Three friends were hanging out at the bus stop, waiting for the bus to go to their music class. One of them, a 17-year-old named Jeff, wanted to light a cigarette, but he had no cigarettes, nor did he have a lighter. So he decided to go without. His friends hated the smell of smoke anyway.
His friend Susie decided to play the guitar. It was raining, but they were sitting on the bus stop's covered bench, so she pulled her guitar out of its case and started playing. She played a song about kittens and another song about death. Her cat had just had a litter of five kittens, and two of them had died. It was quite upsetting to Susie, because she had been working so hard to keep all of the kittens happy and healthy. According to the vet, however, the two that died had had problematic birth defects that had prevented their hearts from working the way they should. So Susie sang about her dead kittens, and she cried.
The third friend, a girl named Janie, cried as well. Her grandmother had just passed away and she was having other family troubles. She and her siblings just weren't getting along, her mother had recently lost her job, and her alienated father was refusing to pay child support.
Things weren't going well for any of the three friends. Jeff was struggling in school and he barely had time to hang out with his friends. What little time he did have was spent trying to keep Janie from becoming too depressed, which only stressed him out even more. He didn't give up on her, though. He wanted to see her smiling again, because when their group was happy, their time together was probably the best in the world.
The bus drove up and stopped in front of them. Susie put her guitar in its case, Janie wiped her tears away, and Jeff paid for their tickets. They sat together on the bus in silence, looking out the window as the bus drove through the city.
"Hey, look, it's a double rainbow," Janie pointed out after a while.
Susie groaned and braced herself for Jeff's inevitable response. Sure enough, Jeff grinned and exclaimed, "A double rainbow? Oh my God, what could it mean? Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!"
"Wow, Jeff, you're such a fucking loser," Susie said.
Janie laughed. It caught both Susie and Jeff by surprise, but they still smiled and laughed as well. After all, if Janie could laugh, then that meant they hadn't reached the point of no return. Things were going to get better.
Someday.
(Sometimes when I start writing a funny story, it turns serious all of a sudden. Like it did with this one. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an essay to write.)
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