The bus had been driving for six hours now, Irene was leaning her head against the window. It was around midnight, it was dark outside, the only things she could see were the red tail lights of cars overtaking the bus.

Irene was tall and slim, she had long blonde hair and blue eyes. To her right side sat Mary, her best friend and classmate. She was shorter than Irene but just as slim, her eyes were brown, so was her fairly short hair. There were eleven more passengers in the bus, their classmates. They were playing games, talking, sleeping or just sitting there staring at the seat in front of them.

They were on the trip back from a two-week holiday the teachers had booked for them, the reason for this unusual gesture was that they were the best class their school had ever had, every single person had more or less perfect grades. This didn't mean that they were the most united class the school had ever had, their success was greatly based on rivalries and competition. Everyone had at one other student they were in direct conflict with. Over time, groups had formed, each group trying to be better than the other two. The five boys in the class were always sticking together, in learning and everywhere else too. The girls were divided into two groups, one consisting of three girls and one of five girls, Irene and Mary were in the bigger group of the two.

Irene thought about the past two weeks. The sea, the beach, the hotel, the town, the party on the last day…

Suddenly Mary poked her from the side.

"What?" Irene asked.

Mary wanted to know: "What are you thinking about?"

"The last two weeks, they went by so fast."

"They really did." Mary agreed.

Irene was just about to say something but she was interrupted by the bus driver speaking through the speakers on the ceiling: "Okay, in fifteen minutes we will reach our first set-down point. The students getting off the bus there are…" He paused while looking at the list, yawned and continued. "Peter. Nobody else? Alright, just Peter."

Peter was sitting in the same row as Irene and Mary, he had two seats for himself, his buddies were occupying the two rows behind him. Peter lifted up his head, still half asleep, stretched his arms and yawned. He was very tall and had short brown hair and green eyes. Peter had somehow managed it to snake his way through the minefield that were the rivalries between the groups and individuals. He had managed to remain at least somewhat liked by everyone. He was still part of the boy's group, however he also was one of Irene's closer friends.

"Where was I…" Irene said to herself and then said to Mary: "Do you think there will ever be a class reunion?"

Mary shook her head: "I don't think so. And if there is, I won't go."

To their right Peter stood up and hit his head on the ceiling.

"Ow… Damn." He said quietly in his deep voice, then proceeded to gather his luggage from his seats and the overhead storage.

For the next ten minutes Irene and Mary were just sitting there, trying to fall asleep, they both would get off the bus in over an hour. They were woken up by Peter standing up and going to the back end of the bus, saying goodbye to everybody as he was walking back to his seat. Irene and Mary were looking at him when he arrived.

"Goodbye Mary, goodbye Irene." He just said.

They replied at the same time: "Goodbye Peter."

Peter turned around as if he wanted to go to the front of the bus but then he stopped and turned towards them again.

"And by the way Irene…" He said.

"What?" Something about his tone worried Irene "Everything okay?"

Peter took a deep breath and said: "I wanted to get this over with earlier but I have been putting it off over and over again and I'm afraid now is the last opportunity."

Irene was getting increasingly confused. She asked: "What do you mean?"

She noticed that everybody in the bus had become awfully quiet and some were looking in her direction.

Peter said: "Well, to make it short…" He paused and took another deep breath. "I fell in love with you two years ago…"

Irene's jaw dropped and she turned bright red, she didn't know what to say.

"I… err… you… what?" she stuttered.

"It is okay." Peter said and put his arm on Irene's shoulder. "I knew the outcome of this long ago. I have to go now… and I doubt that you'd want me to drive you home now." He smiled and said: "Goodbye Irene."

The moment he said that, the bus stopped and Peter left, Irene could see him walking over to his car, not looking back over his shoulder. Before he got into his car she believed to see him wipe tears from his eyes but it might have been her imagination.

As soon as the bus started driving again, everybody started talking, Irene could hear little bits of dialogue.

"Man, I feel bad for him."

"She didn't deserve him anyway."

"Why the hell did he do that?"

Irene even saw how a boy grudgingly gave money to a girl, they seemed to have made a bet on the outcome.

Mary asked aloud: "So are we two the only ones who didn't know about this?"

Matthew, a short blonde haired boy replied, somewhat quietly: "Yes."

"I didn't want an answer." Mary snapped and gave him a look that made him flinch as if he had been hit.

Only now Irene discovered a small roll of paper in her lap, Peter must have dropped it when he put his hand on her shoulder. She unrolled it and read the text in Peter's scrawly handwriting.

Call me when you are at home, I would like to take some time to talk.

-Peter

Irene had to think about what happened. One of her best friends had asked her if she loved him, indirectly at least, and she just sat there. What kind of person was she to break her friend's heart? She should have seen it earlier.

"Don't worry about it." Mary said, who guessed what Irene was thinking.

"Hm?" Irene asked.

"Peter has been through worse, you know how he is, he can take losses. And he said that he knew the outcome, he just wanted to make sure he wasn't wrong. Not knowing can be worse than rejection. Just call him like he told you to."

"But I don't know if I can bring myself to talk to him now that I did this…" Irene said, tears suddenly in her eyes.

"So, you do love him?" Mary asked, somewhat confused.

Irene replied: "I… I think I do."

Suddenly they heard a crash and were flung forward. Some students were in a daze, most started screaming. Irene lived through these moments like in slow motion, she saw how the luggage flew through the bus, how her classmates desperately tried to hold onto their seats. The bus hit the ground hard and as they thought it was over, it started rolling. Nobody was wearing seat belts, so everybody was flying through the inside of the bus as it started to roll downhill faster and faster. Irene felt a sharp sting in her neck, then everything went black in front of her eyes. The last thing she felt was deep regret.

"Terrible bus accident." Steven read the headline to his family.

Steven was a dark skinned man with greying hair and brown eyes, he was sitting on the table with his wife and his two daughters, eating breakfast and reading the newspaper.

He quickly read over the article and told his family a brief summary: "Seems like a bus driver fell asleep while driving, the bus broke through the crash barrier on a bridge and rolled down into a valley. Nobody in the bus survived."

"Who were the people in the bus?" Janet, his younger daughter asked.

Steven replied: "Students, the best of the whole country. Such a shame, so many wasted lives."

"Does it say anything else?" His wife Lily wanted to know.

Steven took a look at the article again and said: "Here it says that this man named Peter survived, he got out of the bus shortly before the accident."

His elder daughter Olivia said: "How is he at the moment? I wouldn't be surprised if he is at a psychiatrist right now."

"Actually he is not, it says that he refused all help. I guess that's what trauma can do to people. Don't see the trouble they are in." Steven said.

A few minutes after that Steven got up and said: "I have to go now, my patients are sure getting impatient."

He chuckled at his own joke and left the room.