“This is it. This is really it,” I told my friends as we ate breakfast on our last full day on the Bus. We were in Kentucky, almost back in Virginia where we started this whole thing and tomorrow, it would be the end of it all. “I can’t believe it’s almost over.”
“Me neither,” Rosa sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. “I feel like it was just yesterday when we were playing drinking games and doing stupid drunken things.”
“I’m going to miss this bus,” Logan sighed.
“I almost forget what it’s like to not see you guys in my face 24/7,” Erin piped as she sadly nibbled on her pancakes. “Seriously, what is life without being forced to change in front of people?”
“A sad life,” Ross half-joked. “I really am going to miss all of the bras I’ve seen over the past few months.”
“I don’t remember how to live life without this bus,” Baker whined softly. “Like, I don’t know what to do with privacy.”
“You won’t have it for long, Bake,” I reminded her. “We’re off to college in just a few weeks and there, you’ll have a roommate so don’t get too accustomed to privacy.”
“It is still sad!” She insisted loudly.
“Wait,” Kenton said from beside me. “College. We haven’t talked about college.”
I frowned in realization. He was right. We were going off to college in a few weeks and I had no idea where he was going and he didn’t know where I was going. How could we make this work if we went to opposite sides of the country for college?
“Well, we’re going to Duke,” Grace announced, motioning to Cory. I knew that Kenton was specifically referring to him and me talking about our college plans, but everyone around the table starts announcing their college plans even though everybody already knows everybody else’s plan except for Kenton.
Me and Baker were going to Ohio State University- far from home but not too far. Gory was going to Duke. Turner was going to Virginia State. Sydney was going to some school in Maine that had a really amazing med program. Rosa was going to the Art Institute of Pittsburg. Logan was going to New York University. Gaige was going to Columbus State which is a community college right by OSU. He tried to get into OSU with me and Baker (before he was even with Baker, which must have been a sign) but he didn’t get accepted so he just decided to go to Columbus State. Erin was going to Alabama because that’s where her brother lived and she wanted to be closer to him. Ross wasn’t going to college, he had a career in line with his uncle’s garage back at home in Virginia. The difference between Virginia and Maine would probably cause problems with Turner and Sydney, but nobody mentioned that. We figured that they’d figure out their relationship on their own when they decided that the time was right to talk about it.
“Where are you going?” I asked Kenton after everybody save for Baker and I had announced our college decision.
“Um, Ohio University,” He said. “It’s… well, obviously, it’s in Ohio. Anyway, they have a really great engineering program.”
I smiled in relief that he wasn’t going to like, California or something. “That’s so cool.”
“It is?” He wondered with a laugh. “Where are you going then?”
“Ohio State,” I chirped excitedly. “I mean, I’m not too sure how close those two are but they’re both in Ohio, so that’s really great, right?”
He grinned at me. “Yeah, that’s really great. They can’t be too far apart- Ohio isn’t all that big.”
“To Ohio!” I giggled, raising my glass of orange juice into the air.
YOU ARE READING
Years of the Bus
Adventure"This summer will be our legacy. This will be what you will be remembered by. This will be the story you tell your grandchildren about when you were in high school. We're going to travel to places we never thought existed. We're going to do things w...
