[18+] A Little More Than Strangers

Chapter 1: The Coach

[3rd person POV/Omniscient]

The ultimate happiness must be found through tears, laughter, words, promises, circumstances, jealousy, envy, every shade of fear, journeys far from home, new faces, stories, dreams, fantasies, music, rhythm and intoxication...

Maeve remembered the preface of a book as she dreamily watched the roads slipping past the window of the coach. She seemed to remember some parts incorrectly, some things she had forgotten, and some things she had added herself. But that was the gist of it.

Maeve was one of the first passengers on the long-distance coach from Millhaven to Bellmont, which meant a six-to-seven-hour journey from the remote countryside where she lived all the way to her university... Nearly five hundred kilometers. After every university break, the journey was always this exhausting. So, little by little, she had started going home less often. She had barely gone home at all during the previous semester.

And now, she was heading back to university after a month of summer vacation to begin her second year.

Nearly halfway there, Maeve remained dreamy and tired. The freezing air-conditioning inside the coach made her feel nauseous and uncomfortable. The soft vibration of the engine was enough to make her ears buzz. But she was used to it by now.

At every stop, a few people got on, a few people got off, and so it went... By now, more than half the passengers on the coach were students from Bellmont University.

A group of friends from Greystone had spread themselves across the seats at the back, chatting animatedly. A few others were from Ashford. A young man had just boarded at the stop in Hawthorne. He cheerfully walked over and sat beside the girl in the row in front of Maeve. They were a couple.

It wasn't difficult to notice the distance between their two chestnut-colored heads growing smaller. The couple clung to each other with complete ease, flirting and teasing one another. Even when she tried to turn away, Maeve could still hear the wet sounds of their lips meeting as they kissed... The soft, quickening breaths as they both tried very hard to restrain themselves. A few whispered words between them made Maeve blush with embarrassment. She closed her eyes, rested her head against the window, pretended to be asleep, and hoped nobody would pay any attention to her.

She wasn't used to things like this...

Maeve had never dated anyone. She was a diligent, outstanding student in the literature department at Bellmont University. She usually only knew about love through classic romantic works, or at most, through movies...

Her phone vibrated, and Maeve opened it to check the incoming message.

[11:47] Lena: "Are you on the bus yet, honey?"

That was Lena, Maeve's best friend since high school. Lena came from a well-off family and was one of the few students at university who could afford to rent an entire house. And because Lena always needed someone to talk to, someone to bother, she let Maeve rent a bedroom on the first floor.

Come to think of it, Maeve had also learned about love through Lena's stories. The two of them were complete opposites when it came to romance. Lena had been the queen of their high school. Ever since the two of them had become friends... On average, every three months Lena would excitedly gush about a new boyfriend: how romantic, attractive, and gallant he was, what perfume he wore, where they had gone together... Until, some time later, his bad habits would start piling up one after another until they broke up... And the stories would repeat themselves.

"Still a long way to go, honey. I'm so tired, Lena." Maeve replied to the message.

[11:50] Lena: "You left your computer mouse in my room, honey."