I Will Buy You a New Life
Chapter 3
--Couple Days Later--
Brian took a deep breath watching the bus begin to make it's way to the side of the road to pick him and a few other people up. This was it. He remembered Nick's advice.
-=Flashback=-
"Nick, what do you think I should do? I mean, I'm like this close," he said holding up his thumb and index finger about a centimeter apart from each other, "to being in love with this girl. I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm so confused." Brian rested his head in his hands feeling tears urging to escape his eyes. He swallowed them back, trying hard not to show how attached he already was.
"That's tough, Bri," said Nick. He sat and thought for a few seconds, then leaned forward again. "Ok, here's what you do. Flat out ignore her." Brian looked at Nick like he was crazy. "No, I'm serious. Reverse psychology. She doesn't want you to pay any attention to her, so you don't and she'll realize that she really does want you to. I'm tellin you man, reverse psychology works." Brian's expression slowly changed until he was subtly nodding his head.
"Ya know Nick, you may be right about this. Maybe that is what I need to do. Yeah, I'll get on the bus at the same place I do every other day in front of the gym and I'll sit as far in front of her as I can so she'll see the back of my head from her seat and think about me. She'll wonder why I'm not paying attention to her and she'll assume that I'll be getting off at her stop again, but instead I'll go up to the next one just a block away from your house, then I'll walk here and you can drive me home. Why didn't I think of that?" Brian asked, throwing his arms up for emphasize. "Nickolas, you are a genius!"
"Okay, why are you just now recognizing this? I've been giving you advice about girls forever and just now you start to take it?" joked Nick.
"I will be forever grateful if this works, Nick. I swear man, I'll name my first son after you if it works." Nick pretended to stroke his non-existent beard.
"Yes, I guess that will suffice." The two laughed and continued talking for the remainder of the night.
-=End Flashback=-
The bus came to a halt in front of him. He backed up a little, allowing the other people at the stop on first. 'Don't even look in her direction,' he thought to himself. 'This is going to work.' He climbed the steps after a middle-aged woman and looked around for a seat. 'Yes!' he thought as he saw one. Third row, behind the driver. She wouldn't have a choice but to look at him from her 5th row, behind the driver seat. He was doing a mental victory dance--that is of course until the middle-aged woman in front of him plopped down in his seat. 'You suck! It's ok, Brian, just look for another seat.' He scanned the bus, only to find one other vacant seat...right next to her. He groaned under his breath and walked down the aisle. This time, he didn't ask first, he just sat down and looked straight ahead. 'This can still work, just don't look at her.' he thought to himself.
She glanced over at him. Something seemed different about him today. Haircut? Maybe, but it seemed like something more. She glanced again, this time stopping to look longer. He seemed nervous. He was drumming his fingers on the back of the seat in front of them. She wondered why he hadn't said anything to her yet. After all that was said the last time their paths crossed, she thought he would have tons to say today. But instead he said nothing, became mute for a while, like herself. She played with the ring on her right pinky, twisting it around her finger. She wasn't quite sure of what else to do. She focused her attention back outside where it usually was and began thinking of the picture she'd drawn just a few days before. She was certain that there had to be something more to that picture that she hadn't seen yet. Suddenly the bus hit a bump in the road, causing her to drop her ring.
"Shit!" she said allowed, looking down at the ground. Brian wanted nothing more then to continue to ignore her, but he had to help her, he wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if he didn't.
"Shit what? What happened?" he asked, moving his legs into the aisle so they could both better see the floor.
"I dropped my friggen ring," she said, practically laying on Brian's lap in order to see under the seat. He began to feel extremely uncomfortable. To put it nicely, her elbow was nearing the danger zone and she was holding herself up by grabbing onto his knee. He tried to move her, but to no avail.
"Can I umm...is there anything I can do?" he asked trying to move a little.
"No, I almost...Got it!" she sat back up, adjusting her ring back on her finger. "Thanks for the uh...the help." Angelina ran her hand through her hair, straightening it back out as much as possible. Brian nodded.
"Yeah it was no problem." There was an awkward silence...not the silence that they had shared before, this one was a lot different. Both wanted to say something, but neither knew what that something should be. "So um...I don't want this to sound rude or anything but...what's your name?" he asked turning his head to look at her.
"Angelina," she replied, trying to avoid his eyes. She looked down at her hands, out the window, at the bus driver...anywhere to avoid his eyes.
"That's a beautiful name," he said almost wistfully. She, almost inaudably thanked him. He was almost mesmerized by her name. "Oh, I'm Brian," he held out his hand to shake hers, but she just looked at it and nodded her head. He pulled his hand back and rested it on his leg. She prayed that her stop was coming up. She didn't want to be on that bus another minute. The rest of the ride between the two was dead silent. She tried her hardest not to think about him, but he kept popping back into her mind. Finally the bus came to a halt at her stop and she hopped up, not bothering to wait for him to move this time. Instead, she just crawled over his lap and began swiftly walking off the bus.
"It was nice meeting you!" she heard him say from his seat. She turned her head wondering why he wasn't getting off this time, deciding that she didn't care anyway. She threw him a half-hearted smile and continued off the bus and scurried down the street towards her house.
Brian watched her until he couldn't see her anymore, then turned around and looked forward with a satisfied smile on his face. He'd felt the awkwardness, he knew there something more could develop between them and he knew that no matter how much she hated to admit it, she was attracted to him in some way. Nick's idea had worked for the most part.
Brian exited the bus at the next stop as planned and walked back down the street towards Nick's house. It was pretty cold for Florida, but luckily the wind was at his back. He folded his arms over his chest, trying to warm himself a little as he made his way up the front steps to Nick's house. He noticed a few cars in the driveway- one belonging to Jill, Nick's girlfriend and the other belonging to AJ. He didn't bother knocking and walked right into Nick's house. He found his way to the living room and Nick instantly paused the game he was playing and jumped up to find out how it went. Brian's huge grin was almost enough to give Nick the answer he was looking for.
"So...how'd it go?" asked Nick. Brian made this face that said 'I'm the man.' and nodded his head. "Awww yeah! Who's the best? Who's the best?" asked Nick doing a little dance. Everyone in the room laughed at him.
-=Chapter Four=-
-=I Will Buy Chapter Index=-
-=Story Index=-
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