Stay for Me (Hold Me Close Prequel)

Chapter Fifteen: Field Trip Part II

-=Evan=-

"Go with your group leader! With your group leader! PARKINS! FOLLOW YOUR TEACHER AND STOP CLIMBING THE WALLS!!" A rather angry history teacher was yelling. Hunter, Jason and I followed the steady stream of students going to the buses which were waiting for us at the front of the school. We had our suitcases rolling behind us, packed to the brim with stuff that we would need for the next week.

The bus ride was long...super freaking long to be exact. I mean, some people go on road trips that would dwarf this one by a long shot, but still, I don't like sitting still. Especially when you're on an unairconditioned bus and it's 90 degrees out. And just to put the icing on the cake, we were on a bus. A school bus. One with children. Screaming children. At one point a bra flew over our heads, even though all of the suitcases were stored down below, underneath the bus. So I didn't dare move, I just sat there facing forsard, paws in my lap, not saying a peep.

Eventually I must have fallen asleep. I say this because I woke up with my faced pressed up, squishes against the glass window, and I may or may not have been drooling. Lucky for me though I woke up as we were arriving at the huge motel we would be sleeping at. Never before this moment had it occurred to me that I would be sleeping in the same room as someone.

"Everyone listen up!" The same history teacher yelled from the front of the bus. "I will call a room number and two names, that's who you're bunking with! This is completely random and you have no say in the matter! Listen up because I'm only going to be saying this once!" She yelled. On and on she droned, number after number, name after name. Hunter was one of the first people to be called, with some random dude that I had no idea about. I already had it put in my mind that I would not be bunking with him, but still. I was disappointed. I wasn't called until about three fourths of the bus was already gone. "Room 337, Evan Black and Samuel Cloudd!" The person I was with didn't click until I was already standing up and walking off of the bus. In fact, when I did figure it out, I stopped dead in my tracks, but the teacher just saw it as me stopping to take the keys and she handed them to me. I didn't dare look behind me, where I could sense Sam. The mood has always been very uncomfortable between the two of us ever since the second day of him coming to Nutmeg, God knows what Elliot put into his brain.

I kept my head down as I walked alongside the building's third floor. The hot Maryland climate not really agreeing with me, but what could I do about it. The air was just so damn humid. I rummaged through my pocket for a second before finding the key ring I was handed. The ring had 3 jingling keys on it, one for the room of course, one for the safe inside of the room, and one for the ice machine. I walked to the back of the room, where I took the bed all the way to the back, still, not saying a word as Sam came inside behind me, shutting the door with a distinctive click. I was trapped. Well, for at least the next hour that we were allowed to unpack. By the time we all regrouped it would be just about dinner time and we were going to head into Alexandria (which is right outside of D.C.) and get dinner at a restaurant there.

It was probably the longest hour of my life. I had pulled out a book from my suitcase and started reading it, but I found it very difficult to concentrate. Sam seemed equally as uncomfortable as I was, propped up against his headboard and scrolling through his phone. I don't think he knew that I could still see when he occasionally glanced over at me, looking to see what I was doing. He actually looked confused, but I don't know. People always look different from what they are actually feeling nowadays. Sam's watch finally beeped, signaling that it was 18:00 (06:00 PM), and he got up and practically ran out the door, well, speed walked. Quite honestly I was in the same boat as him. Didn't really want to be in there a second longer than necessary.

We were all told to meet up at the front of the motel at this time, and by the time I had made it down there, there was already a pretty large crowd gathered. I kind of felt bad for the furs running this motel for the week, they had their work cut out for them. All of these screaming disasters waiting to happen.

I spotted Hunter and Jason standing together around the edge of the mass of high schoolers so I made my way over to them. Just as I got there we were all called back to attention.

"Now I will be handing each and every once of you a metro pass. On this pass there is exactly enough money for the entire trip, fitting the itinerary of course. If you lose this there will be no replacements from us and you will have to pay for your own transport for the rest of the trip. If you can not, you will have to stay here at the motel while everyone else goes off and learns about this country's history." The teacher explained.

"As if we would ever want to miss out on that." A student that I couldn't see because they were behind me said.

"Parkins! I swear to God if you test my nerves on this trip I will be referring you to the dean the second we get back. Okay everyone, follow your group leader to the metro station. Do not split up!" And with that we all followed our designated teachers across the street and down the sidewalk a little ways where there was a large brick metro station with a large black letter "M" on a sign. We all swiped the cards that we were given as we filed through by the teachers and the gates opened for us. We waited for maybe five minutes for the next train to arrive, loud as hell it was too.

Ten minutes later we were in the center of town, slowly shuffling into some nice Italian restaurant that the school had made a reservation to. I sat with Hunter and Jason of course, in the back corner of the restaurant. Service was fast, and we really just talked about who we were bunking with, if we cared for them at all, what we thought the rest of the tip was going to be like, and eventually Jason and Hunter stooped so low that they were making "your mom" jokes. There was nothing that I could do but sit there, suffer a tiny little bit, and laugh.

After dinner we were allowed to split up and explore the shops and places along the two main streets, and we had about two hours. We went down to the pier and sat on the edge of the boardwalk, letting our legs hang off of the side. Jason had brought an Uno deck with him, so we played that until I finally won.

"Plus four, plus two, skip, and green seven. Go fuck yourselves." I said, slapping the cards down in that order.

"Every time! Why do I even bother anymore." Jason whined.

"Oh calm down it isn't that bad. I don't win every time." I cooed.

"Yeah you do." They both responded simultaniously.

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-=Sam=-

After a while of roaming the shops by myself, it was time for us to head back for the night. I was dreading this. The mood between Evan and I was so stale and uncomfortable I felt just about ready to rip my fur out.

When we arrived back at the motel I went to the workout room that they had there, as we still had an hour before the teachers wanted us to "have our lights out." The gym was quite small, although I don't know what I should have expected from a motel like this. When I walked in I quickly realized that I wasn't alone. Whoever Evan was spending so much time with lately was also in there, but he was listening to music so I felt like there wasn't a problem. I walked over to a treadmill and started on that, running at a high speed to work of some pent up energy that I had. Eventually Evan's friend noticed that I had come in as well, but he just gave me a quick glance and kept lifting what looked like an abusive amount of weight.