Fleeting Jellybeans #001

One of the things that soothe my nerves from daybreak anxiety attacks that result from commuting every 6 am to work, is my liking for solo gossip. It might seem bizarre to you but I have reasons to believe that it is one major part of therapeutic energy every commuter in a bustling city should embrace. Occasionally.

There's an amount of tingling joy and sense of self-esteem build-up one gets from observing people who are hooked to their phones while seated at a strategic point in a public bus at 6 am. It gets your mind off the torture of an upcoming blow which is the unpleasant job you struggle to leave every day and it gives you an extreme, yet fulfilling free pass into another person's business. Infringing but harmless and relieving.

Take this one 20-something-year-old gentleman, for example, sharply dressed with a fine leather suitcase, manicured nails, and delicately brushed hair, who is stunned by people's lack of enthusiasm to determine what needs attention and what doesn't. He is convinced that he has a life everyone should admire and does not fathom why the world is so full of morons whose satisfaction comes from seeking credits from strangers on an insignificant mobile app. For this reason, he scoffs silently then locks all his social media pop-up notifications and focuses on a chronological online thesis about how our government judicial system is washed up. I call such Wicky because it sounds like a pretty name for someone who gets infuriated by other people's choices and source of entertainment. 

Then there's another, middle-aged egomaniac. Let's call him Matt (no offense to all the Matts in the world, except for one.) He is the kind many might consider a sorry excuse for a human being. He spends his entire journey double-tapping onto evocative pictures of women and leaving desperate loathsome comments about how he can handle arousal and how he is ready to meet up for "coffee". You can tell he has numerous girlfriends judging by how he keeps comparing pics (I would have said pictures but pics suits wayward Matt more, maybe I should give him just a little credit) from his Instagram with the profile pics of somebody saved either as BBG, Mine or Emm Love from his Whatsapp contacts. Low blow, Matt! LOW BLOW...

The other day I sat at a three o'clock angle from a woman who was initiating a heartbreak and the number of read paragraphs she had to give a reply to was overwhelming! I only managed to pick a few words like " sorry", "never again" and "desperate for you". I was loving the look on her face as her eyes raced through the pack of cry-me-a-river texts.  Something inside me wanted for her to zoom in on the texts but she did not give me that. She was indifferent as she went through the amount of ranting and whining from a future ex-lover then she released a cold smile towards the end and locked her phone. I admired her courage and decided I was going to push the day with her take-no-shit kind of attitude. That day, I left many people at read, with blue ticks on most of my WhatsApp messages but I still questioned myself if it was the right thing to do.

*Fleet*

Solo gossip is a made-up term but we both know that you, dear reader, knew that from the word go.