Today was another long day at work in retail. I needed to pick up a few necessities for the bat cave before I left for the day, when a bag of Valentine's Day candy caught my eye. It was a bag of heart-shaped lollipops. I added the bag to my items, cashed out and headed for the bus stop, on my way, popping a lollipop into my mouth as I walked. The bus arrived shortly after I got to the stop and me and a few other people got on. There was a girl across from me who is often on the bus when I get out of work, we say hi. She goes to one of the private schools and usually seems lonely, if I had to guess I'd say she's probably in the sixth grade. I offered her a lollipop and at first she said no, and pointed to a bag of Cheetos she had in her backpack and smiled. A highschool girl in the seats in the back saw the bag and sheepishly asked "Can I have a sucker?" I said "Sure" and dug around to find the opening of the bag, when I found it she said "I could give you a dime for it, oh wait, I have 20 cents if you want it." I just smiled and said "No, that's okay, what flavor?" She said sour apple, the first flavor out of the bag, was fine and then tried to offer me some gum in exchange, I smiled and said no thanks and she sat back and sucked on her sucker while starting on some homework. A woman on the phone next to the private school girl looked over and continued her conversation. The school girl saw the highschool girl with a sucker and said "Actually, I think I will have one" So I asked her what flavor and she said "Sour apple, please!" I handed her the lollipop and she said thanks and began kicking her feet while she munched on cheetos and held fast to the lollipop. The woman next to her got off of her phone and turned to the school girl, asking her how her day had been, if she had a lot of homework. The woman had bright red lipstick on and her purse and shoes had red trim to match. I offered her a lollipop and she said "Sure." I asked her if watermelon, again the first flavor out of the bag, would do and she said "Yes, thank you." When she took the wrapper off, the bright red lollipop completed her look, and soon everyone was talking and sucking on lollipops. I mused to myself how a $2 bag of lollipops could make so many people happy, and give everyone enough common ground to start talking to one another. When it came to my stop I got up to get off, and everyone thanked me warmly for the lollipops and said good bye as I got off.
