The Girl On The Bus

You know the one. As soon as she gets on the bus, everyone looks at her. Carmel skin. Deep, sparkling, brown eyes. She’s beautiful.

I have that weird feeling one might get when something amazing happens in a dream, not sure if the moment is slowed down or if I’d just been too tired all day. Well, that coupled with the usual check of “Does she look like she’s over 18”.

I’m sitting, facing the middle door of the bus, admiring her as she walks by to take the seat in the back that overlooks the lower part of the bus. As she sits down, she catches my eye and smiles.

“I like your hair!”, she says exuberantly as she puts her headphones in.

I run my fingers through my purple hair, smile, and say, “thanks!”, before we both get lost in our music.

As the ride goes on, every once in a while our gaze would meet. Her looking up from her book as the bus stopped, me interrupted from tapping out the beats of songs as people shuffled to get out the door. Smiles exchanged, every time.

My bus ride is spent in total indecision and imagination. Going over that fleeting exchange, trying to play it cool, trying not to doze off even though that had been my main plan upon boarding the bus.

Many versions of me started yelling in my head. The cacophony in my head sounded like this.

“Was she just being nice? MAN. You know better than that! This is your IN! Do you want to be that creepy dude who approaches women on the bus? It’s not creepy! She talked to you first! There are people who just…go up to girls on the bus? Regularly? Every day you see a post on Twitter saying that there was some creepy dude on the bus trying to talk to some girl. Yeah, but I’m not THAT guy. I’m sure that’s what EVERY guy says to himself! I hadn’t thought of this until now, but do people think I’m just a wannabe drummer or an actual drummer when I’m tapping out songs? You don’t even own a drum kit! Of course you’re a wannabe drummer! But I CAN drum! DUDE. THE GIRL. I KNOW OKAY but if I think about other things maybe she’ll magically learn my name and number through telepathy, because that would totally be so cool! You probably shouldn’t lead with that if you do talk to her. Maybe she likes X-Men! Maybe you should talk to her. Oh crap, my stop is coming up.”

And then someone pushed the button for the bus to stop. I had to get off. I didn’t want to. There was still time, this was my moment to talk to this beautiful girl.

I stood up.

She looked at me and smiled again.

I smiled back.

She waved.

I waved back.

And I got off the bus.

Now I’m writing a blog post and hoping that I might see her again on another bus ride. Possibly the same time next week. Is that lame? Let me know in the comments.

I promise I won’t end up posting to the Winnipeg missed connections classifieds on Craigslist. Like this guy:

UPDATE: My post was in the Winnipeg Metro today, September 25th! http://metronews.ca/voices/red-river-rants/382467/the-girl-on-the-bus/

UPDATE 2: And I never saw her again. Ever. Anywhere.