That one minute until the bus arrives takes forever. The older woman next to Sylvia sighs and turns her head towards Sylvia, she wants a conversation. Sylvia pulls out her headphones. “It’s always the same with this damn bus company, always late” the woman complains to Sylvia. She agrees but doesn’t answer much more than a “hmm-hmm”. “I need to go to the hospital, can’t be late, where is this bus?!”, the older woman gets slightly frustrated and stands up looking around her. Sylvia laughs a little and replies with a “That doesn’t help, the bus won’t come quicker if you’re looking for it, trust me, I’ve done it many times”. The older woman looks furious at Sylvia and walks away.

Sylvia her phone starts buzzing again, she receives a call from the same number again. She doesn’t hesitate and answers the call within seconds. “Yes, hello? Who is this, and are you going to talk this time?” she asks. It’s quiet on the other side. Just when she’s about to end the call, the man on the other line starts talking with some hesitation. “Sylvia, please, don’t hang up. I need to tell you something…“. Sylvia is confused and remains silent. It’s silent for at least 30 seconds before the man on the phone starts talking again. “Sylvia, you’ve gone through hell, and I only want to help you, like you’ve helped me before. Why won’t you let me?”. She finally recognizes the voice of the man on the other side of the line. It’s Andrew! How the hell did he get her number? She starts shaking and looks around her nervously. “Hello? Sylvia? Did you hear what I just said?”, Andrew asks her. “Yes, I heard you. How did you manage to get my number? And when will you finally stop messaging me? I don’t want to see you, Andrew”, she nervously answers. It’s silent again on the other side of the phone. “I’ll see you soon, gorgeous”, Andrew replies and he disconnects the call. Sylvia is in shock, but not much time to process this all, the bus finally arrives.

Sylvia enters the bus, it’s super crowded and no place to sit down quietly, to process this all. She made sure to lean against a glass panel and pulls out her phone from her pocket. She stares at the screen for a moment and decides to call her best friend, Theresa. “Hey hon, what are you up to? Still planning on coming to school today?”, Theresa answers the phone. “Thé, I’m not sure about it all anymore, I’m scared”, Sylvia replies with a shaking voice and tears in her eyes. “Wow, Syl, what happened? Where are you?”, Theresa replies in shock. “I’m in the bus to school now, can we meet up at the park before we head inside, please? Andrew just called me, Thé. I’m so scared”, she starts to shake even more but needs to focus on her balance as the bus takes a sharp right turn. She almost falls, but is able to grab onto the door so she doesn’t fall. People stare at her, but she swiftly looks away, outside the doors of the bus. “Of course, I’ll see you there in 20, okay? Stay calm, all will be alright hon”, Theresa replies before ending the call.

Sylvia starts to calm down again, she puts her phone back in her pocket, puts in her headphones and starts listening to her music again. She looks up at all the people in the bus and notices a man in front of the bus staring at her, it makes her uncomfortable. She looks away, but she can feel he’s still staring at her. She starts thinking about getting off at the next stop, it’s only a 5-minute walk to school from that stop. And maybe it’ll make her less uncomfortable in a way. But when the stop arrives, she decides to stay in the bus. She looks up at the man again, and he starts smiling at her, but not in a friendly way, but more in a creepy kind of way. Showing no teeth, squinting his eyes while rubbing his hands. She really needs to get off of the bus any time soon. The man slowly starts moving towards Sylvia, but it’s too busy in the bus for him to move any faster.

Thank god, the stop where she needs to get off has arrived. The doors open and Sylvia jumps out of the bus. She starts walking with such speed, it’s been a while since she walked this fast. She looks up at the school, peaceful, students walking towards the main gate to enter the school. But not her, no, she waits until the bus departs so she can cross the busy road to walk towards the park where Theresa should be waiting for her. But as soon as the bus leaves and she looks at the park, Theresa is nowhere to be seen. Sylvia decides to run across the road towards the park, or actually, it’s just a grass field with a big tree in the middle, surrounded by a low iron bar which is supposed to be a fence, but it looks very clumsy. She starts walking towards the tree, their meeting spot. She pulls out her phone to check if she received any messages or calls from Theresa, but none show up on her screen. She unlocks her phone and starts calling Theresa, but the call gets connected to her voicemail immediately. Sylvia starts to worry.