"Um, excuse me?"
The voice jerked Jed out of his daydream. A nervous looking man was standing next to him, clutching a city A-Z.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry to be a bother, but I'm trying to get to Featherstone Gardens, and I just can't work out..." the man gesture helplessly towards the bus-stand nearby. Well, Jed's bus wasn't due for another ten minutes at least, so there could be no harm in helping the guy out.
"Featherstone Gardens is actually pretty close. I reckon you can get there just as quickly by walking, if you wanted to."
"Oh, really? Thank goodness. Um, I marked the place-" The man fumbled with his map-book. Finding his place, he held it out to Jed.
"Sorry, so if Featherstone is here, then..."
"Oh, alright." The man was standing a little too close for comfort, but Jed decided to put up with it in favour of ending the interaction quickly. "We're here, halfway down Parkhurst Street." Jed placed his finger on the map to illustrate his point, drawing it along the printed street to show the direction that the stranger should take. "If you carry on down here- in that direction" he pointed to his right- " Then turn right into Cornwall Street, and it should be fairly straightforward from there."
"Oh thank you, thank you!" The man seemed to be a little too happy, but Jed gave him a smile and fortunately he took his cue to leave. The pink-haired girl at the bus stand shot him a sympathetic glance, and he returned a much more genuine smile to her. She was actually pretty cute, and he might have tried to start up a conversation if her bus hadn't chosen that moment to arrive.
Left to wait for his bus on his own, Jed slipped back into daydreams until he was distracted by an odd prickling sensation somewhere between his nose and throat. He cleared his throat a couple of times, trying not to attract too much attention, but the feeling remained. Oh well. It was distracting, but not too bad. He probably just needed a drink or something.
The bus finally deigned to turn up, and he made his way to a window seat near the back. It wasn't too busy at this time of day- a couple of elderly people with shopping bags, two giggling teenage girls, a harassed-looking mother and a few college students. He listened idly to the girls' conversation for a while- apparently a mutual friend had somehow acquired an ill-advised tattoo- before his body decided to act out again.
The tingle at the back of his throat blossomed and sent out a sudden tendril into his nose. Still not wanting to draw attention to himself, Jed settled for swallowing hard in an effort to ease the irritation. For a moment, he thought it had helped, then a stranger and stronger feeling swept through him. His nostrils flared, and before he could do anything about it, he gasped;
"hh-h-hih-"
then suddenly had control of his own breathing again. One of the girls on the back seat giggled, and Jed told himself it was stupid to assume that she was laughing at him. She probably hadn't even noticed. Feeling a slight heat rising in his cheeks, he shifted in his seat,staring steadily out of the window.
He rubbed his nose with one index finger, and what was left of the feeling subsided. Thank goodness for that at least. There wasn't really anything that he could put his finger on without sounding silly and paranoid, but he had a definite sense that something weird was going on. Still, all that was wrong at the moment was an odd itch at the top of his throat, so hopefully he could at least get this journey over with without giving the girls anything more to laugh about.
His body seemed to accept this compromise, and he got off at his stop, careful not to look at either of the girls as he got off at the little row of shops, just a five-minute walk from home.
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