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Utterly Platonic

I walked into the transit center after my summer all day acting class. It's a dingy building, your basic mid-city bus station. It had been an okay day. I wasn't particularly happy, but I wasn't really sad either. I sat down on one of the gray wooden benches and started brushing my hair. If I don't brush my hair several times a day it gets incredibly tangled. Across from me was an old guy, indistinguishable from any other old guy in slacks and a sweatshirt. He might have been homeless, but he might not. I glanced at him and looked away. It's not safe for stare at homeless people, you know. He was certainly staring at me. "I like your hair." I stared at him for a second. "Uh... thanks" "You have very pretty hair. It's very thick." "Yes, thank you." Then I felt someone tap my shoulder. "Hi Marina!" I turned around. Wavy blond hair, bright blue eyes, black corduroy jacket. "Kett! Hi! Are you taking the bus home?" Dumb question. But Kett tends to have that effect on me. "Yes, I take the twenty. I came in to buy a new bus card." "Oh, well, I'm glad you did." Oh shit. Another dumb remark. Well, he must be used to it by now. "I take the number two." We chatted for while. He said that he hates people sitting next to him on the bus. "And they always sit next to me." "Yeah, I know. I always sit on the outside of the seat." "People just ask me how to move over. I've tried putting a backpack on the seat next to me, they just ask me to put it on the floor. A skate board works though. Oh, once I got a book from the library about voodoo, and I pretended to read it, like this." He hunched over and held the pretend book in front of his eyes, glancing shiftily from side to side. I laughed. He sat up straight and grinned. "They never sat next to me when I did that." Then that disembodied voice that seems to hang around transportation centers said, "Numbertwonowboarding. Numbertwo." I said goodbye to Kett. "See you tomorrow." "Yeah. Cool meeting you here!" I walked out and joined the crowd of people all pushing to get on the bus. Well, that didn't go so badly. Then I saw the number twenty bus pull up in front. I still hadn't quite got over talking with Kett, so I rushed over to the window. Kett was talking with the old I-like-your-hair guy. I almost broke the window trying to get his attention. When I finally did, he rushed out, waved a thank you, and jumped on the bus.

The next morning, Kett and I got to rehearsal at the same time. As we were walking through the gravel parking lot he said, "You know that old guy who was sitting on the bench across from us at the transit center yesterday?" "Yeah, he was weird. He kept talking about my hair." "Well, after you left, he was like 'Do you like her?'" I made a suitable incredulous expression. "So I was like 'She's in my acting class.' And he said 'But do you like her?' And then you tapped on the window. Thanks." I shook my head. "Yeah, he was weird, all right."

Sounds to me like he likes you, girl. Classic technique, bringing up the "like" question without answering it... (I'm sure he didn't make it up, but if he didn't like you he prolly wouldn't have brought it up)

• liked, past tense. haven't seen him for over 2 years now. and at the time he had a girlfriend. but we were good friends for a while. and i got a good story out of it. :) marina