I sighed and sank back in my seat, but I still couldn’t look away from his profile. He was so intriguing, gorgeous in an unconventional kind of way, even from this angle. The line of his neck, his jaw, his temple, his cheek.

And that was when I noticed. It wasn’t the light from outside the bus playing with the light of his face, it was a tear. A motherfucking tear.

He was crying.

My Headphones Guy was crying. Actual tears. Silent, heartbreaking tears.

He didn’t wipe them away. He just sat there and let them fall, and so help me God, that made it worse.

And the noise fell away as though it was me wearing the noise-cancelling headphones. The chatter, the traffic, all became silent, and I wondered what on earth had happened to hurt him in such a way?

I wanted to ask him if he was okay. I wanted to reach out and tell him everything would be fine.

Of course, I couldn’t. I couldn’t exactly call out to a stranger on the other side of a crowded bus and ask if he was okay, could I? Well, I could, but not without drawing the attention of every passenger, and my Headphones Guy couldn’t hear me anyway because he had his headphones on. Then, before I could do or say anything, the bus turned onto Cleveland Street and he shook his head, wiped his cheeks, and glanced around to see if anyone had noticed.

Of course I had.

He stood and hurried off the bus. He didn’t look up, he never did. He kept his head down, kept his headphones on, and the bus pulled away.

“You look terrible.” Merry frowned as she studied me. “You’re not stressing about tonight, are you? You’ll be fine, Jordan,” she said, squeezing my hand. “You might even be surprised how much you enjoy it.”

“No, it’s not that,” I replied, uncurling my scarf from around my neck and opening my locker. Truth be told, I hadn’t thought anymore about our plans for tonight.

“What is it?” She was more concerned now.

“My guy,” I started, but then immediately felt foolish for calling him my anything. “You know, Headphones Guy. He was crying on the bus yesterday.”

“Crying?”

I nodded. “Not sobbing. Just staring out the window while silent tears rolled down his cheeks.”

“With his headphones on?”

“Always.”

“Wow.”

“I know, right? And so of course, I spent the entire night wondering what happened. I could barely sleep.”

“If it’s any consolation, your red shoes and scarf match your bloodshot eyes really well.”

I sighed. “I’m not thanking you for that. That was not a compliment and I refuse to reward inflammatory behaviour.”

“I meant it as a compliment.”

I looked around dramatically. “Alexa? Alexa, what is a compliment? Merry needs a refresher.”