Marcie and Tommy by storieslou..,

Author note: I originally published this story under a different author name, which no longer exists. I’ve made a few changes and cleaned up some errors.

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Marcie:

I’m standing at the school bus stop waiting for the bus to come. It just rained buckets, and large puddles have pooled by the roadside. I’m standing back from the curb, so I don’t get splashed by cars driving by.

There are two girls all dressed up blabbering away, totally oblivious to the world, and they’re standing close to the curb. Too close.

I look to the left and see a tall, gangly-looking guy watching the girls. My first impression is that he’s a geek, but then I look closer, and he’s actually not bad-looking. In fact, he’s cute, but his hair is messy. It’s not dirty, but it looks unbrushed. It looks like he just rolled out of bed. He’s wearing an open trench coat (I kid you not!) and track pants and an old t-shirt. He looks like a computer nerd that doesn’t care about his looks. There’s something about him that catches my eye, though.

The bus is approaching, and water is splashing big time.

The geek sees the bus and looks at the girls chatting away, oblivious to their impending wetness. His head turns back and forth between the approaching bus and the girls. He starts to frown when he sees the girls haven’t noticed the bus.

At the very last minute, he frowns and shakes his head, and steps between the girls and the bus, and opens his trench coat like Batman. The bus has slowed down, but there is still a large splash. The geek gets drenched, but there’s not a drop of water on the girls. His coat shielded them. I can’t believe it! He deliberately took a hit for them. Who does that in this day and age? It’s like he’s some kind of chivalrous knight.

The idiotic girls walk right by him and get on the bus without thanking him. They were so self-absorbed they probably didn’t even realize what he did. I feel like smacking them in the head!

Or, maybe they thought he was a stalker pervert flashing them. Who knows?

I get a big lump in my throat because I’m so impressed by his selfless behavior. I know right away I want to meet this guy and whip out my phone and take pictures and follow him on the bus.

The bus lady, who looks like she’s in her fifties, is looking at the guy in amazement as well. I’m not the only female who was impressed.

I ride the bus past my stop and get off when he does and follow him to his house.

Cool! Now I have pictures and know where he lives, and he likely goes to my school. I do a reverse phone search on the ride home and get a phone number and a family name from his address. His last name is Cochrane.

I keep my eyes open at school, but the campus is large, and we might never cross paths. I look at his pictures every day. The more I look, the more I like. He’s got to be six feet tall. I’m only 5’6″ and I like taller guys. There’s not an ounce of fat on him, and his stomach is perfectly flat. And beneath the mop of thick golden hair is such a cute face.

I’m not sure how old he is, though, because he’s got one of those innocent babyfaces. I’m in my last year of a veterinarian program and am twenty-two, but he could be 18 or my age. I have no idea. Would I go out with a first-year guy? I don’t think so. But, maybe. He’s pretty cute!

Two weeks go by, and I’m starting to lose hope when guess who sits down one table over from me in the cafeteria?

I don’t think he noticed me, so I get up and pretend I’m just sitting down and ask him if the spot beside him is taken. He nods no and goes back to eating and looking at his phone.

I try to chat him up but am only getting one-word answers. I’m not used to silence from guys. I don’t like to brag, but I’ve never had a shortage of guys approaching me. Think of the Wendy’s burger girl with bigger boobs, and a curvy ass. Usually, guys are happy to talk to me.

I’m not getting anywhere, though, and mom always said, if you like a guy go for him. So I’m forced to be direct.

“Hi, my name is Marcie. I saw you at the bus stop the other day when you shielded those girls from getting soaked. It was pretty impressive.”

He looks surprised but gives me a small smile. “Thanks, but I don’t think they even knew.”

“I noticed that. I wanted to smack them in the head for being such idiots.”

That gets a grin from him, which emboldens me. “And your name is?”

“Tommy Cochrane.”

Good! The last name matches the name from my address search.

“What are you going through for?”

“I’m in my fourth year of computer studies.”

Excellent! He’s my age.

Time to be bold. “Tommy, I’m so impressed with what you did for those girls; I was wondering if you’d like to go out on a date?”

He looks shocked. “You want to go out with me?”

“Yes. Is that okay?”

He still looks surprised. “Tommy?”

He eyes me and gives me a quick once-over, and smiles.

“Sure!”

All right! Mom’s advice worked.

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Tommy Cochrane picked me up at my apartment, which was nice given that I didn’t own a car. Tommy was lucky because he lived in town and didn’t have to spend money on rent and could drive his parents’ vehicles. Unfortunately, the small town I grew up in didn’t even have a high school, nevertheless a University. So I was in debt up to my ears from rent and tuition. Thank God I was graduating soon, and the job market for vet technicians was good.

I was pleasantly surprised when Tommy showed up. His trench coat, t-shirt, and track pants were replaced by a nice pair of jeans, a white dress shirt, and some nice sandals. And his bedhead was gone. His thick golden hair was combed back and had a natural wave. He looked good!

I was curious about the trench coat, though.

“No trench coat today?”

He smiled.

“No. I only wore it that day because the weather forecast was calling for heavy rain and I couldn’t find my umbrella. I didn’t want to get soaked at the bus stop. It’s not even my coat. It’s my older brother’s, and he moved out, so I borrowed it. My brother was a Matrix fanatic and thought he was Keanu Reeves. I always thought he looked stupid, but the coat kept the rain away and saved me from getting soaked by the bus.”

“You didn’t get soaked? It sure looked like it from my viewpoint.”

He grinned. “The coat was soaked, but I wasn’t.”

When Tommy turned around to get in the car, I noticed a Walmart price tag attached to his shirt. Did he get a new shirt for me?

“New shirt?”

He smiled. “Yes. How did you know?”

I pointed to the price tag.

He looked embarrassed, so I interjected.

“The shirt looks good on you. I like it.” I reached over and pulled the tag off.

I guess he wasn’t used to clothing compliments or compliments from girls because he gave me a goofy half-embarrassed smile, which looked so cute. Then he looked at my feet.

“Something wrong?”

He smiled. “No, I was just checking to see if you’re wearing something good for walking.”

“Walking?”

“Yes. I was wondering if you’d like to go for a walk. There’s a park in town that I visit all the time to walk and relax. It’s beautiful. It’s heavily forested, and the city maintains trails that interconnect the sections. If you walk the perimeter, it’s a couple of miles, but you can take as many shortcuts as you want. It’s a beautiful night, and I thought it would be nice in there. Does that sound okay?”