The Campus Is So Busy

On the way out the door I grab my backpack, overturning it and emptying it out onto the bed. Dumping all the books about Baba Yaga I'd collected out for review and perusal later. No sense dragging them around with me for a second day.

And with cute little high tops on my feet and a small backpack strung over one shoulder I bounce out of my apartment and down the road towards campus. That bounce keeps in my step, carrying me along with a joy and a levity that almost makes me giggle aloud.

It's early out, enough that when I stepped out I did so without any expectation that anyone would actually be out and about. Especially after the night last night, a night when I knew the campus was bursting with parties and people drinking and celebrating the end of summer and the start of having to actually do things again, I figured the streets of campus would be empty for at least a few more hours.

But it wasn't.

People were out and about. Clutching coffees, sure, but still sitting around campus chatting and catching up and taking in the daylight. A daylight from a sun that was a bit too high up in the sky for it to be the hour that I thought it was and now everything wasn't making sense anymore and I wound up glancing at my wrist to check the time and that's when I realized.

Fuck.

I was late.

I'd planned to arrive on campus with time to spare. Grab a coffee myself and putter about before being among the first to arrive at the meeting spot for the trip downtown. We were going to take the city bus and everyone was expected to be together but now there was going to be at least one person missing. Me. If I couldn't get my act together at least.

I'm cutting it close, but that doesn't stop me from breaking into a run as fast as I can, leaping over low bushes and dashing into spaces between buildings to try to get there before everyone heads out.

And if I wasn't aware that doing this without a bra on was a bad idea. If I wasn't aware that my body was bouncing with every last step, that a loose tanktop sans bra really did little to hide myself. That when I twisted to turn and I felt the kiss of cold air on my bare nipple I was momentarily exposed. That with each jump my skirt flapped up and put far more on display than I'd actually truly intended.

If I wasn't already aware of all of that then the catcalls and the glances from the hungover crowds around me made it all perfectly clear. I heard guys asking me to slow down and not because they were concerned for my safety and I saw guys getting smacked in the back of their head by their girlfriends when I went dashing past.

And I might have been concerned, if I had but a moment to spare. So altogether it's probably a good thing that I didn't.

Instead I rush forward heedlessly, lungs burning and legs pounding as I dash around the last few corners and burst out into the common area where the busses arrive and leave. And I glance up as I skid to a halt right in front of the road and glance up just in time to catch a glimpse of Eddie.

He notices me, at least. One eyebrow raised and his mouth tightening as I spy him and he spies me.

Through a window.

A window that is moving past me.

A window attached to a bus.

A bus that is leaving the station.

I watch it go for a minute, knowing that chasing after it is a feeble and futile gesture. I'm not going to catch up and I'm not going to get on board. I've missed it now.

Fuck.

So much for a good day.

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