STORY STARTER
"In a way, this is a happy ending for the both of us."
Use this dialogue as the final line of your story or poem.
On A Bus
[trigger warning: trauma & sorta assault]
She was twelve.
On a school bus.
He was fourteen.
She didnāt know any better,
so she didnāt scream.
Not when his hand
lingered closer to her hip,
not when he flirted straight dirt.
She was twelve.
She didnāt know any better.
But she wore a skirt,
so she was asking for it.
He was fourteen.
She didnāt know it was happening.
Four years later,
she canāt even remember.
Trauma, trauma,
it can either enhance your memory
or steal it completely.
She knows that it happened,
she knows it wasnāt the worst it couldāve been,
but all her feelings,
the empath in her is disappointed,
she canāt remember how she felt.
She was twelve.
On a school bus.
He was fourteen.
His hand on her leg,
the way he jumped up
when it was her stop.
if not for the driver,
it may have been worse.
it wasnāt worse, though.
just a hand placement.
āitās not real trauma.ā
of course not.
it was just premature assault.
I remember his name.
Thinking it makes me want to revolt,
to hurl, to die on the spot.
I donāt remember.
I just know it happened.
When I changed schools,
and, more importantly, buses,
I knew it was better for the
both of us.
