The party was starting to wane and I decided it was high time to get going. I didn’t want to get too drunk tonight anyway, I had assignments to do tomorrow. I was only here as a favour to Adam, my roommate. There was a girl he liked going to the party and he didn’t want to show up alone. Adam’s the kind of guy who lets loose after a few drinks, so now I could see him comfortable, I felt my job was done. As I stepped out of the front door, a blast of cold air hit me like a train. The temperature had dropped quite rapidly from when I arrived. The smokers outside were huddled together, I was unable to distinguish the cigarette smoke from their own breaths.

I wasn’t exactly sure where I was, I figured I should have paid more attention in the taxi over. If I went to a bus stop, maybe I could figure it out from there. As I briskly walked down the street in search of a bus stop, I reflected on the last few hours. I’d struck out with a few girls when trying to socialise. I never seemed to know what to say, never knew how to fill those awkward silences. That was a factor in me not wanting to see the party out. After making a tit out of myself in front of the fifth girl of the night, I felt I’d best make myself scarce. Adam would understand. Hell, I’d doubt he’d remember the party, the way he’d been chugging them down.

I was a little tipsy myself, if I’d have been made to walk in a straight line, I’d fail almost instantly. My mind was clear, but my inebriation seemed to be getting me from the bottom up. At last after a few minutes of walking, I saw the dull glow of a bus stop light. Glancing at the road to see if I’d have to be prepared to run to catch a bus, I saw it abandoned save for the odd taxi. I wish I’d had enough for a taxi left over, but from the change in my pocket, I’d be lucky to have enough for the bus. If I was short, I’d have to hope the driver was laid back enough to let me on.

As I approached the stop I saw I wouldn’t be waiting alone, as leaning against the wall of the shelter was a girl. She was dark-skinned with a shock of frizzy black hair. It appeared she too was caught out by the temperature change as her dress was well above her knee and I could see her legs shivering a bit. She had a leather jacket over her dress that she was hugging tight to her, trying to keep warm. She was just staring into the middle distance, I figured her phone must’ve lost battery. She’d probably be bored, I had no idea how long she’d been waiting. As I got to the shelter, there was no acknowledgment from the girl. I checked the timetable affixed to the wall, I was only a few stops away from where I needed to be. I should be able to afford it after all. The downside was that it would be another twenty minutes before the bus arrived.

Then again it may not be that much of a downside, I thought, glancing at the girl who I now shared the bus stop with, maybe I could make it sixth time lucky.

“Been waiting long?” I asked, trying to break the ice. Finally the girl looked over at me, her large black eyes showing an expression of confusion, as if she wasn’t prepared for a total stranger to start speaking to her

“What?” She replied quietly, the indignation in her nice made me a bit nervous. Even with the sceptical look on her face, I could see she was very pretty. Maybe I just caught her off-guard.

“For a bus. Have you been waiting here long?” I stammered. The girl sighed a little.

“About five minutes” She said curtly, then returned to looking into the middle distance. Great, now there would be more awkward silence, I thought. I racked my mind trying to think of some way I could kick start a conversation. I glanced around looking for inspiration, but I’d be hard pressed to find any.

The bus stop was on a residential street which was nothing to write home about. Visibility was bad anyway, there was only a couple streetlights illuminating the road and what it did illuminate wasn’t very interesting. I’d have to rely on the age-old conversation piece. One passed down the generations from father to son, mother to daughter. I’d have to talk about the weather.

“Cold snap caught you out too, huh?” I asked, rubbing my arms to emphasise my point.

“Yeah” She murmured, then after a pause continued “It was way warmer when I came out tonight.”

Weather you’ve done it again!, I thought. I’d actually gotten her to say two sentences. I was wearing her down.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m not wearing a coat. Regretting it now. Brrr” I happily retorted. I felt the over-exaggerated ‘brrr’ was unwarranted and so did the girl, who once again looked away.

I was losing her, I needed something different, a way to get her to talk. I felt my fingers stiffen as the cold bit harder. A look at my clock told me there as still fifteen more minutes to wait. I noticed the girl’s legs shiver again. At this distance I could see that she wasn’t wearing any tights, her bare legs were exposed to the elements and she just had a thin pair of black flats on her feet. Maybe that was an in. I extravagantly rubbed my hands together and blew on them.

“This cold is doing a number on my extremities” I offered, “I bet your feet are freezing dressed like that”

Uh-oh, she seemed annoyed at that remark. Stupid, I rebuked myself, never critique a woman’s apparel. She turned to look at me again, this time not with the disinterest that she had shown before, there was anger behind those eyes now. Before I could say anything to apologise, the girl flicked her ankle causing one of her flats to fly off her foot and land about half a yard in front of her. Distracted by the random nature of this action, my eyes followed the trajectory of the shoe then looked back at her, who hadn’t taken her eyes off of me. She pointed at me then pointed to the discarded shoe. Before I could make sense of this action, the girl then snapped her fingers and everything for me was black.