My mind replayed the funeral over and over, the way Mark’s eyes had darted, the way my mother’s hands had trembled as she placed a single rose on the casket. I tried to focus on the steady hum of the engine, the low thrum of the tires on asphalt, the occasional sigh of a passenger shifting in their seat.
At the next stop, a man in a battered baseball cap boarded. He moved slowly, his shoulders hunched, a briefcase clutched in his hand. As he passed the row of seats, a waft of a familiar cologne drifted toward me—sharp, citrusy, with a hint of sandalwood. It was the scent Karl always wore on our dates, the one he sprayed before we kissed.
My heart pounded in my chest, a frantic drum that seemed to echo louder than the engine.
“Excuse me,” I whispered, barely audible, “are you—?”
He turned his face slightly toward me, his eyes—those same hazel eyes that had once looked at me across a crowded café—locked onto mine. He gave a small, almost imperceptible nod, as if acknowledging something only we understood.
He sat down next to me, the seat creaking under his weight. The bus lurched forward, the wind whistling through the cracked window.
“Don’t scream,” he said, his voice low, urgent. “You need to know the whole truth. Act normal.”
My throat closed. I could feel the heat of my own breath on my neck, the tremor in my fingers as I clutched the strap of my backpack. The world outside the window seemed to spin faster, the trees turning into a blur of green and brown.
“What truth? What the hell is going on?!” I shouted, my voice cracking, the words spilling out like broken glass.
He leaned in closer, his breath warm against my ear.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
He pressed a small, folded piece of paper into my hand. The paper felt damp, as if it had been taken from a pocket that had just been through rain.
“Read it later,” he whispered, his eyes flicking to the rear window where the world outside seemed to dissolve into darkness.
He stood up, his movement smooth, almost rehearsed, and walked toward the back of the bus, disappearing into the shadows just as the driver announced the next stop.
