Haphephobia (School Bus Graveyard X Reader)

An Unwanted Trip

(Episode 7-9)

"I'm so glad you decided to come! You made it seem like you weren't going to go." Aiden said happily as he talked to Ashlyn. It was hard to tell if she was just not much of a talker or trying to pretend he didn't exist. Either way, it didn't matter to Aiden as he kept on talking. Logan was nervously on a call while Taylor and Tyler fought for Tyler's bag. "But I left mine at home, please Ty!" "No!"

Our whole group was here for the field trip, along with our entire class. I watched everyone happily chatting about the field trip as I stood by Ben. From the few days I've known everyone, he doesn't make any big or fast moments unless it involves stopping Aiden from doing something. I was very nervous about the trip. This would be the longest time I've been without my brother since he took me in, and because of incidents that have happened before whenever I'm in a new location, I wasn't looking forward to coming along for the trip. If it was truly up to me I would have stayed home and rewatched some of my favorite movies I have on DVD.

...

"Hey (Y/n) I didn't know you had a field trip! Don't worry I already filled out the permission slip and will be calling your teacher to get more information on it" Aster walked into my room, holding the pink slip in hand. Despite being the one that was going, he seemed so excited about this trip. I let out a signing knowing I had to break the news on why I wasn't going.

"What were you doing in my bag? This is an invasion of privacy you know!?" I sat up on the bed walking to the door, I snatched the paper from his hand and walked back to my bed. "Whatever you were doing, you just wasted however long it took you to fill it out because I'm not going. Now if you excuse me." I pressed my back on my headboard and opened the book that was on my bedside table. It was one I was trying to get into, one with a dark cover of a boy. It wasn't a long book but it was an interesting one. The title "The Outsiders" was spelled in white lettering. It still had that fresh book smell from the recent time of buying it.

I felt the weight on my bed shift, looking up I saw my brother lying back down. His arm was over his eyes as he let out a dramatic sigh. I looked down at my book again trying to ignore the even louder sighs escaping his lips. The louder they got the more absurd they sounded. This wasn't a new thing though, he's trying to get me to react in a way. And if I do react it would be his way to try and get me to go.

There was a short period of silence, no sighing, no talking, only the sounds from outside and the light turd of pages could be heard at all.

"Listen, me and your therapist have been talkin' on the phone. Now before you say anything, we didn't talk about anything you told them in your sessions so don't freak out. But we have been talking and they think it would be good for you to take on a few activities in hopes of making new friends. I know how hard it has been on you, and we think if you become friends, they could maybe, in a way. Help you manage your fear."

I lowered my book down on my lap, my eyes were kept on the pages but none of the words made sense as I focused on what he had to say. Waves of guilt washed over me, I knew it wasn't his attention to make me feel guilty, he was trying to get me to relax. "They're going to be a lot of strangers there.." My voice came out softer than I was. It almost sounded like how you expect a child to sound once they get scolded. Even though I'm not a child anymore and I'm not being scolded like how my mom used to do... "Mom would have never spoken to me this softly, or would she?"

"I won't force you if you really don't want to, I trust you enough that you know whether or not you can handle this."

...

Although it seemed like it was my decision, I didn't have a choice on the matter. Getting betting would make both mine and my brother's life so much easier. I didn't think much about the choice as I decided to put the signed slip in my bag and hand it to the teacher. Pushing down all bad thoughts of what ifs and problems that could come across would make things harder. So it was best to push down all the negative thoughts and feelings and forget everything. Out of sight out of mind.