I sat on the bus, watching the rain trickle down and hit the window. I smiled to myself, feeling like I belong in an antidepressant commercial. The day hadn't really brightened at all, just a continuous, steady stream of rain. There was something about it that felt so calming to me. I turned my head and glanced around the bus. For public transit at 5 in the evening, it was incredibly quiet. When I first began taking the bus instead of walking, this really surprised me. I soon learned, though, that all of the buses become packed around 5:30, so I would just narrowly miss the rush.

There were only four people besides myself on the bus, people who I saw on a near daily basis. There was an old man towards the front who was resting his hands on the cane he had in front of himself. Across from him sat a young girl, probably my age. I think I've seen her around the university once or twice, but I might be mistaken. She too seemed to be enjoying the rain outside her window. Two rows ahead of me and across the aisle sat a young woman who was all made up. She looked like she was going out somewhere, not returning home. With a quick glance I looked behind me and saw a middle-aged man wearing a uniform of some sort with a tired look in his eye.

He must be going home. I thought.

I faced forward again and turned my head to the window. I put my headphones in and rhythmically nodded along with the music. I found myself wondering how the others saw me. I wondered if I was just another college student to them, or perhaps they saw me as a guy that reminded them of someone in their families. I looked up at the electronic sign above the aisle and saw that we were approaching Wood Lane's bus stop. I sighed, knowing I still had a while to go. The bus pulled over at the stop and the driver opened the door.

A girl stepped in, looking relieved to be out of the rain. She smiled at the bus driver and paid the fare before walking down the aisle and taking a seat three rows ahead of me. I swear I've seen her before. I think she was in one of my lectures. Her hair was in a ponytail, but she quickly took that out and let her hair fall behind her. Seeing her with her hair down made me realize that she was in Professor Sahasrahla's Hyrulean History lecture. She sat towards the front, but would turn around to talk to her friend's behind her. She was incredibly pretty, but I never learned her name.

I realized I had been staring at her, and while I'm sure nobody had seen me, I quickly turned my head to the window. The sky hadn't brightened at all, so I anticipated hearing the rain all night. I turned up my music to fully drown out the engine noise. During the bus ride, two other people had gotten on. I knew the rush would be coming soon, and I found myself doing the usual routine a praying that it would happen after I got off. Of the five of us that ride this bus everyday, I knew my stop came before anybody else's.

After a few more minutes of silently listening to my music, the bus approached Hylia Drive. I pulled the cord beside me, alerting the driver I would be getting off. I stood up, grabbed my backpack and umbrella, and walked into the aisle. In front of me, I saw the girl from my History class was also getting off. We stepped off the bus, and she immediately walked to the shelter of the bus stop, going the way opposite of my own. She looked down the road, almost as if she was readying herself to run through the rain. She wasn't dressed for this weather, wearing only a thin sweater over her shirt and jeans.

I glanced back at her, as I waited for the cross walk signal. The bus drove off, leaving just me and her at the street corner. I glanced at my umbrella, then walked over to the bus stop shelter. She threw me a quick glance, then looked back down the road. I stepped forward a bit, to get her attention. She looked at me from the corner of her eye, until she noticed I was looking right at her. She turned to me completely and I held out my umbrella with a soft smile.

"Here, take this."

She seemed slightly surprised, if not suspicious. "No thank you."

"I insist. You'll get wet." I said, smiling never breaking.

She gave a small laugh. "You'll get wet without it."

I shrugged. "My jacket has a hood."

She looked at the umbrella, considering my offer. She seemed to really be at odds with herself about it.

"Tell you what," I began. I placed the umbrella on the ground between us. "It's there if you decide you want it."

I smiled one last time, then turned around, threw on my hood, and went back to the crosswalk. The walk signal was on, so I crossed right away. I heard her pick up my umbrella as I left.

"How will I give this back?" She called out to me.

I turned around halfway as I walked. "I'll be around!" I called back to her.

I continued down the sidewalk. My apartment was a few buildings down, it really wasn't any trouble to give up my umbrella. I began avoiding puddles and counting cracks in the pavement. For the amount of times I've walked down this exact sidewalk, I can never get to the same number of cracks. I don't know if some appear and disappear or what, but it just never happens.

Upon entering my apartment, I called out for my roommate. I waited a second before calling his name again. Deciding that he wasn't here, I threw my backpack on the couch. I grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen, then immediately went back to the living room and sat beside where my backpack had landed. I turned on the TV, flipping through the channels until I just let it stay on the news. I opened my backpack to get out my laptop. While the computer started up, I opened a separate pocket on my pack, and pulled out my phone.

In the half hour I went without checking it, my aunt had called me twice. I sighed, tossing my phone beside me. I knew what she was calling about, but I didn't really want to talk about it. As my laptop finally turned on, Pipit came home. He barged right through the door, waving an envelope in his hand, seeming slightly frazzled. He walked to the kitchen and threw the envelope on the counter.

"Well, guess what time it is!" He said.

"Rent already?" I sighed. It seems like just last week we had to scrape together as much as we could to get our last payment to our super. Pipit and I both had jobs, but we both just barely made over minimum wage.

"Link, I told you, I'm not a fan of musicals." He smiled as he opened the envelope. I rolled my eyes at his pun before standing and walking over to him. "So…" he continued. "How do you think we'll get out of this one?"

"Didn't you say you were trying to get more hours?" I asked him.

"Emphasis on 'trying'" He said, shaking his head. "Everybody is getting hired in the cafeteria, it's what sucks about working on campus. With so many people, the hours have to be split up fairly. They won't give me any more hours."

"Crap…" I said, looking over the usual notification letter.

"What about you?" Pipit said, pulling a stool out. "Any luck getting more out of Telma?"

"I'm not going to ask for a raise, I would just ask to have more nights. I may just start taking a few weekdays." I told him.

Pipit laughed slightly. "Well, a bartender can only work specific hours in a day. Or night. Whatever."

"Exactly." I nodded. "And since I already work Thursday through Saturday, I could try to get Wednesday or something."

"People don't go to bars on Wednesday, though." He said. "Good luck getting tips."

"O ye of little faith." I said, waving the paper in front of him. "Bar flies go to a bar every chance they get. I see some every single night." Pipit laughed. "But really…" I said, looking back at the note. "We may need to get second jobs."

"Or another roommate." Pipit pointed out. He got off of his stool and walked to the couch.

I smirked at him. "Anybody you'd want to put up with on a daily basis?"

"I can hardly handle you." He said, plopping down, staring at the TV.

I smiled, and left the envelope on the counter.

As I walked out of class, I felt a few rain drops land on my head. I looked up and saw the dark clouds in the sky, prompting me to put my hood up. The bus stop was just a block away, so I managed to make it there quickly, but this one didn't have a sheltered bench, so I was forced to stand as I waited. I felt the coolness of the rain through my thin jacket. It wasn't able to keep me warm, but at least it kept me dry.

After about a minute of waiting, I heard footsteps going through a puddle beside me.

"You don't plan ahead very much, do you?"

I turned my head to the voice and saw the girl from yesterday. She was carrying my umbrella and giving my an amused look.

She held out the umbrella. "I believe this is yours."

I smiled at her, taking it from her hand. I held it between us and moved under it. "Come on, there's room for two here. It's a big umbrella."

She slowly moved under it. It seemed like the close proximity made her uncomfortable, but since it was a bit of a necessity, she would endure. She looked away, glancing down the road. I did the same in the opposite direction. I shifted uncomfortably, not sure if I should say anything to her. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk, but the silence was making the situation awkward.

"To answer your question, I only do for short term situations." I blurted out.

She turned to me, confused. "I'm sorry?"

"You asked if I don't plan ahead." I explained. "I do, just not long term."

I saw a look of realization on her face. "Oh, ok." She smiled, but turned back to look down the road. Taking that as a disinterest in talking, I pulled out my iPod. I scrolled through all of my songs, looking for one to listen to on the bus.

"There we go." I heard her say. I looked over and saw she was talking about the bus coming over to our stop. I let her get on first, holding the umbrella over her as she stepped in. I stepped in behind her, getting my money out. The girl stepped aside, as she was filtering through her purse looking for money. "Go ahead." She told me. I pulled out my change, gave it to the driver and walked back to a seat.

I looked around and saw the old man, the young woman, and the middle aged man. The girl my age wouldn't get on for two more stops. I took my backpack off and put it down by my feet. As I fumbled with my headphones, someone sat beside me. I looked over and saw the girl had taken the seat right next to me. She still had a distant look in her eye, but there was no way she sat there by mistake. The bus was practically empty, she could've sat anywhere.

I think she noticed my staring, because she turned to me and said, "I'm sorry, did you want to be left alone?"

I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. "No, no, it's completely ok! I just, you know, I thought you wanted to be alone. I was just surprised is all."

"No, sorry." She said, and she faced the front again. Silence immediately followed.

This girl is confusing as all hell. I thought to myself. I decided to keep talking to her.

"I'm Link, by the way." I said, holding out my hand.

She gave me a small smile. "Zelda." She shook my hand. "I'm sorry Link, I'm usually friendlier than this."

I gave her a sympathetic look. "A lot on your mind?"

"Sort of." She said, keeping a straight, unreadable face. "I'm not sure if you'd be interested in my mind's ramblings."

"Try me."

Zelda turned her body to face me more. "Ok. But I'm going to warn you, I plan ahead a lot." I laughed and nodded. "So, if you were given the opportunity to go into the future and see your life 10 years from now, would you?"

The question caught me off guard. "What do you mean?"

She seemed to be looking for a way to express her thoughts. "Well, like, if you could just go into the future, let's say you were only there for 20 minutes. If you could use that 20 minutes to look at your future self, see how your life is going, would you?"

"As a bystander? Or would I step into the shoes of my older self and experience my life for 20 minutes?" I asked her.

"No, you would just watch it as if you were watching TV." She explained. "You would see your older self, see where you work, what friends you have, a family maybe… You could just see how your life is 10 years down the road, then come back to today and continue living it."

I pondered what she was saying. Would I? What good what it do for me? Would I be inspired or would I dread the future after seeing it? I shook me head. "I honestly don't know. I'd really have to think about it."

Zelda sighed. "Ok."

"Would you?" I asked her.

"Definitely." She said, not even taking a second to hesitate.