[NowStop]

"You know, my boyfriend is in a band."

We're on the bus together, sitting next to each other, as the rain continues to pour down outside, buffering against the large bus windows and damn near drowning out all conversation.

"Boyfriend?"

Autumn nods at me, her eyes starting to light up and twist into a far off gaze as she starts to smile. "Yep. We've been together for...five years now? The anniversary of our first date was actually yesterday, on Valentine's Day."

She paused, and a crack of lightning threw a streak of pale light across her face for an instant.

"The funny thing though was that I actually stood him up for that first date. We met in a music store -you know, back when Sam Goody was actually still a place- and he asked me out almost immediately. I was a little shocked, and somehow I said yes." She laughed and then sneezed, catching it in the lapel of her raincoat.

"Fucking allergies. Anyways, I totally stood him up since I forgot that he asked me." She rolled her eyes, and I could plainly tell that she was only mildly annoyed despite the tone of her voice. "And he's never actually let me live it down."

"Anyways, he's in a band and he plays bass guit-"

Her words started to drown out both in my head and in the rain almost instantly, and I realized that this was probably going to lead nowhere between us.

pitter

patter

splish

CRACK

BOOM

plip

*****

"Do you want to watch another movie?" I said.

"Uh, sure. No horror though. Can't stand that stuff." she made a face at me, her eyes crossing each other and her tongue sticking out.

"What? I was thinking about The Human Centipede. Or maybe Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Vancouver."

"Um, don't you mean 'Manhattan'?"

"Have you ever SEEN this movie? He totally goes to Vancouver. It looks like downtown Vancouver. Its no wonder he was forcibly dragged to hell in the next movie, he obviously has no sense of direction."

Autumn just stared at me, her mouth slightly agape.

"...Right. I'm seriously calling into question our friendship right now. And your taste in movies. I'm about to revoke your movie picking privileges."

Her iPhone then goes off, the ringtone playing the first few opening singing bars of I'm a Slave 4 U and I see her scramble to pick it up off the floor from behind her.

I roll my eyes. "Does he ever know that's your ringtone for him? Because -while totally appropriate, apparently- it is waaaay too much information."

"Fucker." she directed at me before she tapped and slid the answer bar on her phone as the ring refrain started up again. She then listened intently to the caller's voice, clearly hearing him check up on her and what she's doing.

"Not much," she says. "I'm just at my friend Jenny's place watching movies with her. And painting our nails. And having pillow fights!. And telling secrets!" she says with exaggerated girly-pitch to her voice before mock giggling to back up her smooth lie.

I roll my eyes again, and I am instantly rewarded with a swift smack to the back of my head.

"Yeah, I'll be home in a bit. Wanna go grab a late night bite at the Steak n' Shake? Okay. I love you, bye baby."

She taps the red circle on her phone, ending the call.

"You know, you could have just told him that we're hanging out together."

"And go through -that- fight again? He doesn't like you."

"Well shit, he should just get in line." I then start up a Kevin Hart standup special. I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of his, but its something to watch. And he doesn't use puppets, which is always a bonus for me.

We watch for about ten minutes in comfortable silence, before she finally says something.

Her voice is so soft and mute that I can only barely hear it.

"Truth."

~fin Chapter Three: Relationships