Cecilia never found out why that bus never came, but up to this day, she's glad it didn't.
She waited another ten minutes, staring as other buses going to different neighborhoods of town passed by. The 21 only went once an hour after nine, so Cecilia knew she had to wait at least half an hour more for the next bus. She decided to walk to the bigger bus station a few blocks away, where there was an indoor area she could sit and wait. She took the back street to the station, avoiding the loud cars and bright lights on that main street. As she walked, she noticed how beautifully quiet it was there instead. The cold gave a strange stillness to everything around her; the apartment buildings, the parked cars, the leafless trees and even Cecilia's own thoughts. She wasn't very fond of loud noises, she could get easily stressed out by a loud motorbike driving outside her apartment or by the constant noise that the neighbor liked for music. And so walking a few blocks in the intense silence gave the city something she had rarely experienced but absolutely enjoyed.
She kept on walking till she reached the main station, where it wasn't quite so still, although the city still remained somewhat calm and quiet. She soon found out that most people were inside due to the now freezing cold and she was so hungry and tired that she preferred the cold to the loud voices of people in the waiting area. Cecilia unconsciously lit another cigarette to pass the time, now unable to ignore the shivering and the way the cold was spreading to every last bit of her body. Her head was beginning to ache and she could no longer feel the tip of her toes. Her mood had been ruined by all those loud people in the waiting area. So even if it was freezing, she knew she would feel slightly better out in the now 0-degree weather, in nothing but jogging tights, a thin top and her excuse for a jacket.
"Are you not cold?"- was the first thing Natalie ever said to Cecilia.
