I turned to face the window and leaned my seat back as far as it would go. We made small talk for awhile, telling each other a bit about ourselves and then settled in for the night.Īs it got later, most of the passengers turned out their reading lights and the bus got dark. He said he was headed to his granddaughter's wedding the next state over. He was 60ish and had a kindly grandfather look. I had never been on a bus before and was not quite sure what to expect, so I sat back and gazed out the window, and after awhile was bored to tears.Īs the bus traveled from town to town, picking up more travelers and dropping a few off, the bus soon became crowded and a man asked if anyone was sitting next to me. Not having a car or money for airfare, I bought a bus ticket, grabbed my backpack with a change of clothes and was off across country on a 2 day bus adventure. My parents asked me to come quickly as his condition worsened. When I was in my freshman year in college, my grandfather fell ill and had to be hospitalized. Where as most guys my age had body hair, my chest and legs were almost hairless and as smooth as any girl's.
I was of short stature with very pale white skin and on the thin side. It wasn't that I was unattractive, it was that I was such a geek and girls stayed away in droves, preferring the jocks. I had been on one "blind date" of sorts and it had been a total disaster. I didn't start masturbating until I was nearly 18 and was afraid to ask a girl out for fear of rejection. I was a late bloomer when I was a kid, a total nerd.