I didn’t believe in love until I met the boy off the bus. He was the boy that I couldn’t help but stare at and smile, wondering what could be if he’d just look up. I’d get closer and make eye contact, as he’d make my stomach tighten and my heart drop, but still he’d look back down. I looked elsewhere from the boy who wouldn’t look up, but every part of me was captivated by what was behind his eyes, and efforts to stop thinking about him ended with the image of him engraved behind my eyes pulling me away from distraction. The first time the boy off the bus looked up made my mind race and my future look clearer, and when the boy off the bus looked back down, it was to allow me to stop wondering what could be, as I smiled from the other end of the phone. Now the boy off the bus only looks down to see our hands interlocked by matching bracelets or a good morning message from the girl who used to stare. I now smile sitting next to the boy on the bus, this time whilst sharing his headphones and as I smile, I know that I am staring at my soulmate who looks back up at me the same way I have always looked at him. And, even though I know his name, he will forever be the boy off the bus who I longed to look up.
