I've Never Been On The Outside... (Salvis)

Church bells ring, walk me home.

Chapter 3 fuckersssss. I'm so sorry last chapter was so short i had school in the morning hahaha fuck school. anygays (yes i stole that from harper) this chapter is a lyric from It's Nice To Have A Friend by Taylor Swift. I'm writing this when I have theater in an hour lolz.

The six hour bus ride was uncomfortably silent most of the time. Silent between Sal and Travis mostly. Sal still talked to his friends the whole time but he didn't make Travis talk when he didn't want to. Travis wished that he could think of something to say but alas he never could. When the sun began to set Sal decided to break the silence. "Tell me something about yourself." he said. The request caught Travis off guard and he turned to him. "What?" he asked. "Tell me something about yourself," he repeated. "It doesn't have to be interesting. I just wanna get to know you." Travis thought for a moment. What was something interesting about him? "Um I really like writing.." he said quietly. Sal nodded at the answer. "What do you like to write?" he asks. "I like writing letters. Well, no one ever sees them but I still write them."

Sal nods again. "What kind of letters?"

"Any kind. I mostly write letters to myself. Not like diary entries more just kind of things I wish I could say."

He didn't know why he was trusting Sal with this information but he was. He expected him to laugh about that but no laugh escaped his lips. "That's really fucking cool, man." he said instead. "Thanks," Travis replied "what about you? Tell me something about yourself."

Sal thought for a moment before eventually replying. "I like to play guitar." Travis smiled at the answer. His father hadn't let him go to any concerts but he's seen the church band quite a few times. Not every Sunday like he'd had wished because he was in the church choir but he would sneak away a couple times to see the band. He always found the guitarists amazing. It was something about how they could make beautiful sounds with just some strings. He decided that this was what he was going to tell Sal next.

"I've seen the church band play a few times and I've always really liked the sound of a guitar."

"Really?" he asked.

Travis nodded quickly and before he could speak again, the bus pulled into a gravel parking lot. The students all cheered as the bus stopped and the teacher assigned to their bus stood up and shushed everybody. She instructed everyone to exit the bus and line up along the vehicle. They did as they were told and filed out of the bus. Sal stepped out and then Travis. They stood side by side along the bus facing the sunset. The teacher greeted a lady, maybe in her late 20s before walking back to us.

"This is going to be your groups assigned park ranger. Would you please introduce yourself?" the teacher said. The ranger wore a gray button up and green jean shorts. "Hey y'all, my name is Julia and I'll be your park ranger for these next few days. I'm here if you need help navigating the park, getting back to your cabin, or if you just need someone to talk to." She didn't quite have a southern accent but she had a little twang to her voice. "Well Julia, I think I'm going to let you have them and we'll be back to get them in a few days." the teacher stated. Julia nodded and waved to her before she entered the bus and drove away.

"First thing's first, your seat buddy is going to be sharing a bunk with you. You guys can argue over who gets the top bunk when we get to our cabin." she said jokingly. It took Travis a moment to realize that he would have to share a bunk with Sal. Sal fucking Fisher. His thoughts were interrupted by Julia speaking again.

"Follow me and we'll get you settled into your cabin." she said. Larry, Ash, Todd, and Monica all found Sal and began talking to him. Travis walked a couple meters behind them since he didn't really have anybody to walk with. Although he was a couple meters back, he could still hear bits of their conversation.