Rolling Coins

After a long shift all I can think about is getting home to check my messages. With money in hand I make my way to the bus station where I try to figure out which bus would take me home quickest. Casually wandering and looking to the road ahead in search of buses my body somehow rejects the idea of physical gripping and releases coins from my hand as I walk. There aren’t many people at the station as it is nearing midnight though with the sound of metal on the floor, most people turn in my direction. Frantically thinking that a bus will come this second I rush to pick up the dropped coins to find that a man is following my movements with his eyes. The last coin, a ten pence piece, rolls away from me in a circular motion toward a rather large old lady wearing a floral dress and leather jacket; the coin rolls between her legs. I look to her and force a smile though it is through gritted teeth knowing that if I didn’t need that ten pence to make £1.60, I might have left it and pretended I hadn’t seen it rolling. The woman’s face smiles with only her bottom lip causing her cheeks to bunch toward her mouth. I gingerly make toward the coin and retrieve it knowing that I am being watched. Wanting to get away from the situation I look again toward the road and see the yellow lights of a bus. I realise that it leaves from stand 8 which is coincidentally the stand I am stood at. I turn to the man that had watched me; we raise our eyebrows to signify that what had happened was awkward. I get on the bus as does the lady; she sits in front of me. The bus pulls away and I look to the man showing my bottom teeth and a look of panic across my face; he laughs as the bus pulls away from him.