Just Like That

Benjamin Archer Temple scuffed his shoes along the gravely footpath, impatient.
The sun was slow in the sky to west, chilling the air and making him stuff his hands under his arms for warmth. The cold blue bus seat he sat on dug uncomfortably into his legs through his jeans, irritating him.
A slight breezed ruffled his hair, smelling of clean, crisp air and decaying leaves that tumbled over the road and footpath like confetti from some long forgotten party. Pushing back his hair from his eyes, Benjamin scanned the road, ignoring the ever present rumble of cars, trucks and motorbikes, waiting for the number 400 bus that would take him home. He glanced at his wristwatch.
It was two minutes late.
Ben wish it would hurry up, he wasn't a patient kid, he liked everything to be on time, everything the way it should be. He didn't like to admit it, but he was afraid of change. It presented itself to him like some huge, hulking beast lurking in his path, waiting to bring down his life and everything and everyone he loves.
So, if the bus was meant to come at 5:30, so it should.
Another soft breeze blew up from the north, breathing deep he closed his eyes as tiredness crept into his limbs, dragging him down until he was afraid he would sink straight through the bench, through the footpath and straight through the earth and into space.
Four minutes late.
Ben opened his eyes and pushed back the thick hair off his forehead. He needed a haircut.
His eyes blurred over as he watched the passing traffic without interest, listening only to the constant roar of the passing vehicles.
Therefore, it startled Benjamin when he heard the faintest, most tiny sniff.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw a girl sitting on the other end of the bus bench. She had a sad, dejected look about her, the kind that had slumped her shoulders forwards and bowed her head and put deep blue circles under her almond shaped eyes. Her long brown hair was the colour of bitter chocolate and hung in ropes around her long, pale face. Staring at her, Benjamin felt pity well up in his stomach. She looked like she was falling apart at the seams, her jacket was frayed and dirty, her jeans had holes and she wasn't even wearing shoes, despite how numb and cold her feet would be, resting on the pavement. Benjamin was visited with a mad desire to hug her and hug her just because she looked like she needed it so much.
But that wasn't the thing Benjamin did, because he was neat, orderly and straight, like a soldier.
Five minutes late.
Benjamin soon lost himself once more in the rumbling growl of the traffic as he impatiently checked his watch. But, yet again, another noise wove its way into his mind, demanding attention. And yet, it wasn't a noise exactly, more a feeling, a nagging, a persistent tug from the furthest corners of his brain. Scratching this unusual itch, Benjamin glanced again to his left.
Nothing strange, miraculous and extraordinary met his eyes, just the same girl, except now she was staring straight ahead, her eyes wide and her lips pressed tightly together, as if steeling herself for something major.
Confused and irritated, Benjamin checked his watch again.
Eight minutes late.
Suddenly, movement caught his eye again. The very same girl had stood up, the very same determined expression on her face. What was she doing? Doesn't she know how dangerous to stand that close to the road?
Benjamin thought that their must be an explanation of this strange behaviour and looked up the road; she must have seen the bus. But it wasn't there. Just cars, trucks and motorbikes rumbling past.
Ben looked at her again and she looked back at him. Immediately, Benjamin's insides froze and he could have sworn his heart had stopped working too, because her eyes
her eyes -
my god, her eyes -
her eyes were just-
just-
dead.
gone-
cold-
distant as the moon.
She looked Benjamin in the eye with a painful stare that seemed to scream inside his head.
It screamed in her voice, a frantic, crazed scream that he couldn't make sense of and before he could say anything that would have sprang to his numb lips, she turned her attention back to the traffic.
Ben saw her shuffle her feet to the very edge of the curb, balancing on the balls of her feet.
He was struck with a strange thought of how beautiful she looked, her shoulder blades sticking out of her back like angel wings, like she was about to fly.
And then it came to Ben in a realisation that attacked his heart until it seemed it was stretched taught, an inch away from shattering into a million pieces.
As he jumped up with a yell, she leaped into the oncoming traffic.
And -
and-
she didn't make a noise, didn't scream -
she just-
flew.
Soared over the long white pick-up truck, her brow hair flying around her.
There was a moment, a moment that seemed to go on infinitely, where she just-
flew.
But then gravity remembered its job wasn't to make people fly and she started to fall.
And she fell-
and fell-
until he landed-
with a -
thump.
Ben stood frozen with shock and horror as his heart exploded in his chest and the oxygen in his lungs evaporated and he can't breathe he can't breathe he can't breathe.
Because she's gone.
Just like that.
She was in his life-
and now she wasn't.
And he didn't even know her name.
People had started shouting and horns started to sound as the, the white truck slid to a halt and started screaming for an ambulance .
But Benjamin wasn't paying any attention.
Just like that.
She was there, and then she wasn't.
Ben didn't want to look, he didn't want to see it, didn't think he could bare it but he did anyway and what he saw made his eyes well and made his stomach contract; there she was, just a few feet away, the angel wings gone, face down on the pavement and her hair painted black with sticky blood and a steady pool of the stuff creeping steadily towards him like the tentacles of some sick, foul creature, asking him to join it, come to closer and take a look at the angel it made fall-
Just-
like-
that.