Light of my Life

Double Decker

"I see," I bit my lip, then tried to change the subject. "So, what did you want to to see on this tour bus?" I pulled the three different tour brochures out of the repository they were displayed in. "The Liberty Experience, The Entrepreneur Experience, or The Immigration Experience?"

"Well, what do you think? You're the New York expert." He allowed my opinion. I looked at all three brochures, and then put them away.

"I think The Liberty Experience sounds like a blast of freedom." I joked.

"I think I'm going to have to agree with you," he approved and paid for two tickets at the yellow machine next to the light post. The faded blue bus rolled up to pick us up, and screeched to a stand still. Alex handed the driver our tickets, before climbing up the stairs inside to get to the exposed upper deck of the bus. It was already pretty full, despite it being a cold February afternoon.

We found two seats in the very back. The bus jolted to a start as if it had fallen asleep in the cool atmosphere and began to choppily drive down the street, back past the dorms. My fingers were stiff and nub in my sweater sleeves.

"I want to talk to you about something," he spoke slowly, picking his words with care. I smiled and adjusted how I was sitting so I was facing him more.

"Really, what?" I asked. He grabbed my hands and held them in between us, our fingers gently intertwined.

He hesitated before speaking. "Yesterday at the theater-"

I sharply inhaled, preparing myself for whatever he was about to say. This wasn't a second chance, this was a second date.

"Why did you feel the need to lie and force yourself to watch something you hate? I mean, you threw up, you obviously didn't like it. Does a relationship with me really matter that much to you?"

"My roommate kind of got into my head--"

"Yeah, but you could have ignored her. You sacrificed your health. Throwing up isn't usually good for you, you know."

I thought about my answer for a moment, not wanting to awake the monster I had locked away all those years ago, on this bus. Not even wanting to think about it, because remembering resurfaced all of the horrible things I had pushed so far down. "Lightning Avenue really helped me out of a bad time. I had already fallen in love with you, and I wanted you to fall in love with me." I admitted. He nodded, beginning to understand.

"So you endured a movie you dreaded because I'm a celebrity that you're into and you wanted to appeal to my personality." He chuckled. The bus bumped up and down on the icy road.

"No! No, no. Not-"

"It's alright, Lauren." His face was close enough to mine, that I could feel his breath on my nose. The way he said my name made my heart beat louder. "I thought this was going to be an issue. Because of my career, everything's always different. But it's alright, I'm used to it. I just hope that you want to date me for me."

"Of course," I smiled warmly, squeezing his hands. A tiny gust of wind flew through as the bus slowed down to talk about a landmark. "I just hope you want to date me, period."

He let go of my hands and grabbed my chin gently so we were staring directly at each other. His sudden abruptness and touch surprised me. Underneath his hat I could see his shadowy features, his eyes glistening. "I really do. I like you, and I want to give this a chance."

"So do I," I sighed.

"Yeah," he laughed. "Maybe I should learn a little bit about you, since you know so much about me. Maybe we could even the scales."