A little bit of a background story, first of all, I am super paranoid all the time. I hate landing into situations that could make me act desperately. But today, today...was just different.
My dad asks me the same question all the time:
"Do you still have money?"
And my answer is always the same. Yes. Because I stash away cash in my room. But now the cash in my stash is running low, I made a limit of cash to bring to college. And boy, I was so wrong to do that.
Today I was greedier than usual. I almost never order drinks for lunch. But I had this weird sudden crave for teh c special. And my lunch automatically became RM6.40.
After class, my assignment groupmates (kind of like my gang now..same people who eat and do assignments and go to the toilet and exchange weirdass and sometimes harsh jokes with me) invited me to join them for ABC (Air batu campur, ais kacang, shaved ice, whatever you want to call it) at a famous ABC stall nearby. This is kind of the last few days I have with them before the finals, and the place is just within walking distance anyway, so I decided I should just come along.
And I had like only three RM1 notes in my pocket, with some random amount of coins I found in my bag. I put aside RM2.50 for my bus fare and spent the rest for my ABC. In other words, I only had RM2.50 left after the ABC. And a wild 5 sen coin. I had just enough money for the bus ride home and my heart screamed YOLO.
The ABC was meh, but I enjoyed sitting and chilling with my gang. I am really a weird person. Just yesterday I was so pissed with one of them because his joke went overboard. Today we ate ABC like nothing wrong happened. Like I didn't literally shove my pencil in between his eyes and tell him to take back his words. If you're feeling concerned, please don't. He's the only he in our group, and he naturally has a bad mouth. We'll get to that story some other day.
The truth is, I'm always feeling sappy towards people when it's about time to say goodbye. Next semester most of us won't be classmates anymore, and I'm telling myself right now that hey, this one year has been kind of okay. I kind of had a group of crazy, rude, unmotivated, loud, weird people with me all the time and they mostly acted as a shield to my shyness. They made me angry like a thousand times and sometimes I hate them with a burning passion of a thousand suns. But they also shared with me some simple happy moments that I had in class.
But the story today isn't about them.
I walked to the bus station and was glad to see that my bus had arrived. This is the last air-conditioned bus of the day. The last non-air-conditioned bus has its own schedule that I'm not really sure of. But this is 5pm. And I know I'll be reaching home when the sun partially sets. I paid my fare, sat down, daydreamed a bit, but the journey that was all sunshine and rainbows didn't last long.
In front of the famous Boulevard Shopping Mall, the bus suddenly broke down.
And I knew I was in trouble.
Because
1. I have only 5 sen in my pocket. Even Macklemore can't beat that.
2. My dad drove the car to work.
3. There are no other cars at home.
4. The last bus could be anywhere at that moment,
5. The last bus could be that old non-air-conditioned bus just behind my bus that broke down.
6. If I didn't hop on that bus I might be stranded in front of a bigass shopping complex wearing baju kurung with 5 sen in my pocket and I might be hungry as hell by the time someone rescues me.
So I did two of the most genius actions ever
1. Ask for a refund from the very old bus driver, half pleading, half threatening. He refunded about 5 passengers who asked earlier than me, and refused to believe that I have no money to go back home. I was half angry, half panicked, but I half pity this old man. He looks like he's older than my grandpa. And I literally asked for money from him.
2. Call my mum.
And my mum gave me the best solution ever
1. Follow those people who hopped on the other bus that's behind the bus that broke down. Tell the driver you have no money. Tell him also that your mum will be waiting by the roadside to pay for the fare.
And I ran like crazy, because the bus was about to move after more than half of the passengers on the previous bus entered this bus. I was the last person to join them. And I pleaded with the bus driver. He looked like he was about to laugh at me. I don't know. But I made it. I was on my way home. The bus driver is a nice guy.
I called my mum again and told her that no one kicked me out of the bus. She should wait for me. And prepare RM2.50.
But my plan failed again.
I've been on hundreds of bus rides this year, and bus drivers never stop the bus at the spot where this guy stopped today. My mum was standing at the usual spot where they would normally stop. He stopped at about 150 metres before the spot.
I rushed outside, half running in my baju kurung, and asked for the money from my mum.
To my horror, she was holding only RM2.
There are limitations in my native language. What could've been understood as "Where is 50 sen more?" in English, is not possibly said in a short sentence in my native language.
I grabbed the RM2 from my mum, thinking that she did not bring extra money, and just shoved the money to the bus driver and said thanks, rushed out of the bus and prayed hard that he won't call me back for the extra 50 sen that I was supposed to pay.
The look in his eyes is going to haunt my dreams tonight.
His.eyes.were.so.puzzled.
Walking back home with my mum from the main road, I suddenly realised that she brought along her purse. And I felt so stupid.
MUM, I SAID IT WAS RM2.50. WHY DIDN'T YOU GIVE ME 50 SEN WHEN I ASKED FROM YOU JUST NOW??
BUT YOU SAID RM1.50 ON THE PHONE.
NO MUM I SAID RM2.50!!
YOU SAID RM1.50. I HEARD YOU SAY RM1.50!
and I said okay fine mum let's keep on arguing about this.
and my mum said maybe I'll meet him again next week and I can pay him the 50 sen.
And that's how I became a bad person today.
1. I spent all my money.
2. I asked for my money back from an old bus driver. Not in the most patient kind of way.
3. I argued with my mum about a 50 sen difference.
4. I betrayed the trust of a kind-hearted bus driver.
And that's how I became a very bad person today. One of the people in classic stories taxi drivers always tell. I remember one story told by a taxi driver to me when I was on the way to LCCT a few years ago. He had a passenger who asked him to wait because the passenger did not have money and he was going to get it from a friend in campus. The poor taxi driver waited in front of the campus gate. No one appeared. The guy lied. The taxi driver was so sad that someone would do something like that.
I swindled 50 sen from a bus driver today. Meet your friend, the baddest person of the day. Not that I'm so good on any other days heh. Right now, I'm just thankful that kind people do exist. I hope I can pay back the 50 sen. Even if I can't, let's say if I don't meet with the same bus driver ever again, well, I can only pray that he won't stop believing in people like me lol and may God bless him for his kindness.
