A Thing.

Them.

Them. That person. That human being always across the street from me. That person who is always smiling and never stops. I've never seen them not smiling.

Me. Well...I don't smile to often. Smiling isn't rare for me. I just don't do it often.

Today that person across the street wasn't smiling. That's different. They looked sad. Not like someone took their heart and put it in a paper shredder. This was different. This was  like someone they loved and knew took their heart and crushed it into dust in front of their face.

I don't like different. My day is always the same. Nothing out of place. Everything perfect, but seeing this person not smiling didn't make me agitated, like things out place make me, this made me sad. The person I saw always smiling was sad and that made me sad too.

I decided to talk to them. Why not. It's not like anything bad could happen from talking.  I walked across the street and sat down next to them.

"Hi." Short and simple. Nothing wrong with that.

"Hello." They replied.

"How are you doing?" I asked.

"I could be a lot better."

"Why is that?"

"I know I shouldn't talk to strangers-" they said "- but #YOLO. My family kicked me out for reasons I'm not even ready to think about yet."

Wow. That must be awful. Being kick out. I don't even have words.

"It does."

"What!?"

"You were thinking out loud."

Oh.

They started to stand up getting ready for the bus

"Wait."

"Yes?" They said.

"Let me see your phone."

"Oookkkaaaayy" They spoke sounding extremely confused.

I open their contacts added my number and told them "Call me sometime."

"I will." They said.

Then they got on the bus and left. Though I never saw them after that day, we talked on a daily basis. They had moved from New York all the way to Oklahoma. They got a happy life and I finally got their name...Jace.

This probably sucked, but I'm trying.
-Emile