They Never Expected

Chapter 17

17

I took my seat next to Isac and breathed in deeply, closing my eyes to calm myself down. The fear still burned like a solid lump of coal deep dow in the pit of my stomach, but the karaoke sessions and cheering behind me boosted my spirits a little, weakening the fear’s influence on my mind.

“Your knuckles are white.” Tara poked her head over the seat behind us.

“Huh?” my eyes opened involuntarily.

“Calm down. Just remember that this is my first time back on a bus too.”

Wow. I hadn’t thought about that. I turned to face her, “You haven’t ridden a bus in ten years?”

She nodded.

“How are you not going out of your mind right now?”

She shrugged, “It’s hard to go out of your mind when your mind kicked you out a long time ago.”

I heard Isac chuckle next to me.

“You gonna make it?” Tara asked.

“If you can, I can.”

“Okay. I’m going to try and get some sleep. Yell if you need anything.” she disappeared behind the seat and I turned back around, closing my eyes again.

“Di you get that thing we talked about all set up?” Isac whispered,pointing behind us when he was absolutely sure Tara wasn’t looking.

“Shh!” I glared at him, “She still doesn’t know!”

He glanced behind him before fiddling with his phone for a few seconds. Suddenly, my phone vibrated. I glanced at him and found a cheesy smile. I just rolled my eyes and read the message, “Do you have everything you need?”

“We don’t have a flute. Ms. B is working on it though.” I texted back.

He nodded as the message popped up on his screen and he read it, “I guess that is a problem.” he said out loud.

“Will you two please puleez shut up?” Lexie pounded on the back of the seat in front of us where she sat with Justin, evidently over her friendly mood.

Isac grinned but managed to smother a comeback and pulled out his iPod, “Wanna listen?” he whispered.

“Not right now. Don’t freak out if you lose an earbud in about fifteen minutes though.”

“Okay,” he kissed my cheek, “ wake me if you need anything. I’m gonna get some sleep.” he leaned his head back against the back of the seat and I rested mine on the window’s cool glass.

We were surrounded by cars on every side in the middle of one of the busiest highways around, just as Ms. Bradford had promised. I couldn’t help glancing at the edge of the road on the other side of the median though. There was a rock face serving as protection against falling on the side of the road we were on then, but the drive home would put us right next to the steep drop-off on the other side. I closed my eyes. Though it didn’t provide much protection, it made me feel a little more secure.

I kept my eyes closed, listening to the quiet conversation of people who had been smart enough to sleep the night before. There were a few people talking quietly about my return, but the conversation ended quickly as they all started to drift off, so I returned my attention to twiddling my thumbs and trying to identify the various songs blasting through Isac’s headphones.

After a little while, even those who had slept the night before were dropping like flies. The voices in the back of the bus were silent and the sound of loud iPods was really the only audible noise besides the sound of the road underneath us. I glanced up toward the front of the bus and found that even Ms. Bradford had fallen asleep. As had the techs who were scattered throughout the bus. The only ones not sleeping at that point were the chaperones and even they were looking pretty ragged. The lack of sound was getting to me, feeding the flame of anxiety that had re-ignited in the pit of my stomach.