An excerpt of a story I might finish.
I could not stop looking at her. Her face was painted all white and her eyebrows were drawn with some purple pencil, or at least I think. The rest of the bus seats were completely empty but she decided to sit right next to me. Not behind or in front. Right freaking next to me.
It was one of those nicer buses that New Jersey Transit had. It was short and the electric destination sign still shone brightly because the screen was still new. The inside was air conditioned even though it was fall, but air conditioned nonetheless.
I tried my best not to stare but it was near impossible. The majority of her right eye was white with a small speck of her black pupil peering through.She also had these giant black braids stacked on the top of her head but the majority of the side seemed to be shaved.
“You stare at all pretty women this long?”
“ Oh, uh- I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean to-”
Her head started to turn toward me and I could see her face more fully. Her left eye seemed to be the only thing normal about her, brown and unaltered. When she spoke, I could see how yellow her teeth were against her black lipstick and I think she pierced her gums too because I saw a large black metal ball jutting out above her two front teeth. I put my tongue over the same spot underneath my upper lip, wondering what it would feel like.
“No need to apologize, really. It kind of gives me an excuse to talk to you.”
“Huh?-”
“I mean, I see you on this bus nearly everyday and I thought to myself, ’why not? He kind of looks like a more depressed and lonely version of Cole Sprouse.”
“Um- “
“And I don’t mean it in a bad way. I mean it in a kind of romantic sense, I guess. Sometimes I just catch you staring outside the window and you have this, this look in your
eyes and-”
I technically could of just stopped her right then and there but I’m the type of the guy who can’t make eye contact with the Starbucks barista I see every morning, so it was a trial to attempt to get any words in. Whenever I tried to speak, I felt my voice going inward, almost as if it was lodged in my throat.