The guy beside me has the right idea: sleep. But then I'd miss my stop, and no other buses go anywhere near my house, especially this late, so I opt to keep my eyes open.
Why did I ever think that going swimming- with Reyna, of all people, who doesn't seem to understand that you can do sports for fun- was a good idea after six hours of school? It's a good job I don't have any homework due tomorrow, because I'm going straight to sleep when I get home.
Reyna's already gotten off the bus, but I still have about ten minutes to go until I reach my stop. I struggle to keep my eyes open as my headphones play music I barely hear, despite them playing at full volume.
Ever paranoid, I'm ready to get up as soon as I enter my village, despite being nowhere near my stop yet. I'm right at the back, which adds to my irrational worry that the bus will drive right past my stop before I get to the front.
Between the sleeping guy on my left and the guy manspreading on my right, I can't lean over to reach a bell, so I stand up, swinging my backpack over my shoulder as I do.
I curse myself for not learning better from past experiences as I feel it hit something. Or rather, someone. This is the third time this week, and it's only Tuesday. Poor Jason, who stupidly chose to sit beside me in philosophy, has been the victim twice.
I pull an earphone out and turn around, stammering out apologies to the sleeping guy, who has now been rudely awakened.
Of course, the universe isn't done with me yet. If this is karma for jumping on Frank and scaring him, I apologised, and it was an accident, anyway! No, the song on my phone switches, and I'm stood apologising to this man as the first notes of Evanescence's Being Me To Life start playing. This would be bad enough as it is, but it just so happens that I downloaded this song just to annoy my friends, and it's a version where it's been dubbed with Goofy's voice.
Well, at least it's not the cover of Fireflies where the lyrics are being screamed.
"Huh?" The guy blinks sleepily.
"Sorry." I stammer again, fumbling to turn my phone off. It's caught on something in my pocket, of course.
"Oh, it's fine." He seems to wake up a a little. "Uh... Where are we?"
I glance out of the window. I'm not too close to my stop yet, thank goodness. I tell him where we are, and he curses quietly then covers his mouth and looks around, like he's worried somebody heard him, despite there only being about four people on the bus. It's sort of cute.
"I missed my stop." He slaps his forehead.
"Oh." Do I apologise, or...
"It's fine." He shakes his head. "I'll just catch another bus back. Thanks for waking me, I guess."
"It was an accident." I shrug. He shrugs back, looking a lot less tense than me.
"Still, thanks for hitting me with your bag."
"No problem." I reply with a forced smile. "I'll make sure to hit you again if I ever see you again." He laughs forcedly and quickly looks away. I turn and walk to the bus doors quickly, face bright red.
What the fuck? Why am I like this...
~~~
I slide along to leave the seat beside me available as the bus fills up. My earbuds keep slipping out and I keep having to push them back into my ears, which would be annoying if I wasn't so used to it.
Percy usually sits beside me, but he starts late on Wednesdays, so I'm alone.
Somebody drops into the available seat on my left and I press closer to the wall. One of my earbuds slips out again. Before I can lift it back to my ear, the guy beside me speaks.
"Hi." Oh god. It's the guy from last night... I feel myself blushing again.
"Uh... Hey." I push my earphone in and hope his stop isn't far away. He fidgets nervously, then his hands settle in his lap. I look away and stare resolutely out of the window for the next forty-five minutes.
He gets off at my stop, of course. What did I do to deserve this torture? I take my earphones out to avoid getting ran over from not hearing a car coming and contemplate going into the town just to avoid him (I need cough drops anyway), then decide I don't have time and just make my way to the college, hoping he isn't going the same way as me.
He falls into step beside me and I feel my eye twitch. The few moments of awkward silence hurt me so much, I eventually crack.
"So did you get home alright yesterday?" I ask, praying he understands what I mean so this doesn't get more awkward.
"Yeah. Um, are you going to the college?" He asks. I nod. "Huh. I wonder how I've never run into you before, since I am too." He says absentmindedly.
"You probably have, and just haven't noticed me before, since before today I haven't done anything memorable like hit you on the head with my bag." I shrug.
"Nah, I would've remembered you anyway." He says. I can hear the smile on his lips without looking at him, but I do so anyway, just to confirm that he's not laughing at me. His soft smile seems innocent enough, but... Well, that can't be a compliment, so I'm not sure what to make of it.
Before I can question him, we're already at the college. "I'm Will, by the way." He says.
"Uh... Nico." I nod, then hold out my hand. Then cringe. He smiles wider, a full-on grin, showing off blindingly white teeth, and shakes my hand despite it being weird.
"Nice to meet you, Nico." He nods, then walks off without looking back. I swallow, then make my way into the refectory to find my friends' table.
~~~
a/n: i am ashamed to say that pretty much everything said about the college here has actually happened in my sixth form...
He sits beside me on the bus that afternoon, and we actually make conversation instead of sitting silently like I would prefer. Though it's not that terrible, actually. Who would've thought I would enjoy social interaction with an almost-stranger?
Our conversation sticks to music taste- which we do not have in common- and other small talk, such as what subjects we're studying.
He's taking triple science and psychology, meaning we have one subject in common, though I'm accompanying psychology with philosophy and classical civilisation rather than fact-based work.
"What's classical civilisation? He asks.
"Ancient Greek and Roman literature. We're reading the Odyssey and studying Augustus's rise to power." I explain briefly.
"Cool." He says. "The Odyssey is fun, but I prefer the Iliad."
"You've read them?"
"Yeah. My mom's a history nerd."
"I've read a bit of the Iliad." I tell him. "Though really I just looked at the gay parts."
"It all gay parts." He laughs. "The Odyssey is disappointingly straight, for the Greeks."
"Augustus seems to be making up for it." I reply. "So far we've learned a song mocking Julius Caesar for being- and I quote my teacher here- "fucked senseless by the king of Gaul"."
"Oh my god."
"He's so terrible." I groan. "There's a seven foot tall cut-out Augustus outside his classroom."
"I've seen that!" He gasps. "It's next to the whiteboard that's always graffitied with soviet flags, right?"
"Yeah." I nod.
I almost miss him when he reaches his stop and leaves me.
~~~
Will starts to smile and wave at me when we pass in the corridors. Once we exchange snapchat, he sends me pictures of myself from outside classrooms or from across the refectory if he sees me. I try to return the action, but I'm bad at noticing people, even Will, who is pretty hard not to notice for three reasons.
Number one: he's attractive. There, I admitted it. It's not as if Annabeth hasn't already caught me staring and told Percy, who then told all our friends that I have a crush on him. And maybe I do, so what?
Number two: he has terrible fashion sense. I didn't notice on the bus due to him usually wearing a jacket, but he's often wearing hideous t-shirts some of them covered in unnecessary sequins or indistinguishable text or images.
Number three: he's loud. Seriously, when he's with his friends, it's like he has two volumes: loud and screaming (and loud stage-whispering if a teacher tells him to quieten down, but it's basically the same volume as loud).
~~~
After almost a month of only really talking on the bus, he decides to sit next to me during one of my frees instead of just sending me blurry pictures of me from across the room.
"Oh, hi." I smile, nervous. This is new. I don't like new. It's scary.
"Hey." He replies. "What're you doing?" He peers at my laptop.
"Philosophy homework." I sigh. "It's hell."
"Why don't you drop it, then?" He asks.
"My classmates and teacher are funny."
"You told me you teacher was crazy." My classics teacher is also my philosophy teacher.
"He's crazy and funny. It's a terrifying mix."
"I can imagine."
We lapse into comfortable silence for a while, then as we get closer to the next period staring, Will pulls out his timetable. I frown at it as I catch a glimpse.
"You finish an hour early every day." I observe.
"Yeah." He nods. "I know, it's incredibly lucky."
"No, I mean... You finish an hour earlier than me three days a week, and at the same time as me the other two days.
"Yeah, so?"
"So why do we always get on the same bus if you can get on an earlier one?"
Will shrugs.
"Well I like sitting with you, so I wait."
"You mean you could have been getting home half an hour earlier than you do almost every day, yet you didn't?" I check.
"Yeah." He says nonchalantly.
"Why do get on my bus then?" I ask incredulously.
"I just told you! I like sitting next to you!"
"Wha- Why?" I splutter.
Will smiles like it's obvious.
"Because I like talking to you!"
"Why?"
"Are you sure you're not just asking me this to boost your ego?" He chuckles, leaning forward and resting his chin on his fist. "Well, fine, because you're interesting, and funny, and cute."
"Those are lies."
"They are not."
"I'm not interesting or funny, and I'm certainly not cute." I insist.
"Well I disagree with the first two statements, but with the third, I suppose I agree: you're breathtaking." I flush bright red.
"Will, I'm not-"
"You are." He cuts me off. "Seriously, every time I look at you I just want to stare at you and appreciate you for hours, or cover your face in kisses!" He says. I look away, blushing ridiculously.
"Well, occasionally I want to fuck you senseless, but most of the time I just wanna kiss you." My head snaps up, and I stare at him, unable to believe I just heard what I think I did. He rubs the back of his neck, his cheeks turning pink. "Too much information?" "Just a bit." I choke out.
"Sorry."
How the hell am I supposed to reply to this?
"Shit, I'm sorry." He looks down, wringing his hands. "I just made things awkward, and you're probably not even into guys, and can if you are you probably don't like me, especially now, since I've just-"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" I say, eyes wide with panic. "Chill, okay? I don't hate you! Yeah, I feel a bit awkward right now, but it's fine, really!"
He looks up at me worriedly, biting his lip. Shit, how the hell is he so unintentionally cute? "Also, I am gay. And... I do like you." Now it's Will's turn to blush.
"R-really?"
"Yeah." I nod. He beams at me.
I catch sight of the clock behind him and swear. His smile slips off his face, replaced by a look of confusion and hurt. "I've gotta go." I try to explain, feeling bad. "I'm late for class." I shut my computer, stuff it into my bag, and run, hating the circumstances we'd found ourselves in.
I feel even worse when I realise that I havant finished or printed off my homework, which is due in this lesson. I'm a dead man. I'm going to be given some awful ancient greek punishment to atone for my sins.
The only ancient greek punishment I can even think of right now is rhaphanidosis, which I do not want to think about, and while I doubt my teacher will go that far, I still don't trust him to be merciful. Fuck, now I'm uncomfortable.
a/n: don't google rhaphanidosis.
~~~
"Hey, so... Uh... I was wondering..." Will rubs the back of his neck and avoids looking me in the eye as we sway on the bus. "If, um... You'd like to go on a date with me?" He practically whispers the last part of the sentence, so I'm not sure if I heard him correctly.
"What?" I double check.
"Do you wanna go on a date?" He looks up at me, his face bright red. "This weekend, Sunday, maybe?" It's Friday now. "We can meet up in the city centre, walk down by the river, I'll buy you a cactus, we can get pizza..."
"A cactus?" I smile with amusement.
"When I imagined taking you on a date you in my head, I buy you a cactus from the plant shop in the marketplace."
"You've imagined dating me?" I smile even wider.
He nods, his blush calming down a bit but still clearly visible.
"Yeah, a little."
"What else have you imagined?" I smirk. He glances around the bus, which still contains quite a few people, before turning his attention back to me.
"Things I don't think I can mention in front of all these people. I mean, there's a child three rows back..."
I shriek and shove him, almost pushing him out of his seat.
"You are terrible, Will Solace." I laugh. He grins.
"I'm joking!"
"Sure you are." I roll my eyes. He shrugs with a lip-sided smile.
"So? Sunday?"
"Sure." I agree.
"But you'd better keep the rest of your fantasies to yourself for now." I warn him, noticing that I'm nearing my stop.
"For now?" He smirks.
"Forever, then." I get to my feet.
"See you, then." He waves.
"Yeah, see you." I grin, my mind already filled with images of our date. I sling my bag into my back and Will dodges it as it nearly wipes him out. I remember our first meeting and smile to myself as I step off the bus.
I never thought I'd be happy to have accidentally assaulted a cute guy, but look where I am now.