Oh 5AM, thou art a bitch, Joseph thinks to himself as he sluggishly soaps himself under the warm shower. 5AM is too damn early for anything. He won’t even get up that early for sex…not like he’d ever been given the opportunity, but still.
After his wash, Joseph opened his bottom drawer to revisit his “prison uniform” as he likes to call it. Throughout the summer he avoided wearing purple, because during the school year he is forced to wear a disgusting, dark purple shirt at George Washington High School. He groans as he puts on the purple polo shirt and beige khaki pants.
He goes to the kitchen and tries to find something he could eat on the bus ride. The kitchen has an abundance of cereal but he couldn’t eat that stuff without milk; he didn’t have time to figure out how to bring milk on the go. Joseph opens the bottom cabinets but mostly sees oatmeal and canned veggies. He sighs and regrets eating the last Pop Tart yesterday. When he thought all hope was lost, Joseph spots a pack of Oreos between canned soups. He grabs it and walks across the street to his bus stop right as the bus arrives.
Joseph gets on and scans the seats for any friends. "Hey, Jose!" he hears from the back. He looks to see a girl with bleached hair and pink eye shadow. Her arms are covered in a rainbow of beads from her wrist to her elbow. Joseph had her in two classes during freshman year but they’ve never talked. He watches her wave a bracelet-covered arm while he wonders what she’s trying to say. She gets up and takes his hand, leading him to her seat. They sit down—Joseph at the window side, she at the aisle.
"The next stop is my ex's," she explains, "I don't want him to sit next to me."
Joseph nods but inside he's shrugging. He wants to shrug this unintelligent girl away. He can't. He's too nice. He didn't even bother correcting her when she called him Jose.
The next stop is also Tasi's. Joseph had wanted to sit next to her, but he stays with the fake blonde haired girl. She has fierce hazel eyes and a stern, red grin. Joseph knows not to mess with her.
The girl puts her arm around the seat behind him…making it feel a little intimate, a little uncomfortable. The bus made a sharp turn, causing him to crash into her soft curves. She pulls him close and giggles, “I know my lovely lady humps are irresistible.” He feels the beads on her arm dig into his side…which really sucks because Joseph has almost no body fat to endure it. He never felt so wimpy.
Before he could tell her to stop touching him, the bus halts. Tasi enters. She looks at Joseph and frowns. He tries to tell her ‘sorry’ with his eyes, but she quickly looks away and sits with a freshman. Joseph closes his eyes and sighs.
“Dude, that’s my spot,” some guy says in the aisle. Joseph opens his eyes and sees a tall, tattooed, super senior glaring at him.
“No,” Joseph’s seatmate says. “He got here first. Walk away, Sid.”
The guy glares, but walks away. Joseph didn’t even notice he was holding his breath until the girl beside him whispers into his ear, “Thanks, Jose.” She removes her arm from him and opens her iPhone.
Wish I was sitting with you instead he texts Tasi.
She quickly replied: So you have a thing with Shito?
LOL. So her name is he types “Shito” but his cell auto-corrected it to “Shinto". He didn’t notice it until he pressed send.
She texts back Yeah I know her name is Shinto. I was just joking!
He looks to the girl who had her arm around him. She is colorful yet harsh. He texts Tasi: Shinto. Such a beautiful name for such an undeserving bitch.
YOU ARE READING
Hey, Jose!
Teen FictionGeeky, Joseph is tired of his small island life on Guam. The only thing that keeps him going is his crush on his poetess best friend, Tasi. He promises that junior year will be the year he'll tell his feelings to her, but what happens when she frea...
