Paper Lanterns

Chapter four

It was around four in the afternoon when the bus rolled into the Oakland bus station. I felt extremely frazzled as I grabbed my large bag from the luggage compartment of the bus and stepped away with Mike.

Saying it had been a long day would be an understatement. Mike and I had gotten on the bus at five thirty in the morning so it was an early start for both of us.

But perhaps the event that had been the most exhausting was the fact that I had listened to Mike and dumped Eugene during the trip up the coast. It was glorious don't get me wrong, but it definitely was also a bit draining.

We had stopped at lunch time for a half hour break at a roadhouse on the highway. The diner attached had payphones so I dug out my address book and called Eugene's home phone. After wrangling with his mother to put him on the phone (let's just say that even prior to the dumping she wasn't my biggest fan), he eventually spoke to me. I cut to the chase immediately and promptly told him that he was dumped. Well, the words I used were "Welcome to dumpsville, population one: you".

The entire phone call took about ten minutes. There were tears and tantrums and he threatened to turn up at school to talk in person. I then proudly informed him that he was more than welcome to show up at my school, as I was hundreds of miles away from him. After some more raging on his behalf, Mike took the receiver from me and hung up. And that was the official end of Evie and Eugene.

I now walk the streets of Oakland as a free woman.

Mike and I heavily dumped our bags on the floor as we approached the payphone at the bus station. Oakland was the closest to Billie's house that the Greyhound could take us. It didn't even take us into downtown Berkeley, let alone anywhere near Rodeo. We needed a ride, so Mike was going to call Billie. He took the receiver and I pressed my ear against the other side in order to be able to hear the conversation.

"Hello?" I immediately heard Billie answer. It was actually pretty lucky that Billie was the one who answered. Normally when I called him his mom answered, or it wasn't uncommon for one of his siblings to be around and get to the phone first.

"Billie, yo. It's me-" Mike began, but Billie immediately cut him off.

"-Mike. I have been trying to reach you since last night. I've been calling Evie non stop because I don't have Tayla's number, but I kept getting her answering machine. Listen, you gotta get to Berkeley, pronto."

"Billie, I-" Mike tried to explain but Billie spoke over him again.

"It's too late to get the Greyhound. You need to fly. If you can't borrow money from Tayla for a flight back, go get it from Evie. Actually go get Evie anyway. I have a feeling both girls will want to haul their asses to Berkeley for this."

"Billie, what the fuck is going on?" Mike asked in confusion after he was finally able to get a word in.

"Last night the Operation Ivy dudes made the call that they're breaking up. It's super last minute but they're doing one final show at Gilmans tonight. We got invited to play, Larry gave me a call last night. Dude, you need to get back here stat." Billie urged Mike.

I went to grab the receiver to reveal to Billie that not only was Mike already in the area, I was too. But Mike held the receiver above his head wearing a wicked grin. I was fairly tall for a girl, but Mike was taller and thus I wasn't able to reach it.

I gave up with a pout and Mike brought the receiver back to his ear.

"Gee, I don't know Billie. I don't think I'm going to make it. You might have to get someone else to cover bass for me." Mike teased with a sly smile.