Bus stops day 3

[Erinstephen]

Nora paced back and forth in her bedroom. Back and forth.
He is going to call you/No he's not/He is going to call you/No he's not.

She stopped pacing; pacing was only really satisfying if you can stomp loudly. Her room was above her parents and her brother's room, and so if she indulged in some stomping someone would ask what she was stomping about. Which she really didn't want.

She sat on her bed for a few minutes, glaring at the phone. Ring, phone, ring! Come, on Chris, ring! Nothing. Jedi mind tricks don't work when you aren't Jedi.

She lay on top of her bed, and picked up a book- Jane Eyre. Nora had read the book so often that she could open it at any place and pick up the storyline. In fact, she hated the beginning third. Nora couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for little orphan Jane, so she didn't read that part, ever. Her mother had told her not to read it, the first time. About the 10th time, she felt ought to read it, so that she could say that she had read it.

She started reading, but she wasn't really paying attention. If he doesn't ring me, she told herself, I don't care. It doesn't really matter.

Nora knew it was a lie to herself, but it made her feel better about having to wait.

~~~

At 10:27 Nora put down her book and clicked off her lamp. A cold rock had formed in her stomach, and some of the joy of the afternoon had melted away. Well, to be honest, all of it. She lay awake for at least an hour more, a part of her listening for the ring of the phone, the other half cursing her for her stupidity and gullibility. She lay awake, the sides in conflict, the feeling of humiliation gnawing at her insides.

~~~

Nora hadn't had a good day. She had slept badly, and spent all day dreading the 3:20 bell. At last it came.

She slowly packed up her books, and was the last to leave the class. She slowly walked through the coridoors, procrastinating arriving. She had a dreadful twisting feeling in her gut- nerves.

She walked slowly to the bus stop and waited, staring at the ground. If he came past, he could decide to talk to her. Or ignore her again, depending on how things would be.

[Chris Wesley]

Chris lay on his bed, feeling like an idiot. Why hadn't he written the number down? He became increasingly annoyed that he was stupid enough to forget. He'd had his cellphone in his pocket, even! Why had he not put the number in as soon as she told him?

He sat up on his bed, and stared around the room. It was pointless. He wasn't going to remember. He'd just better hope that on Monday she accepted his excuse. It was such a horrible excuse too. He went over it in his head. "Sorry Nora, I forgot your number on Friday night. I was going to call you, honestly." Awful. Sadly it was the best he had.

_________________________________________________

Monday arrived after an uneventful weekend. School was as boring as ever, but seemed to go slower on this particular day. 3:20 arrived at last, and he put away his things and walked outside, heading for the bus stops. He spied Nora walking slowly, head down, towards her stop. He ran to catch up with her. he was a couple of metres away when she heard him, and stopped walking. She turned to face him. Time to say something.

"Nora, I'm really sorry I didn't ring, I forgot your number completely. I really wanted to call you."

He didn't really have anything else to say in his defense. He just hoped she'd accept his apology.

[Erinstephen]

She heard Chris behind her, and turned around. He stopped short in front of her. Her stomach twisted.

"Nora, I'm really sorry I didn't ring, I forgot your number completely. I really wanted to call you."

Nora watched him, trying to tell if he was sincere or not. She couldn't tell, and didn't know if her judgement was really reliable. If she had been off the first time, and he was being horrible, her judgement was just as likely to be off now. But if she had interpreted right the first time, then she would be now. Nora really had no way of knowing.

She smiled reflexively, the kind of smile you give to the camera in family photo's, the kind of smile you give to strangers to prove that you are a nice girl.

She didn't know if she accepted what he said. He may or may not have been lacking in effort- it was hard to tell. It al depended on her judgement, and, after spending two days berating herself for poor perception and judgement skills, she was in no position at all to rely on herself.

" That is fine." she answered brightly, disguising the confusion and inner turmoil. The smile held place.

" I'm just off to my bus stop." She started walking in the same direction and Chris matched her pace.

" How was your weekend?" she asked lightly in a conversational tone, learnt from her mother. It was a dull question, she knew, and the tone was false, but it was better than silence.

[Chris Wesley]

Chris walked along with Nora. He could tell she hadn't really accepted his apology, but what could he do?

"To tell the truth, my weekend was awful. I hardly got anything done. I'm lazy at the best of times. I didn't even go out on Friday night. Spent it at home. How was your weekend? More productive than mine, I hope?"

It was just idle conversation. What else was there? Life is awkward at the best of times.

[captainankh]

David Tiberius Frost stood near the fence, trying to relate the taste of Portia Fraser's tongue to anything else. Eventually the closest thing he could think of might be a warm, moist trout, cut into filets and garnished with strawberry bubblegum. He found the thought rather amusing.

But hell, it could've been a lot worse. At least she had rich parents.

Sharp nails tightened on his waist. He seemed to remember picking up the tall, leggy blonde girl at a party somewhere... but thinking about it now he wasn't really sure that party had happened, or if he had been there. Or what he had drunk...

Getting sidetracked, Frost opened an eye slightly to survey the surrounding crowds. Portia was too preoccupied with his top lip to notice.

He spied a guy who seemed vaguely familiar, though he couldn't put a name to the face. For some reason he associated him with the colour orange. Perhaps he had seen the guy in an orange shirt or something. Yet another mystery.

As he watched, some shortish chick came up and started chatting to the Orange Boy. She seemed somewhat familiar too. It looked like she didn't know whether to run away and cry or slap him in the face and yell. Frost smiled, but someone else's tongue got in the way.. ah damnit...

He licked Portia's lips, and pulled away.
"Do you want a ride home, Love?" he asked.

<font color="#f7f7f7" size="1">[ November 08, 2003 05:14 AM: Message edited by: Tiberius Frost. ]</font>

[Erinstephen]

" My parents were away for the weekend, visiting some clients somewhere. Portia was in charge of the house, so I tried to restrict my movements to my bedroom- a little study, and not much else." Nora breathed.
" Portia is absolutely intolerable when she is in control. Bossy at the best of times, when Father is around to moderate her. An absolute tyrant when there is no one to see her do it except Sean and I." She smiled grimly, and noticed Portia standing nearby, a princess surrounded by courtiers. Terrible and cold, Portia never lacked in friends. Portia noticed her glance, and smiled. She broke herself off from the group gently, and came to talk to Nora and Chris. She drew Nora aside, and talked quietly in her ear.
" I'm not going on the bus today- one of my friends-" she giggled "- is giving me a ride home. If you get home before me, tell Mother that I am studying at the library, okay?" Nora nodded reluctantly. " Sure."

Portia ascended again to her cloud of friends.

" Sorry about that- Portia wants me to cover for her. What were we talking about, sorry?"

[Chris Wesley]

Ask her. What have you got to lose? You'll just end up talking about crap again if you leave it.

Might as well.

Chris turned to Nora.
"Would you like me to give you a lift home? My car's at my place again, but it's a short walk. Saving you from a bus ride is the least I can do to make up for forgetting your phone number on Friday"

Please say yes...

[Erinstephen]

Nora blushed and looked down.
" I would love to." she said nervously. Nervously, apprehensively, confusedly, happily, worridly, shyly. All words which sprung to mind. Nora's mind worked in odd ways. She would have to call her mother, and tell Portia that she couldn't cover for her.

" I will have to phone my mother- she gets worried if she doesn't know where we are. " she smiled. She got a vague feeling that changing the plans spontaenously like this was a bad idea. Spontaenity was a thing that her parents frowned upon- it showed a lack of adequate foreplanning, and left everyone else not knowing what was happening. It was a most inconsiderate thing, her parents believed. Nora pushed the feeling of guilt beneath the surface.

" Where do you live?" She asked

[Chris Wesley]

Chris was now more cheerful. Something was finally going his way. Then again, he was slightly nervous, noticing how rich she was. Well, he assumed she was rich. Her sister was hanging out with the people who only hung out with the insanely rich people, and her father worked at a bank (He'd checked his phone to see what number she'd called to get him), which made it more likely.

"I live down Lakeview Road" (Which was a strange name, really. There were no lakes to view at all down the road. It always puzzled him). "It's about a 10 minute walk - But you already know that. You can give your mother a call from my place if you want to."

He'd almost forgotten that he'd offered her a lift home once before. Of course, that hadn't gone too well. He hoped it'd be slightly different this time. For one thing, he didn't have his cellphone with him today.

[captainankh]

David hated driving. It was one of those things that should have been done for you. Why in the hell would you put effort into travelling when you could sit in the back drinking wine?

But hell, sometimes you just had to do these things.
Or so his Grandfather had taught him.

Beside him, Portia fiddled with her jewellery, as girls tended to do. Especially when they seemed to be wearing more rings, bracelets, and earrings than they were clothes. She seemed thrilled by it all. What, she'd never had a rich guy dive her around in a sports car before? Frost's mind wandered. Sports were another thing that should be done for you...

"Which way am I going, babe?" he asked her, even though he already knew where she lived. He knew where anyone of any importance lived, but assumed that if she didn't already know that it was probably better that she didn't learn it now.

"Turn left up here." she replied in her chirpy, high-pitched voice. She had an innate ability to change her tone of voice in an instant. He'd seen her talk to her little sister before.

And "left" he knew was not the direction to her house. Where the hell was she taking him? He had a tendency not to trust anybody, even if he thought they were ditzy blondes not really capable of all that much.

'To hell with it', he figured. 'I could use a surprise.'

So he turned left.

<font color="#f7f7f7" size="1">[ November 09, 2003 09:45 PM: Message edited by: Tiberius Frost. ]</font>