Bus Stop 13 ➼hood

Because Three Chapters Weren't Enough

|Calum|

❝ shut up. listen to that. ❞

***

My eyes pop open and I jerk in my seat. What the fuck?

Familiar voices ring in my ears.

"Cal, you're awake."

I almost karate chop the hand that reaches for me before I register who it belongs to. I cannot believe my eyes.

"Luke?"

I grab the hand. I can feel his skin, I can hear his voice. And the leather texture of Ashton's car. The smell of Michael's hair products.

"Where am I?" I ask and the boys erupt into laughter.

"Didn't we go over this already? We're going off to meet our death." Ashton says.

"Wait, what? Rewind." I'm thoroughly confused.

"I said, we're going to the mall. To get Luke here a new pair of vans."

Did I not hear him right the first time?

"What day is it?" I ask out of curiosity.

"13th May. Why?"

I travelled a day forwards? How could that be? I thought I was still in 12th May.

"Had I been sleeping long?"

"Yeah. Are you okay?" Luke asks, worriedly.

"Have you ever heard of Bus 99?" I ignore him, hoping that they have. They must be playing a joke on me. Yup, that's it.

"Bus 99? Never heard of it." Ashton looks at me from the rearview mirror, grinning.

"Stop it, you guys. You're creeping me out." I look out the window but everything is foggy. I can't see nothing. Where the hell are we?

"Stop what? Going through your death?" Michael says in a deep, hoarse voice.

"What did you say, Mikey?" I am horrified, and jump from my seat.

"I didn't say anything." He grins.

"Then, who-"

"There's something wrong about you today, Cal." Luke tells me.

I laugh weakly. To say that my palpitations were almost killing me is a bit underrated."Prank's over guys."

"There is no prank, Calum. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"What did I eat for breakfast?" I ask quickly.

"Uh... why are you asking?" Michael laughs the laugh that I had laughed just moments ago.

"Just tell me."

"Vegemite toast and coco puffs." Ashton answers.

"I never eat coco puffs with vegemite cause they ruin each other's tastes." I said, lowering my voice.

"Who owns the taco boxers?" I ask again.

"Ashton."

"I do." I correct them.

I'm not sure what they are, but these things are not my friends. I want to get out of this moving car and escape from this whole thing.

Something vibrates in my pocket. It's my phone and I realize I've received a text.

Rosalyn: Time to return to reality.

That's when I noticed that I'm screaming.

But then again, I guess I've never really stopped.

[dedicated to ultracal cause seriously tho her stories give me chest pains. extreme chest pains.]