't wanna budge in.." I reply, with a soft soothing voice. She separates my hands from the cupping. "Don't worry!" She says, with a convincing smile. "You won't!"

I look up at her, seeing her face grinning. I nod, and she releases her hands. "Are your friends on this bus?" I ask, looking behind us. "No, they're on Bus B3. We're on Bus A5. We'll see them once we get to Smoky," Janice answers back in reply. "Wow, more then one bus? That's weird. In Florida, we only had one bus everyday even though I never went on the bus," I explain. Janice looked over at me. "You never rode a bus either, huh?" She said, putting her hands in her pockets. I shake my head. "Well, something we have in common," I answer. She smiles. I look over beside us at the two boys sitting in the next seats.

Man, that one dude is actually really hot. I think, resting my arm on my lap. Janice took hold of my shoulder, alarming me. "Lord, you scared the shi-" I say, looking at Janice until she held up her finger. "We're here!" Janice says, in a jolting way, pointing outside. I nod, and quickly look over back at where both boys were sitting. They were gone. I moved across Janice's lap, seeing the hot boy walk off the bus and into the school. I sigh. "Sorry," I mumble again. Janice laughed awkwardly, and gets up when I got up.  We both followed each other off of the bus as the doors slammed shut.