Young Folks (Ross Lynch AU)

sixteen.

"You doing alright?" I asked Ross as we hiked along the trail. He turned to look at me and smiled weakly.

"Better than before," he mused. It's been two days since the attack, and his arm was still giving him a bit of trouble. I changed his bandages every few hours, and he didn't complain much, only when he was in immense pain.

"That's good," I said quietly. "Do you want to stop?"

"I think I'm good," Ross answered. "Maybe in a mile or two."

"Alright," I agreed, and we trekked along in silence.

As we hiked, I couldn't help but replay the events that occurred the other night over again in my head. They were traumatizing, nearly made me shit my pants, and just plain old scary.

There were two things that kept popping into my head when I thought about what happened: the image of the dead wolf and the feeling of Ross' lips on my cheek.

The wolf haunted me, day and night. It clouded my thoughts during the day and haunted my dreams while I was sleeping. I couldn't help but think about how it attacked Ross so viciously, with no mercy whatsoever.

But I also don't think I will ever be able to forgive myself for killing it.

Of course, it was just self defense. I was just protecting myself and Ross. But it still broke my heart to think that I killed an animal, no matter what it did to me and my friend.

I just had to remind myself that it was for my own good.

The other thought that clouded my head was much more positive.

Ross.

Every time I thought about him, I smiled just a bit wider, my eyes became just a bit brighter, and I became just a bit happier altogether.

I was falling fast.

I couldn't help it.

He was everything I've ever wanted in a guy: smart, funny, sweet, caring, not to mention, quite attract-

"Aspen!" Ross exclaimed, interrupting my thoughts. I shook my head and looked in front of me.

And what I saw made tears spring to my eyes.

A bus.

An old, abused, run down, abandoned bus.

Magic Bus 142.

"Oh my god," I whispered, my eyes widening.

"What?" Ross asked.

"OH MY FUCKING GOD!" I screamed. I ran towards the bus and lightly touched it, as if it would break if I put too much pressure on it. "It's real."

"Aspen, what are you on about? It's just a bus," Ross muttered. I turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"Just a bus? Ross, do you know what this is?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah, it's a shitty bus," he rolled his eyes.

"Don't become a smart ass with me," I warned, and he held his hands up in surrender. "This is Magic Bus 142."

"Magic what what?" Ross asked.

"Have you ever read the book Into The Wild?" I asked.

"No, why?"

"Well that explains a lot," I rolled my eyes. "Let's just sit in the bus, I need a break."

We both climbed onto the bus while I tried not to have a fangirling attack at the thought of where I was.

At the tail end of the bus was an old, near-rotting mattress, and directly to my right was a large kitchen counter. There was a wood stove to my left, and the driver's seat was behind me.

"Oh my fucking God," I repeated as I set my backpack down next to the counter. I walked to the back of the bus and then to the front again as Ross just glanced at me weirdly.

"We're saved," I whispered, shaking my head and laughing.

"Okay, explain to me what the hell this bus is and why you think we're saved. We're still in the middle of no where with zero reception and nothing but a granola bar or two and a few sips of water," Ross said.

"Don't be such a Debbie Downer," I laughed awkwardly, then sat on the mattress and patted the spot next to me. Ross just looked at me as if I was crazy and shook his head.

"No thanks."

"Suit yourself," I shrugged. "Well, as I said before, this is Magic Bus 142. To keep things short and simple, in 1990, Christopher McCandless stopped talking to his family, gave away his $25,000 college fund, and started traveling around the western part of the U.S.  Two years later, he came up here, ditched his car, hiked along the Stampede Trail, and found this abandoned bus. He stayed and lived here for approximately 119 days before he died from eating some poisonous plant."

"Damn," Ross whispered.

"You got that right. He kept a journal that was found later and a man by the name of Jon Krakauer wrote a book about it called Into The Wild. They turned it into a movie in 2007. Christopher and this bus are now world famous, and people travel here all the time. If we stick around here for long enough, someone is bound to find us!" I exclaimed ecstatically.

"Wow," Ross whispered. "We are saved."

"Damn right we are," I grinned. "We're not going to die. Not on my watch."

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: I just published the sequel to Nicotine so if any of yall read that book then go check it out. It's called 5 Years Time

I don't know when I'll be updating next. I'm going on vacation next week and I will have little to no internet and I probably won't be on my phone that much anyways so it might be a week until the next update

Also, the story about Christopher McCandless is 100% true. Into The Wild is a real book and movie, and this is a real bus. I will go more into detail about this story later. I own none of the facts about the bus or Christopher McCandless.

Okay that was long

Thanks for putting up with me ily xx :)