Emerald Skies

Temporal Wave Effect

Ch 5; Temporal Wave Effect

"You're here!" Mom greets, running out the door. "I thought you boys got lost or something." She notes, pulling both Rydel and Rocky into her arms.

Crap- I can't tell mom we left Ross at The Tavern! She'll kill us! "Uh- good to see you too, but, I have to leave again."

"Leave? What ever for sweetie? Are you going home already?" She teases, hugging me. "And where's Ross?"

"He fell asleep in the car." I blurt out, probably louder than I should have. "But uh- I left my phone at The Tavern, and, I gotta go back to get it, so, I'll be right back." I say, and rush back to the car. Mom knocks on the window, and I roll it down slightly.

She was trying to check behind all of Rydel's ridiculous amount of bags looking for him. "But dear, shouldn't you wake Ross before you-"

"He's fast asleep- I just don't wanna bug him. Be back in 20!" I say, and pull out so fast that the tires squeal.

I speed down the highway, keeping an eye on the side of the road incase Ross was going to try to walk home. I don't see him the entire way, and start to worry as I pull into the Tavern. I hope he's still there...

"Aw hun, did you miss us already?" Maggie asks with a chuckle.

"Maggie- have you seen Ross? Do you know where he is?" I say in a panic.

She furrows her brow. "Eh, no. Wasn't he with you?"

As I'm about to have a full-blown panic attack, Melissa emerges from the back room. "You looking for yer brother?"

The words were stuck in my throat, so I nod instead.

"He hasn't come out of the bathroom yet. I was wondering when you kids would notice you up and left without 'im!" She informs me.

Thank god...

"Ross?" I call, knocking on the restroom door.

"Yeah?" He calls back.

I open the door, and find Ross staring at the ceiling.

"Ross what are you doing...?" I sigh, too tired for my own good, and definitely too tired for this.

"I'm trying to find our name." He explains, squinting his eyes.

Another thing about The Tavern; just about everyone who comes in here signs their name in the bathroom. On the sinks, the ceiling, the stall-doors, the toilets. Everything except the mirrors have been littered with the names of patrons who've visited this place.

"Ross I don't have time for your bull-shit."

"There we are!" He chimes, and I start to wonder if he even knows I'm here.

I sigh. It really doesn't matter at this point- we already left him here, and, we were already later than we intended to get home anyway. I look to where he's pointing- where we climbed up on top of the stalls and balanced ourselves there; each taking turns spotting one another as we all wrote our names around our band's name; R5. Of course, this was prior to the time that we had our logo designed in the heart-shaped form. I remember Ross being afraid to climb up... And...

~Flashback~

"R-Rydel! Don't drop me!" He stutters as our sister raises our seven-year-old brother off the ground.

"You're fine Ross- I got you!" Rydel laughs, pushing him up. Ross was fighting it though; we knew he didn't want to do it after Ryland almost fell. Ryland didn't fall though, and scribbled in his name as best as he could at his age.