Bus (506 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.97 on 21 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by QuinnTheEskimo (View user info) at 2009-06-29 05:35:25 EDT
I met a girl on the bus today. I was downtown this morning, drunk, stumbling through the streets as a parade rolled past. I don't know, or maybe I just can't remember what the parade was for. It was loud. People were shouting and laughing at the floats, the men on horseback, the high school bands.
I took a seat, resting my head against a trash can, too drunk to see straight. I closed my eyes and let the sounds of the crowd wash over me. My therapist said the anxiety I feel around people might be alleviated, at least partially, by immersing myself in people. He didn't tell me to do it after nine beers, though. That was my idea.
When I opened my eyes again the parade was gone and evening was coming on. The streets were empty except for people going about their lives. There were people laughing outside a restaurant a few yards away, there was a homeless man sleeping in a doorway. My attention, however, was on the man standing in front of me.
"Move." He said.
"What?" I asked, squinting. I lifted my head from the trash can. My vision blurred. I still felt drunk.
"You can't sleep here." I hear that more than I like to admit.
"I was sleeping here just fine, man." I looked him over. His t-shirt said EVENT SECURITY above the breast pocket.
Another security guard walked over, and put his hands on his hips. The original guard spoke again. "You need to leave."
I stood up, swaying. "Fine, whatever." I began to stumble down the street.
I was without my bike, wallet, keys, and phone. I had a pack of smokes in my hip pocket. When I pulled them out there was a crumpled dollar stuck to them. Bus fare. I walked down the street to the bus station, but they were running different routes because of the parade. I sat down and lit a cigarette.
I watched the city workers picking up cones and clearing the lines of rope that kept people from walking on the street during the parade. A man and a woman approached me. He was black, wearing a do-rag, an oversized basketball jersey and sneakers with no socks. She was fat, a cigarette tucked behind her ear and her carmel colored skin spilled out of her tank top like dough that had been allowed to rise too long.
"Hey man, you got a cigarette?" He asked me.
I handed him one. He took it, looked around, then asked, "You smoke weed?"
"Shit yeah." I said.
"Come with me and smoke?" He asked.
"I don't want to miss my bus."
"I'm waiting for the same bus," He told me. "We ain't gonna miss it, we got twenty minutes."
"You talked me into it."
We smoked under a nearby bridge, the man introduced himself as Young Slap, I think. I never caught his woman's name. Asian tourists watched us smoke the bowl, if the were shocked or disdainful I couldn't tell but I felt judged by them either way. After we smoked Young Slap doubled over and puked.
"He's been drinking." His woman explained.
The bus came as we approached the stop. Young Slap and his woman sat near the back. I took the first seat I could find, at the front of the bus. My head was spinning a little. I was looking forward to riding the bus, I usually do. I feel like I'm touring my city when I ride the bus.
Across from me sat a girl, my age, maybe a little older. She was in short shorts, her thin legs folded beneath her. She had smokey green eyes and a sloping nose above thin lips. In her arms she cradled a two-liter bottle of Pepsi like an infant.
She reminded me of Marsha. I missed Marsha, in more ways than one. She was long gone out of my life, but I still thought about her, wondered where she was and how she was making it. I missed her when she was in my life, too. She was a girl that I was attracted to who never really felt that way about me. I missed Marsha, in more ways than one.
I nodded to her when we made eye contact, trying to be polite. She introduced herself as Ashley, I think. It's hard to remember. She only said her name once. We made small talk and she flirted, eventually moving to sit next to me. I didn't know what to do or say except to continue being polite.
"What do you do?" I asked her after a lull in the conversation.
"Oh, I don't work right now, I just got out of a shitty relationship."
"Thats always tough." I said.
"Yeah, that ass hole beat the shit out of me every chance he got so fuck him."
"That's rough."
She nodded. We talked about smoking, smoking weed, taking mushrooms and ecstasy, snorting coke. "I only smoke weed," I told her, "And occasionally take shrooms." She cursed a lot. The bus driver threatened to throw her off the bus. She gave him the finger when he wasn't looking.
She laughed at my jokes, even though I told her not to. "Don't laugh at that, that's not funny." I'd say, and she'd laugh again. "You have a phone?" She asked.
"Not on me."
"But you have one, right?" I nodded to her. "Can I get your number?"
I rattled off the seven digits and she saved them into her phone. "What are you doing later?" She asked.
"Nothing, you?"
"Yeah, nothing. Maybe we could hang out tonight."
I felt my eyebrows shoot up. I knew what that sentence meant.
"Sure." I said.
"Could you bring some weed?" She asked.
"Don't have any." I answered honestly. "Do you?"
She shook her head. "Cops are dicks. I got arrested in ShopKo the other day, fucking cops. Fined me three hundred fucking dollars for three tank tops." She emphasized tank tops, as if the fact that they were made of less cloth that a t-shirt somehow made it a lesser offense.
"Outrageous." I said, shaking my head. She nodded.
"Fucking cops."
The bus driver leaned back. "One more and you're walking home, ma'am."
She sneered at him. "This is my stop anyway."
I got off the bus with her even though I was still five miles from home. She was a coke-snorting shirt-stealing dirty-looking woman, but I wanted her. She reminded me of Marsha. We sat at the bus stop for an hour or so, smoking cigarettes as the sun went down.
"Well, I'm gonna go home. I'll call you later tonight, we can do something together." She smiled in a way that could be described as naughty, though it seemed a little awkward on her face.
I nodded. "You better."
She smiled, hugged me, and lifted her face to kiss me. I kissed her, thinking of Marsha as I did it.
She walked away and I hoofed it home. My bad knee was aching by the time I walked in the door. It was just after nine at night. I smoked a cigarette and checked my phone to see if she had called while I was walking home. No such luck. I sat around in my underwear and watched [Adult Swim] until the earliest hours of the morning. She reminded me so much of Marsha. Years from now I'll still be waiting for her to call.
User Reviews
Submitted by cheerios (user info) at 2009-07-02 23:57:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
not too shabby.
Submitted by haikumikoo (user info) at 2009-07-01 02:01:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Read it.
It's good.
Marisha is a cunt.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2009-06-30 21:52:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'll give it a +2, Dick. It's got a beat and you can dance to it.
Submitted by haikumikoo (user info) at 2009-06-30 17:43:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I posted a tribute post for you, I thought you should know seeing as how you love you so much.
http://www.ubersite.com/m/122680
Submitted by haikumikoo (user info) at 2009-06-30 13:05:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Probably not going to read it, but I'll just assume it's as good as the real story, deal?
Submitted by mles76 (user info) at 2009-06-30 12:58:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice
Submitted by RoadSong (user info) at 2009-06-30 12:35:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"I was without my bike, wallet, keys, and phone."
HATE IT when this happens!
Submitted by kitchens_closed (user info) at 2009-06-29 23:08:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
best post ive read in a while. this kicks the shit out of the inane RIP posts that have become uber-chic.
Submitted by sir_cowman (user info) at 2009-06-29 21:35:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2009-06-29 09:32:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
So you like your women a little on the trashy side? If she's gonna steal anyway, at least make her steal things you can use, like razors and liquor, and cigarettes and whatnot.
____
I like women that are willing to have sex with me.
Submitted by X54 (user info) at 2009-06-29 18:24:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2009-06-29 22:27:45 BST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by pandora (user info) at 2009-06-29 15:48:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by experima (user info) at 2009-06-29 15:17:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2009-06-29 13:41:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by F.J.Bell (user info) at 2009-06-29 08:41:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by EmissionImpossible (user info) at 2009-06-29 07:23:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2009-06-29 17:27:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by pandora (user info) at 2009-06-29 15:48:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by experima (user info) at 2009-06-29 15:17:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2009-06-29 13:41:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by F.J.Bell (user info) at 2009-06-29 08:41:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by EmissionImpossible (user info) at 2009-06-29 07:23:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by pandora (user info) at 2009-06-29 15:48:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by experima (user info) at 2009-06-29 15:17:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by HellRazer (user info) at 2009-06-29 14:38:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Your writing is extraordinary.
Submitted by messmind (user info) at 2009-06-29 13:55:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Hitwhore : http://www.ubersite.com/m/113043
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2009-06-29 13:41:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
1.5
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2009-06-29 13:41:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2009-06-29 12:10:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
bang
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2009-06-29 09:32:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
So you like your women a little on the trashy side? If she's gonna steal anyway, at least make her steal things you can use, like razors and liquor, and cigarettes and whatnot.
Submitted by F.J.Bell (user info) at 2009-06-29 08:41:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by EmissionImpossible (user info) at 2009-06-29 07:23:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment