This Day Last Year

Today is my Mum's birthday.

It is also a year since the day that turned my life to a different path. The path I wanted to be on for way too long. Of course I didn't know any of that then.

That day, I was just happy to leave my job early to go to uni and receive my certificate (for apparent good work). It felt wonderful just to be in the uni environment again, after being stuck in some tiny room, in a warehouse, that was supposed to represent an 'office'.

I even remember feeling content as I walked through the uni gates, thinking that even though there was no way I'd meet a guy that night, I was still happy to be there. The weather was great too. Just the perfect autumn night. (And I'm not romanticising it, if you must know.)

My friends and I didn't want to wait till the end of the award ceremony, so after we got our certificates, a couple of us snuck out. However, Sally wasn't with us. So Sophia, Lauren and I tried to call her mobile but she wouldn't pick up. We were standing at the back of the hall, waiting for her to sneak out too but she just stayed in her seat.

Then we decided to just go if she wasn't brave enough to get up in the middle of the ceremony. We didn't want to wait for another two hours.

Sophia offered me a lift to the station but unlike a normal person who would be happy to have someone save them a bus trip, I refused. I was still obsessed with the chance that I might see BG again. Yes, a year after the incident, I still had tiny hopes of meeting 'the stranger of my dreams'. I knew the chance of me seeing him again was miniscule but going to that bus stop held a greater chance than not going at all.

Not surprisingly, the bus stop was empty. I checked the bus timetable and seeing that it wasn't due for another ten minutes, I moved closer to the nearest building because it was getting very cold. As soon as I moved there, a bus went by, without even stopping. I was annoyed because I was so cold and (unreasonably) disappointed that I wasn't going to see my Bus Guy that I just wanted to go home. I decided to stay near the building because the buses only came every 30 minutes.

Not that evening. Five minutes later, another bus went by! You can imagine how that frustrated me. I decided to bear the cold and move right next to the bus stop sign so there was no more chance of a bus missing me (or me missing the bus, whichever way you look at it).

A minute later, someone lined up behind me. Then I heard, "Did the bus come already?" or something along those lines. I almost wanted to laugh at the irony that about a year ago, BG asked the exact same thing. I told the guy he just missed two buses. I gave him a glance and thought, "This is no BG" and turned around. I couldn't care less about making conversation. He didn't look anything special.

Then this guy started asking me other things. When I told him I didn't study at uni anymore, that lead to more questions. As I looked at him, I thought, he's not the type I want something to happen with and even if he was, nothing would anyway. Why bother. I kept talking to him anyway because it was just something to do while waiting for the bus.

As we chatted, he made a bit of a joke which straight away warmed me up. Then I sort of started to see that he didn't look that bad. And he seemed innocent enough. In my head, I've accepted that this was just a one-time conversation so I didn't get my hopes up. I knew I wasn't going to see him again. I was already excited about telling April how I met another guy at the bus stop. It would've been a great story.

We continued talking when the bus came. When we got off at the train station, we both hesitated a bit. We took time checking our train times. Then there was nothing else to do but part. I said, "See you later" and then you know what happened...

Today, this guy is David, my boyfriend, the man I'm totally head over heels in love with.