Finding Romeo

Chapter 2

(Talia's POV)

My eyelids drooped down low over my eyes, making the screen in front of me blur. Exhaustion clouded my thoughts in a thick fog as I struggled to stay awake.

Time for another cup of coffee spiked with 5 hour energy.

The bitter taste of the coffee made me cringe, while the aftertaste of the 5 hour energy made me gag.

Well, atleast I'm awake now.

I blinked several times and widened my eyes as far as they would go, getting my eyes to stay open again before stretching. My eyes wandered back to the computer screen, shocked to see it was already 5 A.M.

I had pulled an all nighter, searching Facebook's data for any sign of him and had found nothing. There was no trace of him anywhere, he was like a dream, a ghost of a man that made you wonder if it was real at all.

Wait did I just call Romeo a dream? What was this guy doing to me? Obviously beating you at your own game, stupid. I sighed and rubbed my hands across my face. Whoever Romeo was, he was good. But I was better.. right?

I shook my head and pawned off the doubts in my mind as exhaustion. Think think think. He wouldn't have left you with nothing, he wants you to find him.

There was only one other thing I could think of and it was so far out there that I doubted it would work. Friend all the Romeos on Facebook.

* * * *

It took me two hours to send all 2,721 Romeos a friend request, and I only had to overwrite the system four times to allow that many requests within a twenty-four hour time span. By the time I was done, I had just enough time to change into work clothes and grab a bagel before heading out the door, jogging the three blocks to the bus stop and boarding it just before it was about to depart.

The bus was packed full of people and all the seats were full. So I grabbed one of the handles hanging from the ceiling and stood in the most secluded area I could find, hoping that the twenty minute bus trip would go by faster. What's that smell? Ugh, just ignore it. Do you really want to know what the smell is anyway? Nope.

I put on my headphones to drown out the sounds on the bus, hoping to distract myself from the horrid stench filling my nose. A large, shaggy haired man in a tye-dyed shirt walked past me and held unto the handle in front of me, the breeze he created making me gag. Is the stench coming from that guy? My eyes watered and I buried my nose into the sleeve of my shirt. Ah God, it is. How can anyone smell like that?

I could understand someone going to work all day and stinking a bit. Hell, I had even been down in the sewer before, and I'm sure I didn't smell too good after. But this guys odor was a mix between the worst BO I had ever smelled in my life and poop.

No wonder this was the least crowded part of the entire bus, everyone was moving away from him. Glancing around I noticed a lady old enough to be a grandmother cover her nose with a hanky from her oversized purse and move away a few feet.

Another gag heaved at my stomach and I dropped the handle and strode away into the heavier crowded portion of the bus and away from stinky guy, stumbling slightly when the bus lurched through a turn.

A hand grasped my arm and kept me from falling into a couple taking selfies together. "Are you okay?"

I glanced up into a bright set of green eyes hidden behind a set of green glasses. A smile tugged at the guy's lips as he dropped his hand from my arm. "So I see you had to move away from Bad Pits."

I smiled, immediately liking the guy in front of me. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, a rare trait to find, and his eyes were bright with laughter but also held an intelligent shadow in them. "Yeah, it seemed like a hazard to my health if I stayed close to him any longer," I said, laughing slightly.