driving through the city to the temple station
cries into the leather seat
and susie knows the baby was a family man
but the world has got him down on his knees
hurts "wonderful life"
.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Sasuke made the drive three times a week, it would seem; sputtering along the dark roads leading to the ocean in his '87 Honda. The crapshoot that he'd actually make it had always been worth the shot—until now. When he pulled onto the side of the road to inspect the damage, it took less than five minutes to declare it a lost cause.
He made the trek to the bus stop across the street, seeking shelter from the drizzle of rain on his shoulders. Within minutes, it was a downpour—a river rushing down the gutters and soaking his shoes. Taking a seat on the small bench tucked inside, Sasuke rested his head in his hands and prepared to wait for the worst of it to subside.
That wait didn't last too long.
He heard the engine before he heard the girl; roaring down the road, going about fifteen over the limit. The brakes squealed—summoning a rush of water to spray his ankles. He paid it little mind, offering barely more than a glance to the petite form that slipped out of the driver's seat, with a towel hung haphazardly over her arm.
"Hey—"
Are you okay?
He said nothing.
By time she made her way to him, the girl was soaked to the bone. Her figure drew to mind a drowned bird, pretty and delicate, stumbling for dry land. There was something wrong with her, to not fear a perfect stranger sitting in the dark, but Sasuke couldn't find it himself to think of her too harshly—
If anything, he was captured by the intensity of her stare; a puzzled but sharp verdant shade that gleamed even in the shadows. She fell to her knees before his spread legs, resting manicured fingertips on his knees as she leaned in. The sight stunned Sasuke, left him speechless for another second or two before he forced the words out, "Who are you?"
Why are you here?
Instead of answering the question he'd asked, the girl—so pretty, with hair that looked strawberry in the streetlights—answered the one he didn't. Her lips curved, head tilting as she blinked away several stray drops trailing into her eyes, "You looked pathetic sitting here in the rain all by yourself. Do you have anywhere to go?"
He thought back to his wife, laying in a stranger's arms with their three-year old in the next room; to the small cubicle where he devoted countless hours for a salary that barely covered rent; to the child that called him daddy, who didn't look a damn thing like him.
Sasuke spoke quietly, spinning his wedding band around his finger, "No, nowhere."
