Encounter

The road was the focal point for my eyes.

It was as if I felt my adrenaline rush into my own veins. It was a busy place. I was looking at every single detail in the busy road so I would know which one would hinder me. There were a plethora of cars beeping at every section of the avenue, and tons of people were crossing my path but I managed to get past them. My sweat was dripping across my body, my breath was just as fast as I was, and the wind was caressing my skin as I paddled vigorously.

I looked back, I was still being chased by the local bloke after I ran over his groceries on the ground in my attempt to chase time. I felt bad, but it was 8:30 in the morning and I had my exams at 8:40. I couldn’t mess that up, that professor already had his eyes on me and I swear I would fail my class if I didn’t come there on time. And as I was paddling harder and starting to set my eyes on the road again, I immediately felt my bike hit against a person as my vision slowly went closer and closer to the asphalt ground. I crashed. I looked at my palms—clearly abraded, but I immediately checked up on the person I crashed on. It was a woman, about the same age as mine.

“Could you please fucking look at the road?!”, she wailed in pain. I immediately helped her stand up as she was clearly unable to. I, then guided her to a pale wooden bench at the side of the road for her to rest.

“I’m so sorry, ma’am, I’m running late and I ran over his groceries and he’s chasing aft—”

“There you are!”, interrupted the local man as he pointed towards me, running. I immediately turned the other way to ride my bicycle again but the woman suddenly held my hand. I looked at her direction, her eyes told me to stay. She stood up, and faced the man chasing after me.

“Let him go, alright? I’ll just pay your groceries.” The woman reached over her rose-colored purse, handing over 10$ to him. The man was visibly starting to calm down. I was confused, I didn’t know what the hell was happening, she paid for my wrongdoings despite me bumping into her earlier.

“What?— why?”

“Just shut up and go, you’re running late”. The woman was clearly annoyed yet still had an ounce of kindness towards me, a stranger who had his circumstances down the low.

“How can I repay you?”

“Did I stutter? Go!”, she replied. I just took the kindness with me and thanked her for it. I immediately went towards my bike and rode towards the school. “Thank you so much!” I looked back and shouted.