25.
“Crap crap crap crap crap!” Angela swore as she struggled to put on her high heeled shoes without standing still. Barely missing the doorway as she slipped the last shoe on, Angela let the momentum carry her into the bathroom, nearly taking out Jason in the process.
“Woah, there,” Jason backed out of the way and removed the razor from his throat as Angela bumped him out of the way of the mirror.
“I’m late,” Angela muttered as she hurriedly applied makeup. “It’s my first day and I’m fucking late.”
“No, you’re not,” Jason soothed, “You’ve got plenty of time to get there, and you’re nearly ready.” Jason paused at this, and took in Angela’s dressed form in surprise. “Almost completely ready,” he amended. “Wow. How’d you get dressed so fast?”
“I spent some nights last year working double shifts before class,” Angela paused long enough to apply lipstick. “I learned to change clothes quickly.”
Pausing for a moment, she stepped back and scrutinised herself in the mirror.
“How do I look?” she asked Jason. “Professional?”
“Beautiful,” Jason reached to kiss Angela but she ducked back out of his way.
“Gotta run, sorry.”
Jason shook his head good-naturedly and returned to the task of shaving.
“You’ll be fine!” he reassured her. “Don’t forget we’re having dinner with my parents tonight!”
“That’s tonight?” Angela froze in the doorway, fear creeping into her expression. We’ve only been dating a week it’s too soon to meet them…isn’t it?
“Yeah,” Jason paused again and glanced over, missing Angela’s expression as she hurried to blank the fear from it. “They want to meet you, and we figured celebrating your first day was as good an excuse as any, remember?”
“Yes…?” Angela vaguely remembered the conversation with Jason a couple of nights ago, but not the specifics. “Are…you sure you want them to meet me? Now?”
Too soon! Her mind wailed quietly, even as Jason finished shaving and towelled his face dry.
“Babe, they’ve wanted to meet you since they saw you at the graduation.” He smiled as he left the bathroom and went to collect his clothes from her bedroom. “Now go on or you really will be late! I’ll lock up.”
Angela checked her watch and yelped.
“Gone! Bye!” she yelled as she escaped out the door, setting off at a fast trot in her heels for the bus stop.
Please please please, Angela prayed silently as she raced for the stop. She couldn’t afford to be late, not today. The last thing she needed was to blow her chance with the internship; not while she was on her trial month.
No… Angela’s heart sank as she turned the corner and saw her bus pulling away from the stop. She put on a burst of speed in a desperate attempt to catch it, before a warm gust of wind hit her, blowing her bag off her shoulder.
“SHIT!” Angela clutched desperately at the contents of her purse as they went spilling onto the sidewalk. Even as she was scrambling to collect everything she could feel the bus speeding past her, heading up the road she’d come out on.
Dejection filled Angela as she stood and slowly finished her approach to the bus stop, her mind envisioning the worst case scenario as all but a foregone conclusion.
Terrific. Everything you worked for, down the drain just like that…maybe you should have just sucked it up and taken your car – city parking isn’t that expensive…
Angela’s brooding was cut short by the miraculously familiar rumble of another bus approaching. Not quite daring to hope, she pulled the folded timetable from her purse and checked it against the one printed on the wall of the bus stop.
Of all the…Angela couldn’t believe her luck: an express had been added to the circuit, pulling up now. Thank God, Angela cheered silently as she got on the bus and paid her fair. Something about that thought rang ironic to her, and Angela let out a short bark of laughter as she found a seat.
She wasn’t laughing five minutes later, as traffic slowed to a crawl and sirens began to ring in the distance. Accident, Angela thought, as her bus turned off the main road onto its express rout and bypassed the gridlock. Craning her head to see, Angela felt a cold chill as she saw the twisted wrecks of the vehicles involved in the accident.
The bus she’d been so desperate to catch minutes earlier now lay in pieces on the road.The Beginning
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