The Better Life // Ryan Ross

Bus Stop

                 》3 Years Later》

     I woke up the next day ready for school with an uneasy feeling in my stomach. I never really think much of them so, I pushed it to the side and did my morning routine to get ready.

     After I finished I went to the kitchen and saw my brother eating his breakfast.

     "Hey, Bronx," I greeted walking up to him.

     "Hey, Jamie," he replied.

     "Are you ready for school?"

     "Yep," he said before he got up and placed his bowl in the sink. I grabbed a banana for breakfast and made my way to the living room to at least watch a good five minutes of TV before the bus came to take Bronx and I to school. I was watching Captain Planet before I noticed the time and called out to Bronx so we could go to our bus stop. Our mom and dad decided that I could be trusted to take care of Bronx to and from the bus stop, and they were getting back to their working lives that we kind of had to ride the bus.

     "Bronx! It's time to go!" I called out to my brother who was upstairs in his room. I quickly heard him come down the stairs as I reached for my backpack. He quickly slipped on his shoes and waited outside of the door for me. "You ready?" I asked as I got outside. He quickly nodded his head yes and we started making our walk to the bus stop.

     After about five minutes, we made it to our bus stop along with the other kids in our neighborhood. I quickly made my way towards Andrea and Spencer. Yes Spencer, the one I met at the park those three years ago. For some reason him and Ryan switched from going to a private school to public schools which ment Spencer started going to my school this year and Ryan was going to a public middle school. "Hey, guys!" I greeted them like I always do.

     "Hey!" they all responded.

     "Where's Bronx?" asked Andrea. I turned my head looking for him and found him sitting on the edge of the curb playing with something in his hands. The three of us made our way near him and sat down with him, me putting my arm around his shoulder signaling that I wanted to talk.

     "Hey, bud," I said to him. "You alright?"

     "Yeah," he responded.

     "Then why are you sitting here all alone?" asked Spencer who also sat down and put his arm around him.

     "I don't know."

     "Well if you don't know, why don't you come hang with us?" asked Andrea who knelt down in front of him.

     "Because I don't want to make my sister not look cool."

     "Why would you think that?" asked Spencer.

     "I don't know. It's just, I don't feel like im cool and that I embarrass her," he said facing me.

     I quickly made my grip slightly tighter. "Don't you ever think that. You're not an embarrassment, and im not cool. If anyone is cool, it's you. Just look at your hair!" I exclaimed taking a lock of his long, slightly wavy hair and lightly swung it up. "I love you Bronx, and I always will."

     "I love you, too," he said before wrapping his small arms around me. "Can I sit with you on the bus?"

     "Of course." And right on time the bus came. We all quickly got on and made our way to our usual seats which was around the middle. I sat down and Bronx quickly made his way next to me and rested his head on my shoulder. He fell asleep as I was quietly taking to my friends. "Andrea!" I whisper yelled.

     "What!" she whisper yelled back.

     "Are you going to ride the bus home?"

     "My mom's going to pick me up, why do you ask?"

     "Just curious."

     "Well, want a ride?"

     "No thanks."

     "Okay." She glimpsed across the bus and locked eyes with Spencer who sat about three seats behind me, and mouthed words that I couldn't lip read. He mouthed back words that I could read that said 'soon'. Andrea smirked and turned to face me with the same smirk plastered on her face. "Hey, girl," she started.

     "Hey?" I said failing at raising an eyebrow.

     "Ew, no. Don't do that." She said in an annoying snotty voice.

     "Ha, too bad. Anyways. . .what were you talking about with Spencer?" Her smirk immediately grew bigger after I said his name. "Ew, what's up with your face?" I asked in the same annoying voice.

     "Oh you know. . .nothing much and RUDE!"

     I quietly chuckled to myself and noticed we were about to turn into the school bus parking lot. I decided now was a good time to wake up my brother by nudging him slightly. He slowly fluttered his eyes open and realized that we were about to be at school and rubbed his eyes. We all got off and made our way to the front entrance. All of us walked Bronx to his teachers room at the other end of the school, like we do every morning, then went back to the front of the school so we could go to our class rooms. Andrea and Spencer went to their classroom while I went to mine.

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     "Later, Andrea!" I called.

     "Later!" she called back.

     I was currently waiting at the front of the school for my brother with Spencer right by my side the whole time. Once I spotted the blonde I lightly grabbed his arm and pulled him over so he wouldn't get lost in the large sea of people. We made our way to our bus and sat down where we sat in the morning.

     We soon left the premises and were on our way to our first stop. Our stop was the third stop so we would have to wait. I immediately took out my phone and started texting Andrea and Ryan. We got to the first stop in seconds but no one got off and everything turned silent. I put my phone away and snapped my head up. At the front of the bus stood two older guys, high schoolers probably. They had with them some big guns and shoved our bus driver, and everyone else to the back.

     Bronx automatically grabbed my hand tightly to the point that it could have fallen off. We both got up and made our way over to Spencer. A bunch of other kids and I were about to text our families but were threatened. If they even saw us take out our phones, they were going to take it, smash it, then kill us. One of them stayed in the front and started driving  while the other stood in the middle of the bus watching our every move like a hawk.

     "Jamie, im scared," whispered Bronx looking frightened as ever.

     "Don't worry Bronx. Everything is going to be okay." I whispered back to him trying to hide the fear in my voice. I thought I did a good job but when Spencer grabbed my hand comfortly so I knew it didn't go past him.

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     I'm sorry, lots of school related stuff. Ughhh. But anyways, ACTION! I felt like this story was getting really boring again so I decided to add something but I feel like it's really sudden so, ehhhhh. By the way, there might be curse words from now on, just a warning. Does anyone really read this story? I'm just curious and want your guys thoughts. On a different topic, can anyone give my tips on how to survive Warped Tour? I don't want to die that day and I want to be prepared. Oh, I tried an amazing drink called Peace Tea. I swear it's heaven in a can, just saying to anyone who wants to try it. I'm probably going to change the chapter name because right now, I can't think of a good one so if anyone has a good title I might take it, I'll give you credit of course. It's been an off day for me. I also uploaded one part of my short story but the more I look over it, the more I regret for being proud of it but oh well. If you have nothing else to do, you can check that out.