Years of the Bus

19- A Truth Circle

*There is nothing rated R in this chapter. Nothing about this story is rated R, but it won't let me change it to PG-13 so apperently, the rest of the story is going to be rated R because it won't let me change it back to PG-13 -.-*

The day after the karaoke bar, the bus was full of awkward silence. It had been all day. There would be some chatter between the guys or some chatter between the girls, but it was mostly just silent and awkward. Baker and Gaige weren’t talking. Sydney and Turner weren’t talking. I wasn’t talking to Kenton. Grace and Cory weren’t even talking. The people who should be the closest on the bus were ironically the farthest apart.

Luckily, Kenton was driving, so I didn’t have to deal with the awkwardness between the two of us and I could put it off for as long as possible. Last night at the bar, I kind of stopped talking to him for the most part. I mean, I’d talk to him but I just wouldn’t smile and I wasn’t really into the conversation at all. His arm was wrapped around my shoulders but I wasn’t leaning into him like I usually do. When we woke up that morning, he got the message that I didn’t want to talk to him, so he’d kept his distance until it was his time to drive.

I didn’t know what happened between Sydney and Turner last night, but whatever it was, it was definitely dramatic, because they aren’t speaking to each other either. I’d never thought about Sydney and Turner becoming a thing at all, but when I saw them last night at the bar, they really did look like a really cute couple. It was like living a live eating strawberries and lemonade and loving both things separately but then one day, you try a strawberry lemonade and realize how incredible they taste together. Although, I wouldn’t be doing any tasting when it came to Sydney and Turner, but you get the point.

As for Gory, I had no idea what was going on with them either, I just woke up this morning and they weren’t on good terms. I didn’t hear any yelling or fighting at all, they just weren’t sitting together and when I sat next to Grace for breakfast, I noticed her sending Cory a few side glares. They rarely ever fought, so whatever it was, it had to be pretty huge for them to be fighting. However, I was pretty sure that they didn’t actually break up, because if that happened, Grace would have been in tears, crying hysterically and paralyzed with a broken heart. Cory wouldn’t be much better, but he’d be taking his pain out in a more masculine way like beating things up or something.

Baker and Gaige weren’t talking because they were Baker and Gaige. I was sure that they figured if they didn’t talk to each other, they wouldn’t become a thing. They were afraid of that, being a couple, I mean. They were both so tragically afraid of it, so I’d given up on trying to get them together. It would work out in its own time though, I was sure.

After breakfast, I found one of the empty seat beds and relaxed in it with my ear buds in my ears, listening to music loud enough to drown out all other sound on the bus. I just closed my eyes and focused on the bumps in the road as we drove on the interstate. This was probably one of the worst days of the trip. It was right up there with Baker’s pregnancy scare probably, and I didn’t like it at all.

This was supposed to be our summer. This was our summer and I wouldn’t let a few arguments or disagreements or whatever ruin the last six and a half weeks we had left of it. After I listened to two hours of my playlist, I took my ear buds out and stood up, looking at everyone moping around awkwardly around the bus.

Ross went back to sleep after breakfast but other than him, the guys were up front while Logan and Cory talked in hushed voices. They were completely segregated from the girls, who were sitting in the back of the bus. Erin was talking to Rosa as they played some game on Erin’s phone, but other than them, everybody else was silent.

“Rosa,” I broke the almost-silence in the back, but I spoke quiet enough for only the girls to hear me. When she looked up at me, I continued speaking. “Can you go tell them to stop the bus?”