A Talk Apart

A TALK, APART

Long ago I had an enemy. To be honest, not an enemy nor a friend. We hadn't talked that much. But her mere presence would irritate me. She was so loud and noisy that even the wind in my class would mark her coming. Maintaining distance and avoiding her was like a job I got underpaid for. But least did I know that things would take a turn on that day.

On that day, I lost track of time working on a project and was late to head home. I rushed to the bus stop and ended up meeting her again. We just exchanged a gentle smile. Since it was half past 5, there weren't many people at the stop. I pretended to be busy on my phone. We stood there for around 5 minutes for the bus to arrive.

She was in the same direction as me, so we hopped on the same bus. I got myself seated on one of the side seats while she was standing 3 seats back of mine. It was all good until that man got on the bus. After 3 or 4 stops this man entered and stood beside me. As minutes passed he got even closer. My shoulders were touching his hip and purposefully leaned on me making me really uncomfortable. I was about to move from the place when she pushed that man (made it look like she lost her control due to the break of the bus) and stood beside me. She stood beside me from there on. I wanted to thank her but didn’t know how exactly to put it into words. We haven’t talked to each other much and I guess she knows that I kind of hate her. I cleared up my thoughts and was about to thank her, but she got busy with a call. So, I sat silently.

At my stop, as I got up I said, "thank you” and got off the bus. To my surprise she also got off. I didn’t know where she lived but sure her stop is after mine. I looked at her with a doubtful face. When the bus was out of sight, she raised voice at me. She said “why didn’t you react there? You at least had to give a stare at him. Is it that hard?.......” and so on. I stood there speechless. She stopped when she noticed the tears rolling down my cheek. She tried to land her hand on my shoulder, but I turned and started walking at a fast pace. I was touched by her actions. No one has done anything like that for me in the past.

The very next day, I went up to her, thanked her for what she did and apologized for leaving without a word. After that day we talked more often and found that we had many things in common. As time passed, the person I disliked turned out to be the person I loved the most. Nowadays when we talk about those old days, where we weren’t that close, she always ends it up saying,” We were just a talk, apart”.