“I’ll miss you!” she giggled as she pecked my cheek. She looked so cute that day, with her auburn curls tied up in blue ribbons. “Better not cheat on me. I’ll only be gone a few months.”

“Oh, I’ve got something for you,” I remembered, yanking a package from my backpack. You nicely sidestepped that comment, a little voice in my head pointed out.

“Birthday wrapping! My favorite!” she grinned at the gift. “Can I open it? Please, please, oh, please?”

“Not until you get to…” I paused and gazed around for a quick second. “Not until you get to the stop sign way down there.”

“Aw, but that’s so far away!” she pouted.

“I think you’ll be able to wait the two minutes,” I smirked and pulled her close. One last kiss and she was on the bus, bouncing her way to the back.

The bus burped to life and shuddered forward. I was going to miss her.

She waved fervently at me as the bus rumbled towards the stop sign. I saw her reach down, obviously to open her present.

I think I’ll be safe from here, they’re pretty far away, were my final guilty thoughts before her fingers pulled off the last bits of wrapping.

BANG! The explosion shot off. Flames licked the insides of the cabin and smoke puffed from the bus. The entire bus swerved and rolled, the driver was obviously surprised, and it toppled over onto its side.

In a moment of pure clarity I realized that I was terrible at breaking up.