Nat wondered if Spring Fever was really a thing sometimes. Not in that cute, lovey-dovey sense, but something more like those anecdotes about full moons. Since the moment he woke up, everyone was acting oddly. One of his roommates, Zach, was sitting at the kitchen table when he was on the way out, staring blankly at an empty bowl. What, was he expecting someone to come fill it for him like he was a pet cat? But Zach could get like that after a late night working on a project, so Nat brushed it off and hurried out the door.
Nat trekked down the hill, which always made him feel like he was walking on a different planet because of the dramatically steep downhill grade. On the way back, he would be wanting to level the thing with the world's biggest steamroller, but on the way down it was an amusing curiosity.
At the bus stop, which was honestly just a metal pole in the ground on the side of the road, a slightly grimy teenaged girl rocked herself gently. Oh bus riders. At least this one was quiet. The slow as molasses trip to downtown was not unusual, though perhaps his fellow riders were a bit more chatty than usual. While he tried not to (it was rude to eavesdrop, after all) he kept catching snippets of conversation.
"You did
what?!" A blonde girl, high-school-age or perhaps a bit older, exclaimed to her seatmate. The other girl, a brunette, looked embarrassed.
"I heard she got caught prognosticating in class," another brunette, this one seated behind the pair of them and one seat in front of Nat, smirked as she said this.
"Is that even a word?" The first girl sounded skeptical. "What does it mean?"
"It's what the teacher said! She was just playing with one of those fortune-tellers," the girl in front of Nat laughed. "Probably asking it if she'd hook up with Brian..."
Their conversation devolved into talk about boys and Nat lost interest. They were especially loud, and made the trip seem longer than it was.
Nat got off at his stop, right next to the mall. Even in the morning the area was crammed with tourists, and crossing the street with fifty other people made him feel quite appropriately urban. He'd be pretty sick of feeling urban by the time he arrived at work though. An endless flow of obnoxious tourists and street urchins trying to hustle something free. When he had first started this job, he had made the mistake of feeling sorry for one of the kids and gave him a pocket's worth of spare change, only to be pestered every break by more and more beggars. He wouldn't be making that mistake again anytime soon.
He worked in the second busiest Starbucks in the world, along with a whole lot of other people. It was nice that way, at least. He wasn't necessarily the most compelling employee, and certainly his female coworkers attracted a lot more of the creepy attention. (Not that he felt great about that, but it made things less rough for him.) He got his creepers of course, and today he got a doozy.
An older man asked a question about their teas, and Nat made a polite mention of his British accent. The man got a wild look about this, and apparently took it as some sign of interest. He continued making small talk for an uncomfortably long time, and avoided Nat's encouragement for him to order.
"Yes, I have to say, you're a very beautiful young man. I'm sure this causes you all kinds of trouble, ha-ha..." the man smiled lasciviously. "Now, what would you consider to be the type of person that--"
Nat was all kinds of glad when a female coworker swooped in to distract the man into completing his order, and Nat made a bee-line for the break room. UGH!
The day dragged on and on and the sky dimmed to a denim blue-- a sign that he was nearly free. At last, he was released from his duties and took a moment to thank Sarah, the coworker who had saved him earlier. They spent a few minutes joking about sleezeball customers, before Sarah took her leave. Nat's bus came at 7:20 so he could take his time getting there. He stepped outside into the cool evening air. In the distance sirens blared, ah city life.
Someone turned to make eye contact with him, and he was distracted for a moment. A young man with dark hair looked a bit out of sorts. Was he lost or just doped-out? He was quite used to getting lost, so he could relate. Hm, that guy looked interesting somehow... Nat was about to approach him and ask if he was lost, when the screech of tires on asphalt tore his attention away.
A car roared by rather dramatically, and the dark haired man looked panicked for a moment, stumbling closer to the building a bit awkwardly. Nat took a step nearer the stranger, putting on his best 'helpful' face. "H-Hey, are you all right? Crazy driver, h--"
He was so busy watching him, he jumped and made an undignified yelping noise at the sound of another car doing the same thing. It was almost comical how quickly he whirled about to look. All around, cars roaring and careening around corners. What the hell? He'd seen cop cars do that, but not civilians, sheesh. A scream, somewhere nearby. Then, his phone. Phones all around, ringing, ringing. He felt like he'd fallen into a bizarre dream. By the time he focused his eyes on the screen of his phone, it had stopped ringing. "NO SIGNAL".
"W-What the hell?" Nat mumbled to himself, beginning to feel a bit panicked. What was going on?
The other phones had gone quiet as well. What? It was 7:15, only five minutes to get to his bus, but as he looked around at the faces of his fellow confused citizens, he began to doubt that his bus would ever arrive.