She closed her orange bag and sat down on the seat no.4 in the bus next to an old woman with white braided hair. Donna smiled when she saw the style which this woman had: she must have been close to 60 years old but the long hair which was loosely braided at the back and held together by a rainbow-colored butterfly pin, the white t-shirt with a giant red flower and green letters that read 'forever young!', the green pants and even the green and red sandals, made her seem interesting in a nice way. Feeling impolite with the continuous amused gaze, Donna turned towards the window. The redhead felt somewhat plain in comparison with a woman almost 45 or more years older because of the clothing. She only had a simple black checkered shirt and blue jeans, the usual sneakers she always wore and were close to the fate of being torn by such intensive usage, and as for her hair, being slightly longer than before, was being - if it were possible - crushed between her back and the seat.
The bus began to move and she felt the small vibrations beneath her feet. Turning her head back to the old woman, Donna had to mention it. "That's a nice outfit," she said.
The woman looked at her with kind brown eyes and smiled. "Thank you, young lady."
"I don't mean for it to sound awkward, it's just that I haven't seen many women this age dressed like this. It's cool."
The woman appeared to have had taken this as a compliment, which put Donna at ease. Otherwise, the poor girl would have felt more than just plain embarrassed. "I don't like all those silly dresses and clothes that make me look so old. Well, I do look old, I'm reaching my 70's soon," she let out a giggle, "but inside I feel like I am still 24," and winked.
"Ah that's nice," Donna nodded.
"Your heart always stays young. What's your name?" she asked.
"I'm Donna."
"Lovely to meet you. I'm Mary. And please no 'Ma'am' or anything like that, I prefer just Mary."
"Alright," she chuckled. "Nice to meet you, too, Mary."
"Are you going on holiday?"
"Sort of, Point Peak is where I live actually. I finished University last year and now I come here every summer... almost."
"So your family is there."
"Yes and some of my friends."
"That's nice." Mary smiled. "I have grandchildren there. Oh I think I have a picture of them!" She took out a color photo of two small raven-haired children sitting on the grass from her purse and showed it to Donna. "This is Stephanie, she's 4, and this is little Tommy, he will be 2 years old next month," she spoke of them with much pride in her voice.
"They are adorable."
"They have my son's eyes. Stephanie always calls me Granny Mary," she laughed fondly. "They always make my trip there worthwhile."
"Must be a real joy to have kids."
Mary put the photo back in her purse. "You're still young, Donna." She tapped Donna's shoulder. "But be careful who you choose as their father when it is time. The commitment to each other and the children is not an easy thing to maintain." She sighed. "But listen to me, giving you such boring lectures when you are still so young. I'm sorry."
"No, no. I appreciate the advice, thank you." Donna smiled. Mary had a point. "I was engaged to my current boyfriend whom I guess I still want to have kids with but we sort of broke it off now." She felt at ease enough to talk about this. Mary appeared like a nice, even though old, woman.
"I never thought marriage at such an early age was a wise idea."
"Yeah, I've been having the same thoughts about it. But, back then, it felt different as he and I know each other ever since we were kids."
"What happened?"
"I felt there were more things in my life I wanted to do before I settled down, this was just such big pressure."
"Good. Usually it isn't a good idea to marry your only boyfriend."
"I've had other boyfriends..." Donna paused and begun playing with her fingers. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course, my dear."
"Do you think that there could be such a thing as two people who are meant to be? Who, no matter who else they are with or what they do, in the end have to end up together?" Donna felt like she wanted to laugh at herself for asking this absurd question, and to a stranger, at that.
"Oh yes! I'm a great believer in faith. And that does exist. It truly does. No matter what you do, you will always end up with that person because that is what faith has written for you. It's how I felt about my second husband, to be honest. "
Donna wanted to smile but couldn't, as it wasn't the answer she'd wanted.
Mary noticed this. "Was this meant about you and your boyfriend?"
"I don't know." Donna took a glimpse of her hands. "Some uncomfortable situations happened last year and I began asking myself that question a lot lately."
"Well, whatever it is, if it is meant to happen, it will happen, no matter how strange it seems."
"I guess so." Donna looked back at Mary and then turned to the window before exhaling deeply. "But I wish some things never happened," she thought while watching the fields and trees being passed with high speed by the moving bus.
It was 8 in the evening when Donna stepped off the bus and decided to walk towards her old home as she had little weight to carry in her bags. She didn't pack much because she wasn't planning on staying long here. "Perhaps a week the most," she thought and crossed the street.
Soon she stood in front of her house. Everything had remained the same yet again. All the lights were out which made Donna assume that no one was home. She did not tell her father when she was arriving. Setting her small suitcase on the ground, she shoved her hand inside her orange bag and then pulled out a key. Donna remained there for a while, staring at the key in her hand. Her day had not started well.
She went to the magazine office where she took a job as a writer, quite fortunately as well. Not surprising that she found out Melanie had already handed over her story, but Donna managed to remain 50 words short and her boss was not pleased. She sat on a chair in front of his desk and waited for bad news as he kept pacing around the room. "This is the second time, Donna," he told her, "and it is not looking well for you. But because your previous works have been good, I'm giving you three weeks to complete a good fiction story for the new issue. You manage to do that and your job is secure here."
Donna sighed. "Three weeks... what in hell am I supposed to come up with in three weeks?" she wondered and shook her head. Putting the key in the keyhole, she was about to unlock the door when she heard a motorcycle pull up not far away. Turning around, she could not make out a face at first due to the absence of light where the motorcycle was parked, but when the figure approached the lit piece of ground, Donna took in an uneasy breath and remained firmly in place.
He walked slowly. It was barely four feet away from her at where he stood and in the clothes so familiar: nice jeans and a t-shirt. "Welcome back," he said.
"Thanks, Hyde," she responded quietly. The site of him registered an expected awkwardness inside her.
"Did you have a good ride?"
"Yeah, I met this nice old lady. We had a good talk."
"That's cool." Calm and hidden behind those shades. No changes once more. If she only knew that he did not feel that much differently from her. But it felt too early to show anything.
"What are you doing here?"
"Mrs. Forman told me that you and Eric were coming today and I saw the light here so I thought..."
"Ok."
"Is Eric here?" he asked in an even tone.
"No, he had some stuff to finish up. He's gonna come tomorrow."
"I see."
A long silence appeared; a car passing by was heard and after that only the quiet sound of crickets. The two young people stared gracelessly at each other for what appeared to be ten minutes without words. Perhaps they were making a bigger chaos about this, although a silent one, than it was required but that was them. In this moment they felt reserved with their words and absent with their movements. Donna could feel his powerful gaze even though it was safely covered by the dark shades; it made her nervous, and she did not like it. She wanted everything to get dark so she would not see him although inside she knew that even then she would still feel the stare. Donna wanted him to leave but she lacked the courage to tell him. A voice inside kept telling her that this current attitude was stupid, but she did not listen to it.
"Donna! You're here!" Kitty Forman's voice was heard as she appeared at the back door. That call managed to break the invisible string that kept Hyde and Donna in their strange, still mood.
The redhead turned towards Kitty. "Good evening Mrs. Forman. Yeah, I just arrived a few minutes ago," she finally released a smile.
"Oh, hey Steven," Kitty smiled at the young man while she headed towards Donna to give her a welcome hug.
"Good evening as well," Hyde nodded and pressed his lips tightly.
"Eric told me that he is coming tomorrow. Come in for some dinner? We started a bit late tonight."
"Ah, well I'm a little tired."
"I cooked too much to let all that food go to waste, Donna. I am going to be very disappointed if you don't help out." Kitty placed her hands on her waist.
Donna smiled once more, she could not refuse. Eric's mom has always been a good soul. "Sure, I'll come."
"Good! Get your things! You're going to take them home later," Kitty responded and watched Donna pick up her suitcase. She then noticed Hyde was preparing to leave.
"And where do you think you're going?" she asked him.
"Uh, home," Hyde pointed with his thumb behind him.
"No, you are going to stay for dinner as well!"
"Thanks, Mrs. Forman, but I think it's better if I go," he glanced at Donna.
"Just because you have your own apartment now, that is no excuse to refuse my invitation, young man," Kitty put on her famous motherly voice.
"Yes, but -"
"Steven!" Kitty interrupted him with a, this time, firmer voice.
"Ok, ok." He followed Donna into the house. His stomach had begun begging for food twenty minutes ago.
"So, Donna, how is work?" Kitty asked when she placed the brown pot of mashed potatoes on the table.
"It's good. There have been some small problems but overall it's good," Donna replied.
"Oh, what kind of problems?"
"Well," Donna looked at the food on her plate before she said: "I've been having problems coming up with good stories the last two months and that has kinda been putting me in a… um, bad spot." Taking a piece of the chicken and some peas in her mouth she began chewing.
"I'm sorry, I hope it will get better soon," Kitty told her with a compassionate voice.
"Yeah, me too, as I like my job. Well, the pay's good at least."
"So what's the problem?" Hyde asked while looking at Donna.
"What?"
"Why can't you write good stuff?"
If this hadn't been an innocent question and in some way the truth, Donna would have taken it as an insult. "I don't know," she said. "Lack of inspiration. Unnerving, what can I say."
"You've made a good choice coming back this summer," Kitty told her while taking the glass out of the cupboard. "Your inspiration will be back in less than two days!"
"Oh I really wish for that to happen. If I don't come up with anything after three weeks, I'm scre-... I mean I'll be in big trouble."
"Tough," Hyde said and received a look from Donna.
"No kidding." She took another bite. Then the ringing of the phone was heard. Kitty went to the living room.
"Why didn't she pick up this one," Donna pointed with her fork toward the kitchen phone.
"It's not working," Hyde said.
"Oh, right."
The two people ate in silence for a while.
"How's life?" he then broke that silence.
"I think it's going to turn worse," she thought and then replied: "Boring."
"Yeah, with Forman it usually is." Hyde gave a smirk.
Donna cringed inside at how right he was with that sentence despite that it had only been a joke. "I keep hearing that enough from Jackie, thank you very much," her tone did not pick up a cheerful mood.
Hyde observed the redhead and the slow tempo with which she was eating. They heard Kitty's laughter from the other room; at least she was having a better time than these two were. "You should relax, man. It's been a year now," he said.
"I haven't noticed," she shrugged.
"You're still pissed about that?"
"Yeah I am."
"It's pathetic."
"Thanks for the in-depth analysis, Hyde." She was hitting the sarcastic stage again.
They heard the phone ring once more.
"Don't go into the Jackie-state, Donna. It doesn't suit you."
"Really," she did not sound surprised.
"Yes."
"You were the one that came out being such a-" she didn't get to finish her sentence when Kitty appeared at the door.
"Donna, Eric's on the phone!"
"Great. I was just thinking about him." She attempted her fake smile and threw a cold look over to Hyde before she rushed to the living room.
Donna and Eric talked for nearly eight minutes and basically made plans for tomorrow. Speaking with him painted a lighter mood inside her when she needed it badly. Hanging up the phone, she then returned to the kitchen only to find Hyde had left. "Oh, where did Hyde go?" she asked Kitty.
"He was in a hurry to go somewhere, didn't tell me where. But at least he cleaned up his plate." Kitty smiled and gathered the empty plates.
"That's some relief," Donna thought and then assisted Mrs. Forman in the cleaning.