Ensemble of Shards

{31} Seatmate

To Misha, because I miss you. HAHA please critique this xD

This is based off a dream. Originally, I was at a bus stop, probably somewhere in Armenia, and there were a bunch of Japanese tourists and this blond boy waiting. Even though I didn't remember his face, I knew he was the brother of an author I was once super into. (The boy actually follows me on Instagram and often views my IG stories xD) I think he was smiling at me, but I tried to pretend not to notice him (but inside of me, I wanted to talk to him). Then we all boarded the bus (I was with my family, so the reason why I didn't talk to him was because I didn't want to go through the trouble of explaining to my parents about how I knew him LOL), but he was in the front seat and I sat in the back, so we didn't talk. I wish we talked. So, this story is me rewriting that dream. I've just changed the names because this is cringey...

~

I was the last person to board the bus in Yerevan, Armenia. Standing awkwardly and trying to escape the gazes of the passengers as the doors hissed close, I scanned the place to find an empty seat and spotted the only one: an aisle seat beside a curly-haired young man wearing earphones. He didn't look like one of the locals. Must be one of those European tourists. I quickly walked over to the seat and covertly glanced at him. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't remember where I saw him before. Unfortunately, he noticed me and our eyes met. I looked away, as I was used to doing after eye contact with strangers, but an automatic smile had crept onto my face. I braved another quick glance and saw that he was smiling too. He was looking intently at me, as if he was trying to remember something. Then he looked away.

Getting curiouser and curiouser every second, but without the courage to talk to him, I just shrugged it off and relaxed my back on the seat. A minute passed with me trying to remember why he looked familiar. Then, he said, "Excuse me."

I quickly turned to him, expectant to hear why. 

"Are you Issa of Wonderfilledissa?" he asked.

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "That's me!" How did he know me?

"I'm Matthew. Matthew Bonhoeffer."

He held out his hand, and I shook it. I was so surprised.

"Wow..." I said. "It's nice to finally meet you!"

I'd known him ever since I discovered his photography blog through his older brother, Karl, who used to be one of my favourite writers. Because I followed (stalked?) Karl's blog, I knew their family travelled a lot, and I wished to meet him or Matthew since I moved closer to Europe - in Armenia, to be exact - a few years ago.

As we talked, I noticed he had a quasi-American accent with a German lilt. I was the one mostly asking the questions, and I was glad he was game enough to keep up the conversation. We talked about how I found out about him and his brother and some other topics such as travel, homeschooling, our personal lives, faith, and our goals for the future. Eventually, there was a lull, so I decided to take a nap as he was staring out into the window to his left. I awkwardly informed him, to be polite, and put on my neck pillow, earphones, and sleeping mask. Eventually, I fell asleep.

Later on, I woke up. I looked at Matthew, who was also asleep with his elbow leaning on the window and his hat obscuring his face. I felt grateful and kind of amazed to be sitting beside someone I was so curious about over the years. I smiled, and went back to sleep.

I opened my eyes as the bus slowed to a stop at a gas station. Man, I really looked forward to use the bathroom. As the door opened, I carried my big backpack and Matthew followed. I said, "Hey," and he smiled back. We piled out of the bus, and as I looked back at my seatmate, it was only then that I realised how tall he was. He must've been over six feet tall. Typical European. I made a mental note to ask him about his height later on.