Chapter Text
Abigail reached for her phone from her pocket. The screen lit up and displayed the time 11:57. The bus would arrive at any minute.
She glanced around her. She stood at the bus-stop with five strangers, all minding their own business. The awkward silence felt deafening. To make herself look busy, she tapped away on her phone, checking every app she possibly could, including apps no reasonable person would have reason to open.
As she was about two seconds away from opening the Measure app, she breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the bus slowing to a halt in front of the stop. She quickly turned her phone off and placed it back in the pocket of her jeans. An orderly queue formed in front of the open bus doors, and Abigail politely allowed the others to stand in front of her, placing her at the back of the line.
Abigail reached for the crumpled-up notes in her pocket, beginning to count them out, as the queue in front of her moved smoothly. She was only lifted out of her own thoughts when the line had reached its second-to-last member, a young man with long dark hair, who was muttering in an almost panicked state.
"Give me a sec," the man in front of her stammered. He was frantically fumbling around in his pockets. "I know I have some more change here somewhere."
"Sir, if you can't pay for your ticket, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to get off," the bus driver sighed.
"No, I- I just- hold on-" the young man replied, his voice growing more frantic.
Abigail glanced down at the cash in her hand, then back up at the man in front of her. After quickly doing the calculations in her head, she stepped in front of him and handed the bus driver her money.
"Here," she said. "I'd like to pay for his ticket along with my own."
The bus driver shrugged to himself before taking the money and counting it. Abigail could feel the man's eyes on her, staring at her in disbelief.
"Alright, here you go," the bus driver responded, and handed Abigail two tickets along with a small handful of change. She took both tickets and held one out to the stranger with a smile.
"I- what just-" the man stuttered, staring down at the ticket in her hand.
"It's okay," said Abigail. "Happens to the best of us." She reached for his hand and placed the ticket in it before walking down the aisle to sit down.
She found the final unoccupied window seat and sat down with a contented sigh. She glanced out the window for a moment, before being snapped back into reality by the sound of someone clearing their throat next to her.
It was the same man. "Is, um, is anyone sitting here?" he asked, refusing to meet her gaze.
She smiled. "No, you can sit here," she replied, shifting closer to the window to invite him to sit down.
He quickly sat beside her, still looking anywhere but towards her. As the bus began to move, he appeared to work up the courage to speak again: "Thank you," he said quickly. "I really appreciate you doing that."
Abigail just shook her head. "Don't mention it. Like I said, it happens to the best of us."
The man finally met her eye, and gave a weak smile. "I really thought I had enough," he said with a slight chuckle. "I checked twice before I left and everything."
Abigail returned the laugh. "I've been there before."
The man scoffed. "You wouldn't believe how often I'm there. Gonna have to really dig through the couch cushions for pennies next time."
Abigail let out a snort before quickly covering her mouth. "Sorry," she said, trying to hold back her laugh.
The man shook his head as if to tell her it was okay. "So, um," he began again, sounding almost cautious to proceed. "Where... Where are you going?"
"I'm meeting my friend for lunch in town," Abigail replied. "I'm pretty excited. I haven't seen her in a while. How about you?"
He cleared his throat. "I, uh, I'm going for a job interview, actually."
"No way," Abigail responded with a grin. "I hope it goes well."
"Thanks. I really need it to go well," he replied, trying to hide the anxiety in his voice.
"I'm sure you'll be great," she reassured. "What's the job?"
"It's just working at a convenience store. It's nothing glamorous, but I'll take anything."
Abigail nodded. "Hey, most jobs aren't exactly glamorous. I'm an accountant, so I'd say retail is much more exciting than that."
The man laughed. "I bet the money's good, though."
"It's alright. It pays the bills, I guess." Abigail paused for a moment, before speaking again. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but... I'm assuming your financial situation isn't... great...?"
He laughed again, though this time it felt sad. "Nah. Definitely not great." He bit his lip before speaking again: "I, uh... I was actually living on the streets for a few months."
Abigail gasped. "Oh God, I'm sorry."
"It's- It's fine," he said quickly, as if trying to take back what he had said. "I'm crashing with a friend these days, so y'know, I'm doing better."
"Well, that's good, I suppose. I'm glad you at least have a roof over your head."
"Yeah. I just really need this interview to go well so I can start to pay my own way."
Abigail nodded. "I'll be crossing my fingers for you," she said with a smile. The man smiled back. "Hey, um," she began again. "What's your name?"
The man looked almost shocked she would ask. "Oh, um, Leeroy. My name's Leeroy. What's yours?"
"I'm Abigail," she replied. "It's nice to meet you, Leeroy."
"You too, Abigail."
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Abigail brushed her hair away from her face as she boarded the bus to return home. She flashed the bus driver her ticket, and after receiving a nod of approval, she made her way down the aisle to find an empty seat.
Her face fell slightly as she realised there were no empty rows left, meaning she would have to sit beside some stranger the whole ride home. She began to scan her options, trying to decide which of the passengers looked kind enough that she could ask to sit next to them.
She couldn't help but gasp when she saw a familiar face sitting alone near the back of the bus, staring off into space. "Oh my God, Leeroy," she greeted him as she approached.
Leeroy was snapped out of his daydream, and after half a second of confusion, he realised who she was. "Abigail!" he replied, smiling widely. "Hey!"
"Hey again," she returned, grinning back down at him. She pointed to the space beside him. "Mind if I sit?"
"Of course not," he replied.
She had barely sat down before she eagerly asked: "How did it go?"
Leeroy tried to suppress the excitement growing on his face. "I got the job."
"Are you serious?" she replied gleefully. Without thinking, both of her hands wrapped around his arm. "I'm so happy for you!"
Leeroy looked stunned at the contact. Only then did Abigail realise what she had done, and quickly let go of him. "Sorry," she mumbled with an embarrassed giggle.
"It's- It's okay," he replied, looking down at his arm where she had touched him. It didn't help with Abigail's embarrassment.
She tried to quickly move past it. "Still, I'm happy for you. I can't believe they gave it to you on the spot. That's awesome."
"Heh, I guess. It's a pretty dodgy place; I'm surprised they even interviewed me. It didn't look formal enough for all that."
Abigail laughed. "Was their only question, 'Are you a fed?'?" she joked.
"Yeah, that was pretty weird. Then they patted me down looking for a wire. When they found nothing, the job was mine."
Abigail snorted from laughter. She quickly put her hand to her mouth, looking down to the floor. When she looked up again, she noticed that Leeroy hadn't taken his eyes off of her.
"How was your lunch?" he asked.
Abigail waved her hand dismissively. "You don't have to pretend to be interested in my thing. Your thing's much more exciting."
Leeroy shook his head, though he was still smiling. "Wow. That's the last time I try to be polite."
Abigail just rolled her eyes at him.
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"Thank you," Abigail said politely to the driver as she climbed down the steps off of the bus. When she reached the ground, she turned around to see Leeroy following behind her.
"So, uh, which way are you?" he asked awkwardly.
Abigail smiled and pointed to her right. "I'm heading this way. You?"
"Oh," Leeroy replied, seeming almost disappointed. He pointed in the other direction. "I'm this way."
Abigail nodded. "Well, I guess I'll see you around then, Leeroy. Best of luck with the new job!"
Leeroy opened his mouth to speak before quickly closing it again. He looked down at the ground, biting his lip. He looked up again, and as if before he could stop himself, he said quickly: "I could walk you home?"
Abigail froze. She felt her face heating up. She stammered a bit before managing: "Yeah. Yeah, um, I'd like that."
Leeroy let out a sigh, seeming relieved she had accepted, and the two of them began to walk away from the bus stop. However, they had barely turned the corner before the silence grew awkward and uncomfortable.
"So, uh," Leeroy spoke up. "What do you... do for fun?" Abigail watched him cringe at himself as he tried to make normal conversation.
"Hmm, not a lot recently," Abigail replied with a laugh. "I do, um, I sometimes explore abandoned buildings, but it's been a while."
"Abandoned buildings? That's... random. Pretty cool, though."
"Yeah, sometimes you find something neat, but a lot of the time, they're duds."
"Makes sense. I've only ever been inside an abandoned building once. I think it used to be some sort of office building. It freaked me out."
Abigail giggled. "Yeah, they can feel pretty freaky. How about you, though? What do you do for fun?"
"Eh," Leeroy shrugged. "I'm pretty much the same these days: not a lot. Most of my days have been spent job-hunting."
"Well, I guess you can put that to rest now."
He grinned at her. "Yeah, I guess so. Uh... I do like music, though. I, um, play a bit of piano."
"Really? That's nice."
"Eh, I'm not very good at it," Leeroy dismissed. "I took lessons as a kid. My mom put me into them when I was, like, five, and I sorta just kept it up until I left home."
Abigail made a conscious effort not to question him on the 'leaving home' part. "I'd bet you're pretty good if you played for that long."
Leeroy shrugged as if to dismiss her, but Abigail noticed the smile on his face that suggested a slight pride. "Do you play any music?" he asked, switching the conversation away from himself.
"Not properly. My parents signed me up to different things as a kid, but I never really cared for any of it. Did violin for a few years. A bit of guitar. Singing lessons..."
"That sounds fun, though. I always wanted to learn guitar, but my mom wanted me to focus on piano."
"I never cared for it, personally," Abigail responded with a slight groan. "I guess I didn't mind singing, though."
"Singing, huh? You kept that one up, then?"
"Nah, I didn't, actually. It just felt like a bit of a waste. I was never gonna get far with it."
"What, you thought you weren't good at it, or something?"
"Pretty much," Abigail replied, trying not to show the sadness she felt as she reminisced on how much she enjoyed singing.
"I bet you have a great voice."
Abigail met his eye with a grin, before quickly looking down to the ground. She prayed he didn't notice the heat on her cheeks.
"Maybe you and I should duet some time," Leeroy went on. "I'll play piano and you sing."
"Hah, for sure. Maybe you could even play guitar."
Leeroy smiled at the idea. "That'd be awesome."
"Hey, now that you'll be bringing in some money, maybe you could put some of it towards lessons."
"I wish. I'll be lucky if I can even afford the bills, let alone anything extra. With how that store looked, I'm questioning whether they'll even pay me minimum wage."
Abigail couldn't help but laugh. She opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped herself at the realisation that they were standing outside of her house. "Oh, this is me," she said, almost sadly.
"Oh." Leeroy returned her tone. "Well, it was- it was really nice meeting you, Abigail."
"You too," she replied. "Thanks for walking me home."
Leeroy nodded. "Thanks for paying for my bus ticket. You really didn't have to do that."
Abigail shrugged with a grin. "I know."
The two stared at each other for a few moments, neither wanting to walk away. It was Abigail who decided to speak up again: "Hey, I wouldn't mind if you ever wanted to... y'know, stop by sometime. Since you know where I live now and all that."
Leeroy smiled, his head tilting to one side. "Maybe I will."
With some sort of newfound courage from his approval, Abigail thought for a moment before backing up her path to her front door. "One second, don't go anywhere," she called back to him.
She quickly fumbled with her keys and unlocked her door. She stepped inside and grabbed a small notebook and pen she kept at the table in the hallway. Leaving her door ajar, she hurried back down the path, scribbling on the notebook. She ripped the piece of paper off and handed it to Leeroy.
Leeroy took the page and looked down at it, then back up at Abigail, then at the page again. He looked dumbfounded.
"My number," Abigail clarified, suddenly feeling nervous again.
Leeroy continued to examine the page before slowly folding it in half and gently placing it in his pocket. He looked back up at Abigail, who by now was staring at him anxiously, before assuring: "I'll call you."