L’autobus

L’Autobus

Note: First Draft of L’Autobus, will look forward feedback! Thanks.

Sergio gets on the bus after soccer practices at school and he immediately feels the warm heater that makes his hands feel like they are burning. He hates practicing during the winter because his legs and hands get so cold that they hurt at times. But, he still loves playing soccer and he has since he was five years old back in Mexico. Resting his head against the cold bus’ window makes him remember when in he was ten years old and he used to cool off his head with a bottle of a cold Coca-Cola after a long day of playing soccer with his friends. Now he wishes he had a bottle of Coca-Cola even if it was freezing outside it always reminds him of the good times he had with his friends and lately he has been missing Mexico a lot.

After a few minutes Sergio opens his eyes to see if his bus stop is almost there but he still like ten minutes away he thinks after checking his watch. The bus makes a stop.  Sergio checks out the people that are getting on the bus and he sees that the girl of his dreams, Gabriela, is getting on.  He remembers the day he met her. It was during summer school and he had just come from Mexico. That day she was wearing a short pink skirt and a short top and a little white opened sweater. When she was showing him around the school he was not paying that much attention to what she was saying and just stared into her belly that was pierced and around it she used some sort of lips-tip that made it shine.

During that summer they used to talk a lot and even hang-out after classes were over.  He remembers how her long light brown hair shinned under the sun and the smell of her perfume that smelled like watermelons. Sergio waits nervously as she is approaching his sit on the bus, he does not dare to look up and have the chance to meet her green eyes that makes even the most strong man fall for them. He surely has fallen for them but, she hasn’t spoken to him since they began the fall semester. She became popular and she didn’t have time to hang-out with him anymore.

Sergio feels his blood rushing to his feet and his hands begin to sweat and Gabriela is almost next to him. Time seems to move in slow motion and he can almost feel every heart beat and his heavy breathing is making him feel like his is out of air.

“Is this sit taken?” she asks and he moves his heavy soccer bag from the sit next to him.  He looks down then out of the window trying not to catch a glimpse of her eyes. But he can see the reflection of her in the window. There she is with her clean white coat and a brown purse on her right shoulder.  He picks up the smell of her perfume and his body shivers all over. He wonders what to say or if to say anything at all. After all he did try to make an effort to keep in touch with her by calling her house every afternoon and her mother would always tell him that she was out.

When Sergio saw her with her new cell phone at school he did not asked her for her number or anything. He was too proud to ask her for her cell phone number after she did not return any of his call when he called her house.

“Why didn’t you call me back?” he says.

“Excuse me? What did you say?” she asks and takes her headphones off her ears.

Sergio stays quiet and when he tries to speak the bus makes the announcement for the next stop. He knows his stop is next and he holds his bags tight and pretends he didn’t say anything. But, Gabriela stares at him and then puts her headphones back on. Sergio feels his face burning red and his knees weaken as he struggles to get off the bus in his stop.  He almost breaks his ankle when he got down from the steps and it hurts a lot, but he is not looking back and he feels like his heart has been taken apart. He walks home with his head down and the cold air feels like needles are pinching his face and hands. His first love is now over, and his first heart break is just beginning… he will never forget ride on the bus or as his French teacher though him l’autobus.

- Joaquine 2008