One
There are two rituals Lily held sacred to her heart; they were processes that Lily thoroughly enjoyed and needed to unwind her day. As a chronic overachiever, Lily had packed her uni days to the brim with classes, clubs, and jobs, which led to a lot of stress. So, she found solace in her rituals. They felt like luxuries to her.
The first ritual was to walk to the coffee shop and get the strongest cup of tea they served on the menu, piping hot and sickeningly sweet. Lily swore the second she took a sip, half of the day’s worries and stresses melted as the tea burned her tongue.
The second ritual was her bus ride. Her packed schedule had somehow miraculously worked out that Lily wouldn’t need to commute at the busiest times. Sure, there were still a lot of people, but there was always a seat available for her to sit in and wait until the last stop. She’d tap in, her headphones already playing an audiobook or her relaxation playlist, and sit down. She could sip her tea, stare out the window, and take these forty-five minutes to pretend that everything was fine and her life was put together.
But like most things, there’s always a bump in the road and not one that makes her slip tea all over herself.
It had been a long day. Tuesdays were her bad days, with all the bad professors and classmates. Then her job as a teaching assistant had been non-stop with crying freshers, freaking about their first big essay of the year. And she still had a few essays to get through.
She needed her peaceful bus ride like a soothing cream to a burn. She needed to recharge before she dived face-first into her essays.
The bus came, and Lily tapped in. The ground floor of the bus was full. Okay, that was no problem. She didn’t mind the upper part at all. She walked up the narrow steps to see it was always full.
Except for one seat. One precious seat.
But then a man in an orange puffy coat sat down in it.
Lily snapped.
“Excuse me,” she said, her voice sharp as the bus started to move. Orange Coat, popped his headphones out, confusion was written in his eyes behind clear framed glasses. “This seat is mine.”
Orange coat’s eyebrows shot up. He looked around in confusion, almost he couldn’t tell if Lily was being serious or not, which she absolutely is.
“I wasn’t aware public buses had assigned seating,” Orange Coat said in a deep voice.
“Listen, this is the only time in the day that I get time to myself,” she sighed. “Just, please, can I sit here?”
Orange Coat assessed her for second, brown eyes flying all over her face, before smiling a bit. He stood up and offered her the seat.
“I don’t know if anyone has ever taught you manners, but maybe start with asking politely, yeah?” Orange Coat said, a smirk on his lips. “Please goes a long way.”
Before Lily could rebuttal, Orange Coat had his headphones back in his ears and was walking past her.
Two
To say James was having a bad day would be an understatement. Normal bad days consisted of accidentally forgetting your lunch or a textbook. Maybe even the occasional less than stellar grade handed back on an exam. But no, this was a Bad Day like a proper noun, because it had developed a life of its own.
First, he did forget his lunch, which was crushing because he also left his money at home so he wouldn’t be tempted to buy one of those expensive coffees that were way overpriced on campus. So no lunch, only a crushed-up granola bar he found in his gym bag. Then, he was cold-called in class about the one article that he had only skimmed and made an absolute ass out of himself in front of the whole class, feeding into the narrative that he was only here because he could play football and not based on his intelligence.
Then football practice came and his ankle decided that it was done with the boring life of being fine and he ate metaphorical shit during warm-ups. The trainer didn’t think it was broken, but now James couldn’t practice anymore until he got an all-clear from a doctor.
So here James was, hanging on by his last thread as he hobbled to the bus stop, still in his practice clothes with a wrapped ankle and grumbling stomach.
And because when it rains, it pours, he had to run to catch the bus, hissing in pain.
He tapped in with the doors snapping shut behind him and moved quickly to see every seat full. And he really did not want to climb the steps.
But then his eyes locked on Scary Redhead, or as Sirius called her in the group chat Bus Karen.
Honestly, he had no plans of holding that interaction against her. It wasn’t the first time someone was rude to him on the bus and was surely not to be the last, but now, James had every intention of using it against her.
“Excuse me,” James started. “I was wondering if you would bestow upon me the honor of letting me sit here, please.”
Scary Redhead’s brilliant green eyes snapped towards him and yeah, maybe this was a bad idea. He got the impression that this woman was not above stomping on him and leaving him to die. And honestly? She was beautiful that he would probably thank her for it, but that was a secret he was willing to take to his grave.
She scrutinized him, a frown on her lips. He gestured to his wrapped ankle which was now looking a little swollen. She sighed.
“Only because please goes a long way,” she said, standing up. “But now, we’re even.”
“Thank you,” James said, flopping down in the seat.
Redhead stood in front of him, grabbing the handle for balance, her eyes still scrutinizing.
“What did you do?” she asked, gesturing towards his ankle just as James was digging around in his pocket for his headphones.
He looked up, surprised that Scary Redhead would continue to acknowledge his existence.
“Not sure. I was at practice and it just went…” he made a gesture with his hands, showing the folding in a direction an ankle was not supposed to go. Scary Redhead raised her eyebrows.
“Are you sure you’re supposed to be walking on it?” she asked.
“The trainer said it was fine,” James said, looking down at his ankle as it throbbed.
“Hm,” Scary Redhead hummed, ending the conversation.
For some reason, James wanted to ask her name, but the words wouldn’t leave his lips. He already had enough bad things happen today and the last thing he needed was Scary Redhead getting scary again.
Three
Orange Coat showed up at the bus stop with a boot around his ankle the next time Lily saw him. Lily may value her routines, but she wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t going to fight him for a seat anymore on the bus even though she had mentally cataloged all the bad things, big and small, to help make a convincing argument as to why she should have the seat.
He had started to consume a lot of Lily’s thoughts lately without her permission. From making a mental list as to why she deserved the bus seat, to noticing when he didn’t wear his orange coat and that they rode at the same times every Tuesday and Thursday and he got off one stop before her. The sudden urge to know his name popped up one day as she grabbed the handle in front of him, not bothering to check if the top floor had any seats.
He gave her a small smile when he saw her and popped a headphone out.
“Not gonna convince me you deserve this seat today?” he asked. Lily schooled her feature into what she hoped was cool indifference.
“I’d look like a world-class prick if I kick a man with a boot on his foot out of a bus seat,” she replied, making eye contact.
He smirked. “Aw, good to see that my plan is working.”
“Your plan?”
“I broke my ankle on purpose to ensure you never got a seat on the bus,” he replied. Lily scoffed, amused.
“Well, maybe I’ll risk public shaming if this is all a ruse,” she said, looking away. “My reputation be damned if it uncovers a scheme.”
He tilted his head a bit, his dark eyes gleaming. “I’m afraid your reputation has already been ruined. My brother exclusively calls you Bus Karen.”
Lily was too affront to realize there were certain implications in his statement like he mentioned her enough to his brother that they had a name for her.
“Bus Karen?” Lily asked, her mouth hanging open. Orange Coat nodded, unbothered by her reaction.
“It’s mostly because I haven’t caught your name yet,” Orange Coat replied, running a hand through his already messy black hair.
“First off, I was having a really bad day. I will not let that be held against me,” Lily said, firmly. “Second off, my name is Lily. Calling me a Karen? Really?”
“Lily,” he said like he was testing out the way the name sounded. “Tell me what nickname you’ve given me?”
“I don’t think about you,” the lie slipped easily off her tongue. Orange Coat raised an eyebrow and she caved under his stare. “Alright, fine. Orange Coat.”
He laughed a bit. “Well, it’s James,” he said.
“James,” she replied in the same way he said her name. “Your orange coat is truly horrid.”
He frowned. “Hey now, it’s very warm.”
“It’s an eyesore.”
“It’s almost the same color as your hair.”
Lily scoffed. “My hair is not the same color as a traffic cone.”
“Neither is my coat.”
“Prove it.”
“Fine, I will.”
James ended the conversation by putting his headphones in and Lily couldn’t help but wonder why she was fighting back a large smile.
Four
Lily was standing at the bus stop, her eyes focused on the ground, and a to-go cup held tightly in her hands. She was chewing her bottom lip. James hesitated to bother her because she seemed so off from her normal self, but she caught the fluorescent color of his jacket and she took out her headphones and smiled a bit.
James smiled back and approached her. “I owe you the sincerest apology.”
“What for?” she asked her green eyes glinting.
“For doubting your astute observation that my coat is the same color as a traffic cone.”
He pulled up the picture on his phone and handed it to her. Lily’s laugh sent butterflies through his stomach.
“Your apology is accepted,” Lily said with a bright smile, the gloominess that James noticed was now gone. He never wanted to see that expression from her again and well, if taking stupid pictures did the trick, then he would take millions of pictures. “And yeah, it’s literally the exact same shade.”
They fell silent, but James stood next to her. In his mind, they had upgraded from bus nemesis to bus buddies and Lily seemed to agree because she didn’t move away. Her gloomy expression came back as they boarded the bus.
There was a seat, but James turned towards Lily and gestured for her to sit.
“But your ankle?” she said, her voice soft.
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” he said, grabbing a handle with a determined look. She sat down and looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Thank you,” she said. “I… I had a really bad day.”
James couldn’t help but feel good at the relief on her face. He wanted to ask why, but that felt too invasive for someone who was just a bus buddy.
“This is your time to unwind, yeah?” he said. “Unwind.”
She smiled and put her headphones back in. When the person next to her got off at the next stop, she tugged lightly on his sleeve and patted the seat. James sat next to her with a smile and his heart skipped a beat when their knees brushed.
Just before his stop, Lily popped a headphone out of her ear.
“Do you have social media?”
“Yeah,” James said, hating how his voice came out slightly breathless.
They exchanged handles and the second James got home, he opened his extensive meme collection and started sending some to her, delighted that she replied a few minutes later.
+1
James’s palms were sweating against the heat of the cup in his hand. The bus was chugging along the streets of London and James was obsessively checking the progress of the bus and Lily’s reply that she was in fact, catching this bus.
He shouldn’t be as nervous as he was, but he was practically shaking. He knew it was stupid to think that his girlfriend wouldn’t be thrilled to receive a romantic gesture on the one anniversary of when they met, but Lily hadn’t mentioned it. And it wasn’t like she had forgotten their actual anniversary which was in a few weeks; they already had that date planned out, but would she feel bad that she didn’t remember this one? Or, would she think it’s weird that James felt the need to celebrate it, to begin with?
He was lost in his inner turmoil, debating between just playing it off as a nice surprise or saying “Hey, happy one year anniversary to the day we first met and you aggressively told me that I was sitting on your seat.”
That’s why he jumped when he heard her.
“Excuse me,” she said, making James almost drop her tea. “This seat is mine.”
Lily’s smile was blinding and from the shine in her eyes, he knew instantly that she remembered. It still twisted his stomach into knots when she smiled at him like that.
He couldn’t remember what he said the first time, but he smiled and stood up. “I said something like ‘There’s no assigned seat on the bus,’ right?”
“How dare you not remember?” she said, taking the tea from him and sitting down. “We need to be able to share this story with our grandchildren.”
She had been saying things like that a lot recently and every time, it made James melt inside with happiness, knowing that she was just as serious about him as he was about her, to the point where she’s imagining their children have children of their own.
Lily tugged him down to the seat next to her and he obliged, pressing a kiss to her temple and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. They normally weren’t so touchy on public transportation, but this day was special.
She rested her head against his. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he whispered back. “Bus Karen.”
The elbow to the ribs was worth it.