Everyone But Us

One // Theodore

Theodore (Jarrah's friend)

"You'll never believe who I got with on Saturday night," Gabe said to me as I fell into my seat. It wasn't even eight o'clock yet and he was already getting started. The bus shuddered to life and I took off my blazer, turning to face the arrogant guy who had become my friend over the years. How? I'm not sure. We sort of just fell in together since we were forced on the same bus in the first year of high school. He used to be... decent, but now he was all about scoring chicks and nothing else.

Shallow, right?

"I thought you were going to 'take it easy' this weekend," I commented, tapping a beat against the blue leather seat. God, our bus was so old and decrepit.

"I was," Gabe said with a small smirk as the bus came to a halt. I lurched forward, not alert enough to stop myself smacking into the seat in front. Damn it.

The year twelve guy snickered behind us.

"But?" I rubbed my forehead. Someone in a year level below got on and the bus was off again.

"But then Nicole got really drunk and was practically begging. Who was I to refuse her my services?"

"Nicole Lockwood?"

He just smirked.

"As in, the Nicole Lockwood on this bus?"

"The one and only."

"You're fucking with me, right?"

He shakes his head. "I swear on vodka."

Nicole. Fucking. Lockwood. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, she was the renowned school slut and hadn't stopped batting her eyelashes at Gabe for weeks, but I didn't think she'd actually do it.

The worst and best part about this was that Gabe was a one night stand sort of guy. He didn't get himself involved in relationships, meaning when Nicole got on the bus shit was going to go down. It's good because it was going to be fucking hilarious, but bad because it was early and I didn't want to deal with her dramatic pretenses.

The bus pulled over to the third and third last stop in our little town.

"Good morning, Angel," Trevor, our bus driver, greeted the little year seven who directly resembled her sister.

"How are you doing, Harlow?" He continued. I leaned into the aisle slightly to see my ex best friend. She delicately climbed up the bus steps, flashed a shy smile at Trev before trudging down the aisle with a quiet grace about her. Her thick dark hair wasn't pulled back and there were dark circles under her eyes.

She took the peeling leather seat in front of Gabe, sliding her blazer off and setting it delicately on the seat by her side, like I had.

Then the bus stuttered to life again.

Harlow and I grew up together. We were best friends all throughout primary school and until we got to year seven, where everything went to shit. I turned into an asshole and she didn't want to put up with it. I didn't blame her, and she hasn't spoken on the bus since.

"Oi." Gabe flicked my ear to get my attention. I cussed and punched him, before raising my eyebrows in questioning. "Guess who's getting on in two stops?"

Oh joy, the drama queen. "This is going to be fucking awful, isn't it?"

Gabe nodded, wearing a sick, masochistic smirk. What a dickhead. "It's going to suck."

Trevor must have turned on the radio because it was now blasting music from the 80s through the shuddering thing. I couldn't recognize the song but I groaned. Trev had the worst taste in music.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I got it out, surprised to have a text from one of my good mates, Jarrah.

Jarrah: Guess whos moved 2 ur bus?

Theodore: No fkn way

Jarrah: No jks. See u in 2 mins mate

Theodore: be prepared 4 a dramatic 1st ride

Sure enough, the bus pulled over somewhere it hadn't in the past five years and Jarrah climbed on. After a brief exchange with Trevor he nodded his head in greeting then fell into the seat in front of me.

"You never said you moved down here," I said, leaning on his seat with my elbows, picking at the leather.

"I didn't know I was. My dad told me a few days ago we were moving, again. So here I am." He shrugged, then turned to Gabe. "'Morning Gabriel."

I had to admit Jarrah was a good kid, but he was too fucking nice. And polite. It made everyone else look bad (including myself), which kind of bugged me. It shouldn't have, but it did.

"Just Gabe is fine, Jarrah."

"Sorry man." He held up his hands in the universal sign of surrender, and then turned across the aisle.

"'Morning Harlow."

At the mention of her name her eyes flicked up from her book. They held Jarrah's a moment long enough to realize he had been the one to say something to her. Her lips formed a tight smile and she nodded, before turning back to her book and letting her hair create a curtain between them.

Gabe snickered. "No point in making conversation with that one. She hasn't said a word since year seven and I don't reckon that's gonna change any time soon."

"'That one'?" Jarrah frowned, clearly disapproving of Gabe's choice of words. "She is a girl. She has a name."

I could already see that Jarrah and Gabe wouldn't get along too well.

"Obviously she's a girl, have you seen the tits on her?" Gabe's comment made Jarrah irritated and Harlow's cheeks flush. She liked to pretend she couldn't hear us, but she could.

Jarrah was going to throw something back at him but the bus pulled over on the edge of town and in stepped the Queen B. The B stood for Bitch, by the way.

Her school dress hardly covered her shorts as she tottered down the aisle, platinum hair straightened over her shoulders with a makeup on.

She was hot, I'd give her that.

"Hey Gabe," she lulled, placing herself in the empty seat beside him. She was fluttering her eyelashes at the rate of a butterflies wings and she latched herself onto Gabe's arm.

"What are you doing?" He was straight, his voice even a bit cold.

Oh hell.

"Sitting down." Her voice was so high pitched it would break glass. I was surprised the windows didn't shatter at the sound.

"Well," Gabe shrugged her off. "Can you find one somewhere else?"

Her mouth gaped open and I cursed under my breath. Jarrah heard it and nodded in sympathy, before turning to the front of the bus and putting his headphones in.

Too right. I followed his lead, blasting music over the sound of that fight I had decided I couldn't be bothered witnessing. Thanks to Gabe and his lack of self control, the bus was going to be hell for the next week or so until the Queen B had cooled off.

Damn you, Gabe. Damn you to hell.