[NowStop]

"Ugh, I SO do not want to go home right now."

Autumn rolled her eyes as she said that during a lull in our conversation, drawing her knees up against the back of the plastic bus bucket seats in front of her.

"Why not?"

"Well, for one, its raining. For two, I have laundry to do. I'm out of clean underwear, which is my barometer for when I need to do laundry. Third, I just really am not feeling it."

She looked over at me, her red hair coming undone out of its french braid and starting to wisp over her face.

"What are you doing at the moment? Are you busy?"

"Nope," I automatically lied, without quite realizing it until I had already said it.

"Alright then! We're going to Vito's. Its about two blocks walking from here, but its TOTALLY worth it." She then cocked her head to the side and then looked at me. "Or are you one of those...perverts...that likes Chicago's better?"

I tried to do my best to raise an eyebrow, failing miserably in the process.

"What are you talking about?"

The bus hit a rather large pothole in the road as it sluggishly accelerated down the road, throwing us both up into the air and then jolted us back down into our seats simultaneously. And then again as the back tires hit the same spot in the road once again.

pitter

patter

splish

BOOM

CRACK

drip

"PIZZA! Obviously. Its a great local place, you should come with me. We can hang out and talk more about music."

I shrugged, my heartbeat speeding up some.

"Sounds good to me. I've never been there before. And only perverts, pedophiles, and Yankees fans prefer deep dish pizza over real pizza," I said confidently, with an air of wisdom about me.

She gave me a curt nod. "Damn straight. 'Aight, we're getting off at the next stop then. You'll have to run through the rain, I am not about to pull my umbrella out in a thunderstorm."

She then smiled again. A little bigger this time than when we met first met just -half an hour? an hour?- ago.

"I'm crazy. But not insane. Mostly. i swear."

She then paused and gave me a jokingly-creepy smile.

"Or at least, that's what I want you to think. I swear that it doesn't rain inside my head TOO much."

*****

I licked my dry and cracked lips, noticing that the dip and chips between us had most likely gone cold at this point. Ignoring my better sense, I grabbed another chip, dunked it in the dip.

"Alright...truth it is," I said. "Why did you ask me to go with you to that pizza place that day we met then?"

She paused, and I could automatically tell that she was trying to come up with a reason that sounded good to her. I shoved the chip in my mouth and started chewing on it, loving the flavors of the mixed artichoke with the saltiness of the chip as i waited for her answer.

~fin: Chapter Four: Procrastinating