Years of the Bus

18- A Complication

Sydney’s Point of View

“How much money do I have to give you to go up there?” Erin asked Ross with a big grin.

He shook his head at her and crossed his arms over his chest to emphasize his stubbornness on this subject. “I will not be bought.”

“You will be bought,” She insisted, just as stubborn as him.

“Why don’t you make somebody else do it?” He wondered. “Like Turner or Logan?”

“Because I don’t have to pay them to do it,” Erin sighed. “So it’s no fun. Please?”

“I’m not singing karaoke, Erin. You can’t make me,” Ross informed her.

We were standing in the back of a karaoke bar that seemed to be pretty popular. There were a lot of people there, cheering on the people that were singing and having a good time up on the small stage at the front. It wasn’t really a bar, because they let us in, but there few drunk people swaying around.

“Why don’t you go up there?” Kenton asked Lanie with his arm looped around her waist as they stood together. Gory stood together too; both couples looking all coupley. Baker and Gaige were standing close together too, but they weren’t touching because they were both too stubborn to actually do anything about their feelings for each other. It’s frustrating, yet amusing at the same time.

“I will,” Lanie decided. “You should come with me.”

His grinned down at her and shook his head. “I’m not going to do that.”

“Us girls are way cooler than you lame guys,” Baker insisted, grabbing my hand in one of hers and Erin’s in her other. As she dragged us towards the stage, I grabbed Rosa’s hand with my empty one. We all started towards the DJ to sign up for a karaoke slot and we had to choose a song too.

“Let’s do Lightning in a Bottle,” Rosa chirped. “We all now The Summer Set, right?”

We all nodded in agreement and the DJ guy wrote down Baker’s name on the list. He told us that we were fifth in line and then we thanked him and returned to Lanie, Grace, and the guys.

“I’m definitely recording this,” Logan grinned, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“Yeah, you do that. We’ll be famous on YouTube in no time,” Baker informed him confidently.

“You’re really going to go up there?” Turner wondered as he stood beside me. He talked quietly, so that I was the only one that could hear him.

“Yes. Why is that so surprising?” I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

He laughed, which made me smile a bit. “Because I just can’t see you getting up on that stage and singing. You do realize that you’ll have to sing, right?”

“Yes, Turner,” I sighed, nudging his side with my elbow. “I do know that I’ll have to sing. It’s not like we’ll ever see these people again.”

“I still think that you’ll chicken out,” He told me with a teasing smirk.

“You sound like you want to make a bet.”

“I do love winning a bet,” He grinned, wrapping one of his softly muscular arms around my shoulders. “And I definitely will win this bet.”

“No you won’t,” I assured him. “I’m not a timid little puppy, mister. I’m still not making a bet with you, though.”

“Because you’re scared,” He sang.

“Because your bets are always perverted and terrible and I will not subject myself to that willingly,” I defended. I think Turner and I became closer after that thing on Fourth of July. When Lanie and the girls found me and then went off to defend my honor or whatever, they left me with Turner. I was a mess. He carried me back towards the group because I had a hard time being able to stand on my own. I never realized until that night how incredibly hot Turner was. I mean, I was faintly aware of his attractiveness like I was faintly aware that all of my guy friends were attractive. It was never a hidden fact that the guys I associate with are easy on the eyes but it was just a fact, it was never something that I ever actually considered. However, when Turner was carrying me and being all sweet and protective and shirtless (he gave his shirt to Lanie after she gave her shirt to me), I realized how seriously hot he was. Of course, I’d never admit that to anybody except for myself.