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Apr. 25th, 2006 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorThis is fiction. The city it takes place in ceased to exist over a decade ago, if it ever existed at all. The characters are even more sketchy. Credit for any bits that aren't entirely cruddy belong to The Replacements and Hornitos.
He sat in the sunshine by the bus stop, same as every day. His jeans were faded by too many days and too much abrasion, his shirt thin and too tight for his thin frame. His eyes were the only part that showed life as he watched the crowd.
He saw her walk out of the building opposite, three minutes after twelve as usual. Clean white shirt, modest dark skirt, the usual outfit. He watched her as she turned her head down the street checking the oncoming traffic. Hair up in a bun, fixed with a neutral barrette. After a bus passed she walked through the trailing diesel fumes to one of the vendors on the near side of the street. He looked down, not catching her eye. Strong calves, down to feet in low dress shoes.
Other people bustled by, men and women emerging from the office towers to secure lunch before retreating back to the controlled climates and carpeted halls. Pretty, ugly, short, tall, he ignored them all. He kept glancing over at her. For anyone else, she might not stand out in the crowd. She wasn't tall and pretty. The people he worked with would call her ordinary, if they were feeling kind. But he noticed.
One day he had actually walked by her on the pretense of going to one of the other street vendors. He inhaled deeply as he went by and thought he could pick the smell of her out among the food smells. He thought his heart would stop. His stomach growled with other intentions, but he didn't eat the kielbasa he bought. He'd tossed it out before he boarded his bus.
Today as usual he just sat waiting for his bus.
If she were with him she wouldn't have to resort to food from the vendors every day. He'd pack her a lunch with leftovers or a sandwich. But on Fridays they'd have a treat and stand together in front of the metal carts sharing bites.
He stood up...
********************** choose your ending **********************
... as his bus pulled up in a veil of diesel fumes.
... and began walking over.
********************* tell me which ending you chose ***********
He sat in the sunshine by the bus stop, same as every day. His jeans were faded by too many days and too much abrasion, his shirt thin and too tight for his thin frame. His eyes were the only part that showed life as he watched the crowd.
He saw her walk out of the building opposite, three minutes after twelve as usual. Clean white shirt, modest dark skirt, the usual outfit. He watched her as she turned her head down the street checking the oncoming traffic. Hair up in a bun, fixed with a neutral barrette. After a bus passed she walked through the trailing diesel fumes to one of the vendors on the near side of the street. He looked down, not catching her eye. Strong calves, down to feet in low dress shoes.
Other people bustled by, men and women emerging from the office towers to secure lunch before retreating back to the controlled climates and carpeted halls. Pretty, ugly, short, tall, he ignored them all. He kept glancing over at her. For anyone else, she might not stand out in the crowd. She wasn't tall and pretty. The people he worked with would call her ordinary, if they were feeling kind. But he noticed.
One day he had actually walked by her on the pretense of going to one of the other street vendors. He inhaled deeply as he went by and thought he could pick the smell of her out among the food smells. He thought his heart would stop. His stomach growled with other intentions, but he didn't eat the kielbasa he bought. He'd tossed it out before he boarded his bus.
Today as usual he just sat waiting for his bus.
If she were with him she wouldn't have to resort to food from the vendors every day. He'd pack her a lunch with leftovers or a sandwich. But on Fridays they'd have a treat and stand together in front of the metal carts sharing bites.
He stood up...
********************** choose your ending **********************
... as his bus pulled up in a veil of diesel fumes.
... and began walking over.
********************* tell me which ending you chose ***********
