Tasty.

Tasty.

         Her mouth was small and when she smiled her lips peeled to reveal the uppermost section of her gums. With a chunky, up-turned nose, that wiggled when she spoke, I couldn't help but stare – gawk even. My stomach lurched as I watched her lean over her purse. Her breasts mooshed and molded to gravity's pull and nearly poured from her shirt.

                She glanced up and caught my eye. She smiled at me, her lips shrinking up over her teeth and above her gums, as she bent farther over to reach for the chapstick that had rolled from her large, sausage-like fingers. The acid in my stomach curled and ate at the lining inside.

         When her cellular rang she scrambled for it, digging deeply through the contents of her bag. The bus jerked as she answered it. While the bump didn't displace her from her seat, I could have sworn her entire form jiggled from the sudden movement like a crowd doing the wave from their stadium chairs. Every fat molecule was shouting out their individual hello.

         I cringed.

         In my head I felt guilty. While her outer appearance was regretfully sickening, inside, I was attempting to convince myself, she might be a very delightful person.

         “No, Blair was that skank from Denny's, don't you remember?”

         Her highly audible conversation was just beginning to float into my ears and register with my brain.

         “Yeah, she was wearin' that skirt and kep' lickin' her spoon all cat-like.— I know. — You think he would? — Gawd, maybeh if I skooted in all cute-like with that new shirt I bought, you know, the one with, or should I say, without,” this is where she cackled and fingered the fatty skin poking out from the holes in her jeans, “the straps and is all backless? I know, it'll look foxy. — No, that would be too much, maybeh I'll just wear my Playboy belly button ring, the rose one is just too, noticeable, it's all shiny and glittery. — Yeah, and then I'll just let him bang me while she's in the next room with Donny.”

         The mother nearby cast a wary glance at the girl and a mother's caution is never wrong. I no longer felt any guilt. Though I did feel a need to get off the bus to breath some fresh air. I tugged on the wire which signaled to the driver that I wanted off at the nearest stop. I stood up quickly as he slowly veered the bus off to the side of the road.

         It was then that she turned to me, pausing in her phone conversation to smile and wink at me.

         It was also then that I projectile vomited across the aisle. I calmly watched as it sprayed generously over her frayed jeans, covering the skin that peeked through the designer holes. I smiled as she spat out bits of acidic sushi, mortified.

         As I stepped off the bus I readjusted my tie and wondered how wasabi tasted the second time around.




((Word Count: 496))