Dandelioness

One

A man staggered in our direction. He looked very out of place. He wore a filthy grey singlet which had been white at some point, and had the messiest and dirtiest beard. I didn’t judge. Sometimes people dressed like that were physicists!

He raised a finger at me, shaking it furiously.

"You are breeding, I swear, cloth heads," he yelled.

 I was taken aback. Had it been not me in this situation, I would have totally laughed at his claim.

I ignored him, fishing out my iPod and plugging in my earphones. I played 'Lucky Me' by Chris Brown. Breezy's vocals calmed my nerves.

The man kept wiggling his finger crazily. Omar turned to face me.

'You alright?' he mouthed.

I nodded.

The bus arrived shortly afterwards. Oddly, the bearded guy decided to stay at the stop and not board the bus. I stepped on, taking in my surroundings. It was your typical bus seating arrangement; the rebels seated at the back, the older people in the front, the businessmen/ women in the middle and school kids pretty much everywhere. Omar found a two seater beside a bunch of school girls. We both sat down.

“This is the bus,” Omar said seriously.

“But I thought this was the toilet..?” I replied mockingly.

“Oh shut it you,”

I looked away, grinning. My eyes focused on three girls in front of me. Their facial expressions let me know that they had witnessed the small talk with my brother.

Immediately, the girls started whispering. One of them had her eyes glued to me. She wore her uniform very revealingly. Her face resembled a horse's. Her friend was whispering and giggling into her ear.

"Ewwww!" the horse girl cried nasally.

Horse girl's nose holes flared. Her facial expression was unkind. I shrunk back into my seat. It was quiet for a few minutes. Until we neared a stop. The girls started chattering loudly. All I could pick up was "Oh my god. He is SO hot".

They applied lip gloss, fixed their hair and shirts. Eventually we got to a stop. One of the girls squealed loudly. The others hushed her down.

I shot Omar a quizzical look. He rolled his eyes, leaning in to whisper.

“Jeez you are clueless Nora. It’s this guy, who is apparently so perfect, he is the long lost Backdweeb Boy,”

“Backstreet Boys,"

“Poh-tay-toh, poh-tah-toh,” he replies dismissively.

A boy around my age, if not older, appeared in the doorway. And suddenly I realized why the girls worried about the impression they made.  He was tall with dark hair and eyes, and a lean muscular body. He looked fit.

I looked away as Omar nudged me, as if trying to say he was right. I shook my head nonchalantly, even though I had so checked him out. Horse girl got up and 'accidently' fell onto the guy. His hands caught her shoulders.

She flirted with him shamelessly.

“Oh gosh, I am so sorry! My footing is really weird, you know? But maybe it is because you have fine written all over you,”

Aha- fail pickup line.

He raised an eyebrow. Eventually, he responded to her

"Why is it that you always fall when I get on the bus?" he asked bluntly.