0003 Trio of Losers

Upon getting on the bus, Lucius sees two empty seats near the entrance and offers them to Julia and her son who politely declines and points to the end of the shuttle, where there are still a few places to sit, her obvious look of concern made him think maybe it was best to leave her alone for today.

"Julia...

... If you need to talk later or need someone to take care of Nathan, Alex and I will be home this afternoon, have a good day...".

"I'll check things out there with my mom, then I'll see what to do...

... Thank you...".

She then went ahead and sat there at the end. Lucius sat by the window while Alex sat next to him, and yet more people stopped the bus to get on, in a short time there were already people standing on the transport.

The rain outside was pouring down nonstop, now a little heavier than half an hour ago, but even so, it wasn't strong enough to drown out conversations inside the transport, some of the new passengers were even louder than those who entered the same location as Lucius.

Alex at his side, couldn't stand his friend's silence any longer and soon became one of the excited voices inside the vehicle.

“Man, I'm tired, I spent the night studying a power generator project, what do you think about setting up a clean energy business?”.

Now sitting next to him, he could see his eyes sunken and small with tiredness, but still very excited about his own ideals.

“Right, but we need someone good to invest in the idea and who can contribute in other ways without demanding payment for the help, hah”.

He replied sarcastically, leaning his head against the window and closing his eyes.

“You always have good ideas, if you help me we will be able to help other people who need a solution for electric energy and we can even make some money...

... Come on man, you got nothing better to do!”.

Alex hugged him tightly as he gripped his shirt.

“Stop wrinkling my shirt! You are infecting me with the TetraN virus!”.

“Whaat?

If I am contaminated, we will die together in this cruel world!!!”.

“Who wants to die with you here?

Leave me! Or I'll throw you out the window!”.

As the two friends talked, the bus continued on its way, picking up even more passengers, all going their own way, minding their own business and the business of others.

An old man who spent his entire trip next to the driver, talking loudly complaining about life while exhaling alcohol from his body, walked spaciously to Alex's side.

Slowly bumping into him from time to time and using a disgusted look to look at him, moments later he says it out loud in an exaggerated way.

“Young people today don't respect their elders!!

Where's the respect for those who spent all night working?

I'm tired, my feet hurt!!!”.

Speaking slowly and thus drawing everyone's attention to them.

“Ooh please, come, come, I'm sorry...”.

The boy shyly tries to get up, while Lucius observes the situation and looks at the people around until he stops his eyes on a woman standing a little far away holding a child in her lap.

With a mocking smile, the man already getting ready to sit down was stopped at the last moment by someone else's arm, the other young man who was also seated was now preventing him from sitting.

But before he could even speak a word, the young man in front of him spoke first.

“Hey, you!

With the child in your arms, please come and sit here in my place!”.

The woman who was rambling on her own worries was startled at the moment, until she understood that someone had offered her a place to sit with her son, resting her aching arms from carrying it along with a large bag with their belongings.

She kindly thanked the tall young man before sitting down and placing her son next to her with a relieved expression.

The two friends displayed a triumphant look as they walked away from the place, heading towards the middle of the bus making the old man frown heavily at the situation.

Not giving up, the old man continued.

“Small children should be held on their mother's lap!”.

The irritating voice made many turn their faces in contempt.

The woman felt embarrassed, put the bag between her legs and her son on her lap keeping her head down.

Alex cursed under his breath at the sight of what had happened and Lucius felt guilty for the woman's embarrassment, but at least she was sitting up now, and her path would be less unpleasant and tiring. It was his thought of self-comfort.

With another bus stop, a new passenger climbs onto the transport, a woman with long hair, in a ponytail, wearing tight, stretchy gym clothes, standing out from the rest, with a pose and air of superiority, soon she was stopped by the drunken old man.

“Oh my miss, take my seat here, i'm still young, i can stand up!

... What man would I be if I didn't give my seat to a woman who's standing while I'm sitting?”.

His eyes never left the woman's breasts for a moment. As for the woman, she just frowned as she sat down and sunk her eyes into the cell phone in her hands.

The nearly drooling drunk standing next to her, for the first time stopped talking and complaining about his own life.

“Lucius, hold me down or I'm going to slap that old pervert's neck!!”.

"Go there, slap him for me...".

A young woman in a white hooded sweatshirt sitting across from them laughed at their interaction. She held a bag in her lap and while laughing, soon joined in the conversation as she took her cell phone from her bag.

"I think we should all slap him ha ha...

... I hope I don't miss the test...".

"Would it be the administrative job test?".

Hearing her last comment, Lucius had a thought about the test the girl mentioned and out of curiosity asked about the test, to see if it would be the same test he and Alex would do this day.

"Oh yes, that one!

Are you two also going to the test?".

"Sadly yes...".

Alex's despondent response left questions between the lines that the young woman didn't let slip.

"This discouragement is for what reason?".

"His dismay is for a very simple reason...

... You're in front of Alex, the computer and robotics engineer!

Where there is no demand for jobs in his role, he is unable to develop his personal projects and is being forced to try an administrative job test...".

Lucius explained dramatically, turning his gaze away from the girl to look pityingly at his friend, who looked back at him accusingly.

"Man, you can't talk about me!

Lord Lucius, the cosmologist he he he...".

And now it was Lucius who looked accusingly at Alex and frowned, but a cute laugh from the girl stopped their play.

"Oh, I'm Helena, the oceanographer and climatologist ha ha...".

"Noooo man, seriously?

A trio of losers we are!".

"Hey, you're the loser...".

The three laughed when they realized the situation they were both in regarding their careers, and in the middle of the conversation Helena continued to ask.

"I know our country doesn't invest in science and technology, but have you two ever thought about working abroad?".

"There were three of us, but man, our partner Matheus abandoned us and went abroad...".

"Well, I wasn't that smart at the time, and certain problems at home kept me from seeing the best path for me...

... As for Alex here, he helps take care of his grandmother who suffers from certain diseases, she has no one else to help but him...

... He mumbles like that about our friend Matheus, but it's just drama, don't mind him.".

"Man, don't spoil my act!

What about you, what do you do lost in this end of the world?".

She stopped smiling, turned her face to look at the rain for a moment, while the silence between the three was muffled by the conversations of others, she took a deep breath and answered.

"Well, I was working abroad...

... I just missed home and came back, but things didn't go so well and I can't leave anymore...".

"We understand you, man, but you tried something else... Ouch! Hey! Do not hit me!".

Lucius rolled his eyes at Alex's meddling in the girl's personal affairs, giving her a light slap on the head, and in order not to make her uncomfortable, he tried to change the subject, but he heard Helena laugh again and wave her hand.

"That's fine, no problem...

... I taught basic science classes at a private school, but with the outbreak of the pandemic, the bosses wanted to force us to work in person, without vaccine and without the proper protections, so I lost work at the end of it...".

"Fuck these motherfuckers...".

Scratching his head where he had been slapped, Alex didn't stop cursing over Helena's situation, and decided not to get further into her problems and continued the conversation.

"I managed to get by a little with programming jobs, but Lucius was the most crazy, he abandoned the studies he had invested so much in and graduated in design, can you believe that?".

"I wouldn't say I abandoned it, I still keep study materials on various things, and in terms of design, I can say that I like it as much as any astronomical area I've invested in for years.".

"Fuck man!

Stop lying! You only have scientific books and music on your cell phone!".

"Hey, I also have books on design, engineering, and... Stop!

Drop my cell phone!

Give me back!".

Alex turned his body completely while hiding Lucius' cell phone that he shamelessly took from inside his jacket pocket, with each interaction of the two, the more Helena laughed, some passengers looked with disgust while others ignored it.

Giving up, Lucius unlocked his cell phone, letting Alex browse through his files in hopes of getting his device back as soon as possible.

"Man, what do you have neuroscience books for?

Evolutionary biology, genetics, geology... Hell!

How much random stuff are you studying?".

"They're just study materials, give me back!".

"You must have freaked out lately right?

Tell me, what's the prob... Damn! Do you have a music playlist that is almost a week long?

Hey! Wait! Let me look more!".

Taking advantage of his nosy friend's dramatic pause, Lucius managed to retrieve his cell phone, hiding it in his pocket again, but zipping his jacket to avoid Alex's harassment.

"Okay, you can have your problems, but at least tell me, where did you buy a memory card that big?

I need one to watch my animations...".

"Right, then I'll give you the link to the store's website when I get home, now please leave me alone...

You're going to make the girl have a heart attack laughing so hard at us...".

The girl Helena was holding tight to the support, laughed so much that her mask came off her face, where she had to lower the hood showing her straight hair slightly wavy dyed a color between blue and green.

So, she fixed the mask on her face again, took a deep breath to stop laughing and took the opportunity to open the bag where she held her cell phone inside and checked the time, 07:23 displayed on the screen, making her sigh silently.

“Maybe I shouldn't go home today...”.

Looking at the cell phone in the girl's hand, Lucius' mood was now sour, clearly there wouldn't be enough time to reach his destination, but in a few seconds he was again indifferent to the situation and Alex realizing the time together, resumed talking.

“Why don't you become a politician, man?

To seek a better and easier life, in addition to being able to improve other people's lives...”.

“Right, a better life for people or for you?".

The suggestion made Lucius and Helena laugh again, however, smiling at his friend he continued.

“Becoming a president, for example, would perhaps be a good path, and getting killed in secret for changing and improving the really important things, would be even better heh.”.

“... Or being burned at the stake for ignoring other people's cultural traditions in search of social betterment...”.

Alex completed saying while discreetly pointing with his head to the entrance of the transport.

A man wearing clothes like suits and fancy shoes, standing a few steps from the driver, his body fully facing everyone inside the vehicle, looked one by one as if sizing up people here and there.

He picked up some kind of book from who knows where and raised his hand pointing at everyone.

“Passengers, I'm sorry to disturb your journey on this blessed morning...

...I have come before all of you to say that the end of the world is near!”.