dopamine : luke

bus ride

SECOND HOUR
6PM

"are you insane?" clio asks, her voice getting a tad bit higher than she wanted. people seated in front of them turn around to look, causing clio's face to heat up.

"sorry," she mumbles sheepishly, "super sorry."

luke looks at her with entertainment painted all over his face, trying hard to stop himself from chuckling.

"it's not funny," she mumbles, slapping luke gently on the arm, "what if we get lost? we need to get off at some place we know, luke."

luke continues shaking his head sideways as he looks at clio, smiling.

"peach, we have to be in this bus for an hour," he starts, "this is the thrill of everything."

"the thrill?" clio says, her eyes narrowing at luke, "we might get lost if we do that."

"no, scratch that," she continues, eyes wide, "we'll get lost for sure."

"we won't," luke assures her, "i know this place by heart, alright? we'll get off this bus at exactly 7:00, and we'll see which part of paris we ended up at. it's exciting."

"and then what?" clio says, not being able to hide the panic in her tone, "what do we do once we get off?"

"we do number three on the list," luke answers simply, "calm down, peach, alright? i got us."

clio slumps down further on her seat, glancing at her wristwatch as she does. it's only 6:06pm.

the thought that they have to be in this bus for 54 more minutes more scares clio so much. who knows where they'll end up?

"i'm sure we'll end up somewhere beautiful," luke says as though he's read her mind, "don't think about it too much, alright? just enjoy the ride."

"enjoy the ride?" clio repeats, her eyes narrowing at luke again, "how am i supposed to enjoy the ride, if i don't even know where i'm going to end up?"

luke shakes his head sideways again, finding it funny that in a span of six minutes, clio has narrowed her eyes at him far more times than normal.

"think of this bus ride as the average person's life," he says, facing clio, "do you get what i'm trying to say?"

clio looks around, trying to look for a familiar sight so she at least knows where they can be.

she sighs, remembering that she's never even rode a bus during her three months in the city.

"i don't get what you're saying." she answers simply, fidgeting with the hem of her sweater.

luke faces clio, so he's at an angle where his body is directly facing towards her.

"can you look at me, please?" he asks clio, leaning his elbow on the back of the seat.

"what?" clio asks, facing luke, too. both their bodies are now directly facing towards one another.

"life is like a bus ride." luke starts upon seeing that clio's attention is fully on him.

"how so?" she asks, still fidgeting with the hem of her sweater, still not being able to stop herself from wondering where they're going to end up.

"you get on it, and you're either one of those people that know just where you're going to end up," he continues slowly, "or you're either one of those people who don't know where they're going. like us."

clio stays silent, as she waits for the next piece of luke's explanation. also because she's letting luke's words sink in.

"but i don't think it should be a big deal, you know?" he continues, "why do we need to know so bad where we're going to end up? where we're going to have to get off? why do we have to set up a whole ass plan for where we're going to end up?"