-: Part 7 :-

     Fall is just starting, and much as the chillier weather annoys me (I hate having to bundle up), I have to admit this town never looks prettier. There are so many old brick buildings and things, and the bright hues of the leaves complement perfectly - the rich orange-red alongside vivid scarlet and orange and yellow and gold, against a backdrop of the brightest blue sky. Only a few leaves have fallen yet, and the grass beneath is still a shimmering emerald, everything's in jewel tones on an afternoon like this, with the sun's rays so rich and warm. Days like this, I wish I could paint or do something artistic, to capture all this richness and hoard it all winter, when the world is colorless and it's not only the temperature that's grown cold.
     The bus goes all around town before it gets around to going by my house, which is a pain in the ass some days, but usually it's just nice to see what all's going on, watching people and their houses and the store fronts. I always know what places are hiring, which of the random little shops and cafes have specials going on, and I knew about the new candy and ice cream shop that's opening soon before anyone else. (We're pretty excited about that one, diets be damned.) There's this one woman I see everyday when the bus passes Eagle Street, going by the type of harness on her goden retriever I think she's blind, and once I started watching more closely, I could really see how it's the dog making the call on when to cross the street and stuff. It's actually pretty cool, I'd be pretty damn nervous about trusting my life to a dog's judgement but he seems so perfectly trained, like I swear he'd be better at crossing streets than half my friends. (Though Carrie is notorious for not being able to cross streets, she's put all our lives at stake I don't even know how many times. She just picks exactly the wrong times to head into the street, and if the rest of us are talking or whatever we sometimes just follow automatically, and some car comes speeding up and we have to sprint out of the way. And then we scream at Carrie and make her buy us coffee that day or whatever it is we're out for.) There's this one guy always standing in the doorway of the bar on the corner of Eagle, smoking a cigarette. Since it's the middle of the afternoon, I assume he's the owner or works there or something - it's only on St. Patrick's that there are ever people hanging around the bars that early, and then they're there at like ten in the morning, it's ridiculous. And then there's those three boys, they've gotta be in like fifth or sixth grade, and they're always on their bikes, no matter what the weather. Not ten-speeds or anything, they're on the smaller bikes still, with pegs on both front and back tires, and they're always riding along on wheelies and hopping the curbs and trying to grind on a low wall or railing or whatever they can find. Usually in the few seconds I see them as the bus goes by, they're just riding, or doing small stuff, but every now and again I catch them grinding or something, sliding around the outside wall of the fountains in the square on their back pegs or something. It's pretty cool to watch, I've seen some of the high school guys doing the same sort of thing (only tons better), and in the summer when they're riding shirtless... they're pretty hot, they're not usually like really ripped, but they're really not bad. They don't quite beat the soccer boys, but, they're way better than the football guys, who Tara's pretty obsessed with. Maybe it's just that I get bored really easily with football, it's always stopping, they only play for like five seconds, and anyway you can hardly see the guys under all the padding and helmets and shit. How in hell can you tell if they're hot? Well apart from their asses, those pants are very nicely tight. But I'd rather watch one of the biker boys in baggy pants and no shirt any day. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, and yeah some of the biker guys are pretty skuzzy, but the ones that aren't are pretty hot, though most of them need hair cuts.