A strange conversation on the bus

Matt was getting off at his bus stop when a strong hand grabbed his arm.

"Stay on the bus, boy." Ophelia sounded dead-serious.

"Huh? I didn't do anything."

"The hell."

"What did I do?"

"You just go and sit down."

"But this is my stop."

"Yeah, worry about that."

Damn, he'd thought Ophelia was at least sort of his friend but this woman seemed ready to gnaw his head off if he said anything wrong.

Shaken, he headed back to the seat where Ursula still sat.

"Didn't you just miss your stop?"

"Yeah, Ophelia said I was in trouble."

"Oh, great. They're probably going to stop your streaming thing before you even start."

"Maybe. But why would they involve Ophelia? They could have just called me into the principal's office."

"How the hell should I know? It's school. They do stupid things all the time. Oh, look. This is my stop. Let's see if Ophelia lets me get off."

A mental picture of dark-haired and skinned Ophelia and the blond and pale-skinned Ursula 'getting off' sprung, uninvited, to his mind. Fuck, that would make a perfect stream. If he had any money, he would be banging on the tip jar for something like that.

A few minutes later the bus rolled into a lot down in San Pedro and Ophelia stomped back to him.

"I swear I don't know what this is about," he protested.

"Yeah, sure. Follow me."

What else was he going to do? Run away? He followed her out of the bus to a beat-up looking Dodge pickup.

"Get in."

"Okay." He opened the passenger door and got in.

The truck was ancient but clean inside, and it smelled like... Ophelia.

He might be in trouble but this didn't look like bus company business. And surely Ophelia knew that if there was one kid on the Hill who wouldn't be worth anything if held for ransom, it was him.

She fired up the engine, which took a couple of tries and headed out on Western.

"Want to tell me what this is about or do you just plan on keeping me in suspense?"

She laughed. She didn't giggle like most of the schoolgirls he hung out with, this was a full-throated guffaw.