by Flippity-Floosy » Sun Feb 05, 2023 3:43 am
Chapter Two: The Wheels on the Bus
“Oh God…” was all the words that Anna-Marie could muster before she bent over the toilet bowl and vomited, her shoulders retching heavily as she released the contents within her stomach.
Maeve was quick to come to her side, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her back as her friend lost her lunch. She said nothing as the blond woman continued to throw up in the stall, ignoring the judgemental look of the middle-aged woman who had been washing her hands. The old codger probably assumed her friend had drunk herself into a stupor.
As much as she wanted to tell the woman to look away and mind her own business, there were bigger things to worry about.
Thankfully, the onlooker left fairly quickly, leaving only Maeve and Anna-Marie alone in the three-stalled bathroom, allowing them some peace of mind as Anna-Marie slowly began to recover enough from the nauseous episode to finally straighten up and take deep breaths.
“Slowly,” Maeve cautioned her friend, rubbing her back some more as she helped Anna-Marie get to a stand, “Take your time.”
Anna-Marie sniffled, heaving in air now that she no longer felt she had anything left in her belly to lose. Her face was red as tears ran down her eyes and a bit of mucus around her nose. “Can… Can you get my bottle out of my bag?”
Maeve was moving before she even finished her sentence, going into Anna-Marie’s bookbag and pulling out one of her water bottles as the other woman got a paper towel to wipe her mouth and face. “Sure.”
Maeve gave Anna-Marie the bottle, who promptly twisted the cap open and greedily gulped down the soothing water, finishing it to the last drop before wiping her lips. “Th-Thanks…”
“No problem," Maeve said, flushing the toilet with her foot as Anna-Marie took a moment to recuperate.
The seconds felt like it dragged on as Anna-Marie continued to take gulping breaths of air, her back to the linoleum wall as she tried to pull herself together. She imagined she had to be a sorry sight. She had pretty much overslept, having tumultuous rest, waking up at odd hours of the night and finally able to get just into a steady sleeping just when it was near time to go. With her auburn-blond bedhead hastily done up in a low ponytail and throwing on the pair of weathered ripped jeans, a slightly wrinkled, black and green flannel sweater, and some off-white tennis shoes, she looked like the average southern belle. At least, she would’ve had she not looked so red in the face from exertion.
Maeve, her roommate and friend of two years, was looking at her in deep concern, her eyes furrowing as the blond had finally gotten herself to as close to normal as possible. “You sure you want to go on this trip? I think Ms. Burgess will understand if you bail out now.”
“Ah’m sure,” Anna-Marie replied after letting out a gutsy sigh, the southern lilt in her voice on full display. “Ah already paid to go in the first place. Don’t wanna waste the money.”
“You can barely hold yourself together right now,” Maeve told her bluntly, not mincing her words one bit. Her bluntness actually kind of stung the blond, her jaws visibly tightening up, and while Maeve noticed, she she continued on. “Seriously, I’ll stay with you if you want. But don’t force yourself if you find it hard to do.”
“Maeve, please. Ah’m not forcing mahself. Ah do wanna go on this trip, and not just for the credit either,” Anna-Marie grumbled, averting the brunette woman’s eyes which had been full of consternation. “Ya gotta trust me, Mae. Okay?”
Maeve looked pensive for a moment, contemplating the words her friends had said and looking to not quite believe them, but nonetheless, she let out a sigh, deciding to not argue with the blond on this. “Okay, okay. If.. if you really want to, but… I don’t know about this Marie…”
Marie, enervated and whipped, gave her a tired gracious smile. “Thanks Mae. Let’s just… let’s just get going.”
Maeve gave her a tight frown before shaking her head, grabbing her own luggage from the wall, “Alright, alright… it’s just…”
“Just what…?” Marie prodded, feeling as though she already knew the question before Maeve even asked.
Deliberating between asking or not, at least from what Marie could tell, she saw Maeve take in a sharp intake of air before she just came out with it.
“You should tell him.”
Anna-Marie didn’t say anything, her lips pursing together tightly anxiously.
“You know I’m right!” Maeve insisted, her dark eyes looking hard into Anna-Marie’s green ones. “He’s going to be suspicious after some time when it gets more obvious! What are you going to do until then? Avoid him the entire time!?”
“Ah am gonna tell him!” Marie almost shouted, just managing to temper her voice as they crossed the threshold out the bathroom and into the main hallway. She took a deep breath, collecting herself once more now that she was in public, “Jus’... Jus’ not raight now. Ah promise. He’ll get ta’ know but… not yet…”
She looked at her feet, downcast, dread bubbling in her heart. “Not… not yet.”
Just like before, Marie could tell that Maeve wanted to say something more, that she was rearing to argue how much that was a bad idea, but she decided against it, giving Marie a disgruntled frown. “Alright, just… just don’t hold off on it for too long. He won’t… he won’t like it.”
Marie flashed Maeve a wan smile, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. “Ah know that… but he ain’t ready to hear it.”
“And I’m not either…” were the unspoken words that never left her lips.
The two roommates walked side by side in conflicted silence as they made their way to the exit of Morgana, heading towards the bus where several of the other students were waiting as both Dr. Burgess and the bus driver loaded the cargo into the storage compartment on the side.
In many ways, Anna-Marie and Maeve were quite different from one another. Appearances and styles, for one thing. While Maeve was an introverted, tomboyish woman with spunky, boyish pageboy and an androgynous face that made her more handsomely pretty in the same way that Marie had always likened her to a “k-pop star,” Marie tended to be a girly-girl, her long hair reached the small of her back, with her face naturally soft with a very light scattering of freckles and she had definitely taken to the party lifestyle so many former country bumpkins girls tended to do.
Maeve liked the quiet solitude, spending most of her time reading or playing games, if not being as studious as possible, attending class on time and regularly taking trips to the library to study in peace. Anna-Marie had been quite loud and extroverted, spending many-a-night dancing at the clubs nearby or going to the best house party or gig around, sometimes bypassing her studies to have a good time at The LEAP or bar hopping with her more outgoing friends.
It was pure irony, or perhaps because opposites attract, that despite their different lifestyles, they were as thick as thieves, sharing a close bond that surprised anyone from the outside looking in, a powerful friendship.
So Marie trusted Maeve with all her heart to keep her secret, despite how much she disagreed with the notion to keep it. As the two of them walked in silence, not wanting to broach the subject, she held onto that thought at they walked across the campus, ignoring the morning chill in the air.
When the two of them neared at the bus, it looked as though most of the other students had already been there, with them the last to arrive.
Dr. Burchess, who had been stuffing in a rather highly decorated pink bag into the bus, turned just in time to see them coming. Her eyes lit up the moment they spotted the two girls. “Oh! Maeve and Anna-Marie! You guys just made it in time, I was about to count the both of you out.”
It was Anna-Marie that was the first to speak, plastering a forced smile on her face, “Good mornin’ Dr. Burchess! Sorry ‘bout that, we had a lil’ mishap with our luggage. Had to check for a coupl’a things.”
“Well, I’m glad you made it on time,” Dr. Burchess said, reaching out to take their bags from them, “You can grab something real quick if you need to. We’re gonna board in about ten minutes.”
“I’m good,” Maeve answered with a wave of her hand before turning to Marie, “What about you?”
“A-Ah’m fiyun,” Marie croaked before clearing her throat, “Ah-um, I’m fine!”
Dr. Burchess gave her a strange look, and it occurred to Maeve a bit belatedly that she could probably see Marie’s red eyes and flaky smile.
The professor’s face softened, as she gave Marie a compassionate look. “Oh Marie… it looks like both you and Amerie are having a bad day today.”
Marie raised an eyebrow, but it was Maeve who asked, “What do you mean?”
Dr. Burchess’s eyes widened, taken aback, as though she said something she wasn’t supposed to say. “Oh, um… d-don’t worry about it. You guys can hang around the lobby with some of the others. Everyone’s accounted for, so just grab the paper at the front desk if you need the layout sheets in paper.”
“Thanks, Dr. Burchess,” said Maeve before gesturing to Marie that she was going to head inside, making her way to the doors.
Marie, on the other hand, stayed put. “Wait, hold on… what’s going on with Amerie?”
Her professor seemed to uncharacteristically swear under her breath, before looking back at Marie with a look of slight consternation, “It’s… not my place to…”
She never finished her sentence, trailing off as her eyes seem to focus on what was behind Marie,
Marie, feeling a pit develop in her now empty stomach, turned around in time for her to meet Amerie’s gaze.
Amerie was sporting a black eye, and Marie had a feeling that she must’ve sensed that the two had been talking about, her or rather were about to talk about her. She didn’t seem to have anything to say about it though, her eyes immediately looking to the ground, in shame or in anger, it was hard to tell as she walked passed them, walking to the bench to get away from the crowd of women who were talking to one another in the gazebo area nearby, pulling up her phone and ignoring everyone else, seeming to seek solitude for the little bit of time they had before they would depart.
The two looked at her for a few moments before Dr. Burchess let out a long sigh, compelling Marie to look back at her, “Look Anna-Marie, I don’t know what happened last night, and I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but do think that this trip will be good for the both of you.” Her smile was small, but kind when she said, “If you want, we can talk about it if you want. And if you don't want to go, It’s okay, I will understand.”
Touched by her teacher’s consideration and kindness, Marie stared for a moment before returning the gesture with a kind smile. “Thank you, Dr. Burchess, but Ah’m good.In fact, Ah’m really lookin’ forward to the trip. Ah think Ah really need it. Prolly’ be good for me raight ‘bout now.”
The professor gave her a motherly look, “Well, if only you’re absolutely sure. Okay?”
Marie gave the professor a grateful nod. Dr. Burchess may not have been her favorite professor, but she was close to it. “Ah will. Thanks, Dr. B.”
And with that, she walked to where she knew Maeve was, and joining in the small gathering of women who were talking about a multitude of topics, allowing her worries to be slightly abated for a time. While Maeve had glanced her way several times, she hadn’t brought up the issue, acting as though nothing had happened, and Anna-Marie more than appreciated it.
The time to board came sooner than she had expected, and with the aid of the driver, she got up the first step and walked towards the back, taking the seat at the window, with Maeve taking the aisle seat next to her.
Having now been situated in her seat, she let out a long exhale as everyone else began to board in relative silence, the sound of feet tromping in the aisle and others placing their carry-ons on the top compartment above the chairs. Once everyone had taken a seat, she watched as Dr. Burchess stood in the center-front of the aisle, doing a quick face count before waving a hand to get everyone’s attention.
“Remember everyone! We’ll be gone for four days,” she declared, reiterating her words once more with emphasis, “And if you haven’t found your buddy yet, now is a great time. We will make a chart with who pairs with who once we get to the lodge, and if you don’t have one already, you’ll get the choice to find someone since we have an even number of you guys here.”
Dr. Burchess also went on about the things to expect, how long the ride was, and all sorts of instructions and stories, all of it becoming white noise to Anna-Marie as the girl began to feel her mind drift off to the most pressing matter of all.
How Ezra would react once he found out the truth.
“He’s going to be more suspicious over time when it gets more obvious! What are you going to do then!? Avoid him the entire time!?”
She knew that Maeve was right. Ezra needed to know. The sooner the better,
But the thought of telling him made her feel awfully ill. Scared.
How would he react? Not well, she’d suppose. They had been dating for over seven months, and she would have no way of knowing how he would take the news. She herself wasn’t taking it so well, and even though she tried to keep a placid expression on her face, she was suffocating on the inside from the thought that she would have to face the reality of it all once they were back from the trip.
She rested her head on the window, the cool glass against the side of her face a pleasant feeling that failed to distract her from the churning in her gut.
No… she could deal with it later.
Even though it was mainly for extra credit, this was supposed to be her respite. Her retreat from it all.
She closed her eyes as Dr. Burchess began to wrap things up and get into her own seat. As the engine started on the bus and she felt the bus finally go into motion, leaving the parking lot’s loop as they began to leave the campus’ main entrance, she allowed her mind to wander. To try to get anything to off her mind of what was in store for her and everyone once she returned.
Try, and unfortunately, fail.
And, feeling a stray tear roll down her cheek, out of sight of everyone, as her thoughts once again went back to that Thursday night several weeks ago, no matter how much she tried to push it away from the forefront of her mind on the one question truly plagued her mind, over and over again.
How could she ever hope to ask him for forgiveness, when she couldn’t even forgive herself?
—--
If there was one thing that stood out the most during her study abroad in America, it was just how cosmopolitan the country was in comparison to her own.
Ayaka had known what to expect to see to some degree during the long fifteen-hour plane ride from Tokyo to New York. If there was one country that every other place in the world had a better understanding of than any other, it was the United States. Media such as movies and television made it practically impossible for most people to not have some notion on how different the country was like. But, of course, movies and shows always exaggerated certain aspects of every nation: she didn’t expect the average American citizen to be a cowboy anymore than the average Japanese person to be a samurai.
But, boy were there enough guns in the country to make enough cowboys for a lifetime.
Nonetheless, knowing about something and seeing something with her own eyes were two completely different things. Upon arriving in the country, she was absolutely gobsmacked at how everyone looked so different from one another, in contrast to Japan’s significantly more homogenous populace. On this bus alone, there were so many people of different ethnicities, religions, backgrounds and even other countries. The girl next to her was Spanish woman hailing from Spain, with the women amicably chatting about some show on television in the seats in front of her African-American and Vietnamese-American. And that were just the people in her immediate vicinity. A diverse melting pot in just the bus alone.
Of course, other things caught her off guard as well like the ridiculously massive portion sizes (her first burger from McDonalds had been a spectacle to behold) and the sheer openness that many Americans possessed to speak about taboo topics such as sex and politics. Among many other things, but in a way, it truly was leaps and bounds different from Japan.
Having grown up in Sapporo, where the winters would collect meters upon meters of snow every other day, she had easily acclimated to the New York temperatures fairly well, and with her being very proficient, if not fluent, in English (although, her grasp on the American-colloquialism still needed some work, to her own chagrin. Things like the “tube” and “telly” were British slang she discovered belatedly), it was mainly culture shock that threw her for a loop.
But now that she was into her second semester of her study abroad program, and likewise her final one before she returned home, she felt the need to see more of the country than she had already seen. She had only been on the east coast so far, going to Florida to spend time with her fellow expats in Miami during summer vacation, Washington DC to tour the capital, and certain places like Six Flags in New Jersey and some jazz concert her friend had driven her to all the way in Baltimore.
But the country was huge, and there were so many more places she wanted to go to. She wanted to go to L.A. (no matter how much her friends told her it was dirty and just a tourist trap), Las Vegas (especially since she was now old enough to gamble, something that was illegal in her country outside of the pachinko parlors), San Francisco, Houston, Hollywood… it was as though she’d have to figure out some way to get to the other side of the country just to see those places, an expensive venture nonetheless.
Her mother had been absolutely right in saying she had a “wandering spirit,” or a travelling bug as her English-speaking friends called it.
"I don’t know if it’s because your father is from Osaka or if it's just because things happened this way, but I’m not shocked you want to see the world.” Her mother had told her last year when she had told her family she was planning to spend her fourth year in the United States. “You better work hard though. The plane ride is not going to be cheap.”
And she had been right. It wasn’t. But it most certainly had been worth it.
As the bus rolled down the highway, with most of the occupants either sleeping, reading, on their phones or engaging in light chatter, she took the time to look around the bus on a whim.
Carmen, a Spanish girl from Barcelona and one of the first people she had become acquainted with, had her eyes closed with earphones in her ear, no doubt fully intending to sleep for most of the ride. She, like Ayaka, were mainly history majors and had a need to see the world, it had been no wonder they became fast friends.
The girls in front of her, whom if she recalled their names correctly were Diamond and Minh respectively, were in front of her, had switched their topics to talk about some funny incident that had happened in their high school. While Diamond, the girl with curly hair and a matching pink and black exercise attire, had been in her Native American History class, she supposed that Minh, the girl with the rather thick coat and black-and-white striped sweatpants, must’ve been in the Colonial Archaeology class, something she had no idea about until now. She had talked to the two on a few occasions, and found herself liking the two, but they had been only acquaintances so far.
In the seats parallel from her were Evelyn and Angela, two girls who were transfixed on their phones, their fingers idly scrolling through whatever they were looking at, paying no mind to the others aboard the bus, or even each other for that matter.
A few others in her class like Genevieve, Rachel, Lily, Maeve, Anna-Marie and Yunha could be seen from her vantage point, either resting or on their phones. The other students she saw, whom she didn’t recognize all that much, were pretty much doing the same, with one girl, petite with pink highlights and a Pikachu-hat doing a crossword puzzle in a book with her friend, a chubby woman with long red hair and a scattering of freckles, pointing out certain possible words.
She grimaced, that pink-haired girl, whose name had evaded her, she had recognized for all the wrong reasons. Not long after she had came to the campus, she remembered crossing paths with her and almost immediately being inundated with questions about Japanese culture and anime, something she vaguely recalled her American friends warning her about. It was obvious that she was an otaku, or as the western people had said, a weeaboo, and apparently she had a proclivity towards anime that, while she had nothing against (and watched a few shows herself), she had a rather fictitious view of how a Japanese person would act.
Especially when she broke out into the “desus” and “kawaiis.”
That had been an... "encounter."
Her eyes quickly looked the opposite way before she finally laid them upon the girl of interest who was sitting in the very back.
Amerie.
Ayaka felt sympathy well up for the poor girl.
The young woman was simply lying against the window next to a bespectacled brunette, looking out the window as the scenery went by, her black eye standing in sharp contrast to an otherwise pretty face.
Ayaka would be lying to say that she knew the girl very well; especially since she noticed that she tended to keep to herself most days, not really going out to talk to others all that much or joining in at most social gatherings. That had to be incredibly lonely.
Someone tapped her shoulder, immediately making her turn her head back.
It had been Diamond, who was holding her phone.
“You dropped this, Yaya,” she said, using Ayaka’s sillier nickname while handing it to her.
“Oh, thanks, Dee,” she said gratefully; she hadn’t even noticed her cell fall off of her lap. She gave a cursory glance at the screen, seeing that it wasn’t cracked, before pocketing it in her jacket. “Don’t know why I even have it out since I barely use it.”
“I hear you girl,” Diamond replied with a chuckle, pulling up a flip phone to show Ayaka, “I have a burner with me. Don’t want anybody reachin’ me on this trip when I’m finally getting away from everybody.”
Ayaka let out a small laugh, “Away from everybody? We got over twenty-something people under a single roof.”
“I’ll take being with twenty-something strangers than having my sisters blow up my phone in the middle of the night.”
Ayaka smiled. “Blow of the phone” was such a funny slang term to her. “I should’ve done something like that, but I guess the time difference is kind of my way of having my days free.”
“I thought Japanese girls were all about their keitais and pictures.”
Ayaka shrugged. “I kind of was, back in high school. But I don’t know how to describe it, I find it um… um… how do you say er, haradatashii?”
“Oh, you mean, exasperating?”
“Yeah that,” she said, feeling somewhat (if anything, needlessly) inadequate in her English, especially since Diamond had a pretty good grasp of Japanese. Maybe she really should have chosen to do homestay instead. “I find it exasper–exas… can you say it one more time?”
“Exasperating.”
“Yeah, exasperating,” the word felt very strange on her tongue, “to be called and texted all kinds of the day. Didn’t mind it so much in high school, but when I came here, I just… didn’t like feeling like I absolutely had to respond every time.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still have my main phone,” Diamond said, raising her other phone for Ayaka to see, “but it’s gonna be turned off ninety-percent of the time.”
“What’s the point in bringing it if you’re barely going to be on it?”
That came from Carmen, who had been rubbing the sleep out of her eyes; just awakening from her nap. She yawned before saying, “If you’re really going to get away from everyone, then the main phone should stay home.”
Diamond rolled her eyes, “Well, unlike you whose professors actually are willing to wait until you get back to catch up on your work,” despite her words, it was said in a playfully teasing tone, “Most of my profs send have me do the work online, so saying I was away for a week ain’t gonna cut it.”
“Poor you,” Carmen said snidely, “Should’ve lied and said there’s no internet out there.”
Minh was the next to speak, turning around to join in the conversation as she whispered “You know Dr. Burchess would’ve definitely said something though. Or else I would’ve gone with that lie.”
“Hey, I could’ve figured out some kind of excuse if I’d thought about it,” Diamond countered jokingly.
Ayaka gave out a small laugh, as did the other girls before they went quiet.
As if compelled now that she had an audience, she glanced back at the back at the bus, spotting Amerie in the back of the bus before looking forward, lowering her voice to a whisper, even though logically, Amerie shouldn’t have been able to hear her from the distance between her spot in the bus and hers. “Say, does anyone have any idea what happened to Amerie?”
The jovial atmosphere between them soon evolved into a malaise.
“I… I don’t know,,” Minh said timidly, furtively looking around to see if anyone else was listening in. “I mean… I don’t know her that much so…”
“Does she have a boyfriend?” Diamond asked, “If she does and he did that, he’s a massive dick.”
Carmen shook her head, “I dunno. Maybe. I’m just hoping it’s something stupid and not serious like a ball to the face or something.”
“I don’t think she would’ve acted like that if it was just some accident. Maybe a fight?,” Ayaka offered, fighting the temptation to look back at the girl in their topic. “I mean, does anyone know?”
“Y’know somebody’s going to ask once we get to the lodge,” Carmen stated, turning to her right, where further down, spotting the ombre-haired Veronica talking to Genevieve, unaware of the gaze of the four women further behind her. “Bet it's going to be Veronica.”
Diamond scoffed. “Bitch has no filter.”
“You have no filter,” Minh pointed out with a grin.
Diamond shrugged, “I have a better filter than she does.”
“Still, shouldn’t one of us, I mean… see if she’s really okay?” Ayaka said, bringing things back to topic.
“I mean,” Carmen started, frowning, “We should, but none of us know her and she probably doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“Doesn’t she have a partner?” Minh asked. “We all kind of need a partner.”
Good question. “I… maybe when Ms. Burchess gets the chart ready, we’ll see.”
“I feel bad for her,” Diamond said bluntly. There was evident concern in her voice. “If she’s being abused, someone needs to talk to her.”
“Are you going to be that someone?” Ayaka asked conspiratorially, looking Diamond in the eye. “Because if you are, I’ll do it with you.”
“Then I probably will,” Diamond declared confidently, “I mean, only if she wants to talk about it.”
Ayaka smiled. Out of all the people Ayaka’s met since she’s been in the country, or hell even back in Japan, Diamond stood out as one of the few people who possessed a strong sense of justice and didn’t mind breaking out of the mold compared to most people. It made sense, given that both of her parents were cops, a child no doubt raised to be lawful and just. She didn’t doubt that Diamond would act upon her own words, but she definitely was worried that the outcome might not be in either of their favor.
Carmen yawned again, placing her earbuds back in her ear. “Well, you do that. Any case, I’m going back to sleep. Let me know when we’re getting close, yes?”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Ayaka said, but Carmen was already closing her eyes and laying back in her chair, letting out a slow exhale with her shoulders slumping. It probably wouldn’t be long for her to get back to sleep.
“Yeah, I think I’ll do the same,” Minh said, stretching her arms above her head before getting comfortable in her chair. “I went to bed at two o’clock this morning. Getting tired as fuck.”
“You always go to bed late, you ain’t got an excuse,” Diamond teased, with Minh giving her a playful swat on her shoulder before getting back into a restful position. Diamond gave a short laugh before turning to Ayaka, “But for real, Yaya, will you actually come with me to talk with Amerie when we get there?”
She nodded, readily agreeing. “Yeah, but I don’t think she’s going to be ready to talk about it any time soon.”
“You’re probably right, but still…” Diamond’s face became more sullen, “I had a friend back in high school who… well,had that kind of situation and I can’t just… y’know…. ignore it.”
Ayaka winced in sympathy. “I… I didn’t know that.”
Diamond’s smile returned, albeit less cheerful and more wistful. “I’ll tell you about it another time.” Then, pulling out her main phone, turning it on. “Now then…”
She waited for the screen to pull up before looking at Ayaka, expectantly. “Got Uno on your phone?”
Ayaka smiled, going straight to the game on her phone herself.
The two played a few Uno games together on their phone against one another and other players before talking about Youtube videos and sharing instagram videos and photos, before independently scrolling through their own things to do. After some time, Ayaka had to cut off her phone when it had reached around thirty-seven percent, spending the rest of the time looking out the window at the passing scenery of rolling hills and farmlands in passing, eventually nodding off to sleep.
She woke up from a dreamless slumber to someone gently tapping her shoulder, calling her name quietly. “Ayaka? Ayaka, wake up.”
“Mm…mmmhm?” she groaned, her eyes flickering awake slowly. Her blurred vision coalesced after several moments of blinking, blurs of green and brown taking the shape as trees and brushes, taking only a few seconds for her to she realize that the bus was going up an incline, driving through a forest with several elongated branches brushing against the bus in passing.
She noticed that several other students who had been asleep were now also awake and attentive as she leaned up from her chair, rolling her neck around to get the kinks out from sleeping in an upright position. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, taking note of the bus beginning to slow down, bumping a bit on the dirt road.
Within probably two to three minutes, the bus came to a stop. And amidst the sound of those who had still been resting finally coming to, Dr. Burchess’ voice rung loud and clear as she stood up and looked at the twenty-three students. “Alrighty, everybody! Wakey wakey, guys!”
There were a few yawns, groans and light chatter heard about as the rest of the bus who had been still asleep were waking up. Dr. Burchess’ graciously waited for everyone to get themselves together before she sing-sung, “We’re finally heeeeeere!”
Whatever residual fatigue Ayaka had was quickly giving away to elation now that she was aware that they had finally arrived at their destination after several hours of mostly staying in a rather uncomfortable seating position. Carmen, who was standing and stretching, moved to the aisle to grab her bag from the above compartment, along with several other students.
The doors opened just as Dr. Burchess said, “Let’s all wait around the front real quick, and I’ll give you guys more info on what we’re gonna do.”
The professor’s smile was wide and full of barely contained excitement when she asked everyone:
“You all ready?”
[b][i][u]Chapter Two: The Wheels on the Bus[/u][/i][/b]
“Oh God…” was all the words that Anna-Marie could muster before she bent over the toilet bowl and vomited, her shoulders retching heavily as she released the contents within her stomach.
Maeve was quick to come to her side, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her back as her friend lost her lunch. She said nothing as the blond woman continued to throw up in the stall, ignoring the judgemental look of the middle-aged woman who had been washing her hands. The old codger probably assumed her friend had drunk herself into a stupor.
As much as she wanted to tell the woman to look away and mind her own business, there were bigger things to worry about.
Thankfully, the onlooker left fairly quickly, leaving only Maeve and Anna-Marie alone in the three-stalled bathroom, allowing them some peace of mind as Anna-Marie slowly began to recover enough from the nauseous episode to finally straighten up and take deep breaths.
“Slowly,” Maeve cautioned her friend, rubbing her back some more as she helped Anna-Marie get to a stand, “Take your time.”
Anna-Marie sniffled, heaving in air now that she no longer felt she had anything left in her belly to lose. Her face was red as tears ran down her eyes and a bit of mucus around her nose. “Can… Can you get my bottle out of my bag?”
Maeve was moving before she even finished her sentence, going into Anna-Marie’s bookbag and pulling out one of her water bottles as the other woman got a paper towel to wipe her mouth and face. “Sure.”
Maeve gave Anna-Marie the bottle, who promptly twisted the cap open and greedily gulped down the soothing water, finishing it to the last drop before wiping her lips. “Th-Thanks…”
“No problem," Maeve said, flushing the toilet with her foot as Anna-Marie took a moment to recuperate.
The seconds felt like it dragged on as Anna-Marie continued to take gulping breaths of air, her back to the linoleum wall as she tried to pull herself together. She imagined she had to be a sorry sight. She had pretty much overslept, having tumultuous rest, waking up at odd hours of the night and finally able to get just into a steady sleeping just when it was near time to go. With her auburn-blond bedhead hastily done up in a low ponytail and throwing on the pair of weathered ripped jeans, a slightly wrinkled, black and green flannel sweater, and some off-white tennis shoes, she looked like the average southern belle. At least, she would’ve had she not looked so red in the face from exertion.
Maeve, her roommate and friend of two years, was looking at her in deep concern, her eyes furrowing as the blond had finally gotten herself to as close to normal as possible. “You sure you want to go on this trip? I think Ms. Burgess will understand if you bail out now.”
“Ah’m sure,” Anna-Marie replied after letting out a gutsy sigh, the southern lilt in her voice on full display. “Ah already paid to go in the first place. Don’t wanna waste the money.”
“You can barely hold yourself together right now,” Maeve told her bluntly, not mincing her words one bit. Her bluntness actually kind of stung the blond, her jaws visibly tightening up, and while Maeve noticed, she she continued on. “Seriously, I’ll stay with you if you want. But don’t force yourself if you find it hard to do.”
“Maeve, [i]please.[/i] Ah’m not forcing mahself. Ah do wanna go on this trip, and not just for the credit either,” Anna-Marie grumbled, averting the brunette woman’s eyes which had been full of consternation. “Ya gotta trust me, Mae. Okay?”
Maeve looked pensive for a moment, contemplating the words her friends had said and looking to not quite believe them, but nonetheless, she let out a sigh, deciding to not argue with the blond on this. “Okay, okay. If.. if you really want to, but… I don’t know about this Marie…”
Marie, enervated and whipped, gave her a tired gracious smile. “Thanks Mae. Let’s just… let’s just get going.”
Maeve gave her a tight frown before shaking her head, grabbing her own luggage from the wall, “Alright, alright… it’s just…”
“Just what…?” Marie prodded, feeling as though she already knew the question before Maeve even asked.
Deliberating between asking or not, at least from what Marie could tell, she saw Maeve take in a sharp intake of air before she just came out with it.
“You should tell him.”
Anna-Marie didn’t say anything, her lips pursing together tightly anxiously.
“You [i]know[/i] I’m right!” Maeve insisted, her dark eyes looking hard into Anna-Marie’s green ones. “He’s going to be suspicious after some time when it gets more obvious! What are you going to do until then? Avoid him the entire time!?”
“Ah [i]am[/i] gonna tell him!” Marie almost shouted, just managing to temper her voice as they crossed the threshold out the bathroom and into the main hallway. She took a deep breath, collecting herself once more now that she was in public, “Jus’... Jus’ not raight now. Ah promise. He’ll get ta’ know but… not yet…”
She looked at her feet, downcast, dread bubbling in her heart. “Not… not yet.”
Just like before, Marie could tell that Maeve wanted to say something more, that she was rearing to argue how much that was a bad idea, but she decided against it, giving Marie a disgruntled frown. “Alright, just… just don’t hold off on it for too long. He won’t… he won’t like it.”
Marie flashed Maeve a wan smile, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. “Ah know that… but he ain’t ready to hear it.”
[i]“And I’m not either…”[/i] were the unspoken words that never left her lips.
The two roommates walked side by side in conflicted silence as they made their way to the exit of Morgana, heading towards the bus where several of the other students were waiting as both Dr. Burgess and the bus driver loaded the cargo into the storage compartment on the side.
In many ways, Anna-Marie and Maeve were quite different from one another. Appearances and styles, for one thing. While Maeve was an introverted, tomboyish woman with spunky, boyish pageboy and an androgynous face that made her more handsomely pretty in the same way that Marie had always likened her to a “k-pop star,” Marie tended to be a girly-girl, her long hair reached the small of her back, with her face naturally soft with a very light scattering of freckles and she had definitely taken to the party lifestyle so many former country bumpkins girls tended to do.
Maeve liked the quiet solitude, spending most of her time reading or playing games, if not being as studious as possible, attending class on time and regularly taking trips to the library to study in peace. Anna-Marie had been quite loud and extroverted, spending many-a-night dancing at the clubs nearby or going to the best house party or gig around, sometimes bypassing her studies to have a good time at The LEAP or bar hopping with her more outgoing friends.
It was pure irony, or perhaps because opposites attract, that despite their different lifestyles, they were as thick as thieves, sharing a close bond that surprised anyone from the outside looking in, a powerful friendship.
So Marie trusted Maeve with all her heart to keep her secret, despite how much she disagreed with the notion to keep it. As the two of them walked in silence, not wanting to broach the subject, she held onto that thought at they walked across the campus, ignoring the morning chill in the air.
When the two of them neared at the bus, it looked as though most of the other students had already been there, with them the last to arrive.
Dr. Burchess, who had been stuffing in a rather highly decorated pink bag into the bus, turned just in time to see them coming. Her eyes lit up the moment they spotted the two girls. “Oh! Maeve and Anna-Marie! You guys just made it in time, I was about to count the both of you out.”
It was Anna-Marie that was the first to speak, plastering a forced smile on her face, “Good mornin’ Dr. Burchess! Sorry ‘bout that, we had a lil’ mishap with our luggage. Had to check for a coupl’a things.”
“Well, I’m glad you made it on time,” Dr. Burchess said, reaching out to take their bags from them, “You can grab something real quick if you need to. We’re gonna board in about ten minutes.”
“I’m good,” Maeve answered with a wave of her hand before turning to Marie, “What about you?”
“A-Ah’m fiyun,” Marie croaked before clearing her throat, “Ah-um, I’m fine!”
Dr. Burchess gave her a strange look, and it occurred to Maeve a bit belatedly that she could probably see Marie’s red eyes and flaky smile.
The professor’s face softened, as she gave Marie a compassionate look. “Oh Marie… it looks like both you and Amerie are having a bad day today.”
Marie raised an eyebrow, but it was Maeve who asked, “What do you mean?”
Dr. Burchess’s eyes widened, taken aback, as though she said something she wasn’t supposed to say. “Oh, um… d-don’t worry about it. You guys can hang around the lobby with some of the others. Everyone’s accounted for, so just grab the paper at the front desk if you need the layout sheets in paper.”
“Thanks, Dr. Burchess,” said Maeve before gesturing to Marie that she was going to head inside, making her way to the doors.
Marie, on the other hand, stayed put. “Wait, hold on… what’s going on with Amerie?”
Her professor seemed to uncharacteristically swear under her breath, before looking back at Marie with a look of slight consternation, “It’s… not my place to…”
She never finished her sentence, trailing off as her eyes seem to focus on what was behind Marie,
Marie, feeling a pit develop in her now empty stomach, turned around in time for her to meet Amerie’s gaze.
Amerie was sporting a black eye, and Marie had a feeling that she must’ve sensed that the two had been talking about, her or rather were about to talk about her. She didn’t seem to have anything to say about it though, her eyes immediately looking to the ground, in shame or in anger, it was hard to tell as she walked passed them, walking to the bench to get away from the crowd of women who were talking to one another in the gazebo area nearby, pulling up her phone and ignoring everyone else, seeming to seek solitude for the little bit of time they had before they would depart.
The two looked at her for a few moments before Dr. Burchess let out a long sigh, compelling Marie to look back at her, “Look Anna-Marie, I don’t know what happened last night, and I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but do think that this trip will be good for the both of you.” Her smile was small, but kind when she said, “If you want, we can talk about it if you want. And if you don't want to go, It’s okay, I will understand.”
Touched by her teacher’s consideration and kindness, Marie stared for a moment before returning the gesture with a kind smile. “Thank you, Dr. Burchess, but Ah’m [i]good.[/i]In fact, Ah’m really lookin’ forward to the trip. Ah think Ah really need it. Prolly’ be good for me raight ‘bout now.”
The professor gave her a motherly look, “Well, if only you’re absolutely sure. Okay?”
Marie gave the professor a grateful nod. Dr. Burchess may not have been her favorite professor, but she was close to it. “Ah will. Thanks, Dr. B.”
And with that, she walked to where she knew Maeve was, and joining in the small gathering of women who were talking about a multitude of topics, allowing her worries to be slightly abated for a time. While Maeve had glanced her way several times, she hadn’t brought up the issue, acting as though nothing had happened, and Anna-Marie more than appreciated it.
The time to board came sooner than she had expected, and with the aid of the driver, she got up the first step and walked towards the back, taking the seat at the window, with Maeve taking the aisle seat next to her.
Having now been situated in her seat, she let out a long exhale as everyone else began to board in relative silence, the sound of feet tromping in the aisle and others placing their carry-ons on the top compartment above the chairs. Once everyone had taken a seat, she watched as Dr. Burchess stood in the center-front of the aisle, doing a quick face count before waving a hand to get everyone’s attention.
“Remember everyone! We’ll be gone for four days,” she declared, reiterating her words once more with emphasis, “And if you haven’t found your buddy yet, now is a great time. We will make a chart with who pairs with who once we get to the lodge, and if you don’t have one already, you’ll get the choice to find someone since we have an even number of you guys here.”
Dr. Burchess also went on about the things to expect, how long the ride was, and all sorts of instructions and stories, all of it becoming white noise to Anna-Marie as the girl began to feel her mind drift off to the most pressing matter of all.
How Ezra would react once he found out the truth.
[i]“He’s going to be more suspicious over time when it gets more obvious! What are you going to do then!? Avoid him the entire time!?” [/i]
She knew that Maeve was right. Ezra needed to know. The sooner the better,
But the thought of telling him made her feel awfully ill. Scared.
How would he react? Not well, she’d suppose. They had been dating for over seven months, and she would have no way of knowing how he would take the news. She herself wasn’t taking it so well, and even though she tried to keep a placid expression on her face, she was suffocating on the inside from the thought that she would have to face the reality of it all once they were back from the trip.
She rested her head on the window, the cool glass against the side of her face a pleasant feeling that failed to distract her from the churning in her gut.
No… she could deal with it later.
Even though it was mainly for extra credit, this was supposed to be her respite. Her retreat from it all.
She closed her eyes as Dr. Burchess began to wrap things up and get into her own seat. As the engine started on the bus and she felt the bus finally go into motion, leaving the parking lot’s loop as they began to leave the campus’ main entrance, she allowed her mind to wander. To try to get anything to off her mind of what was in store for her and everyone once she returned.
Try, and unfortunately, fail.
And, feeling a stray tear roll down her cheek, out of sight of everyone, as her thoughts once again went back to that Thursday night several weeks ago, no matter how much she tried to push it away from the forefront of her mind on the one question truly plagued her mind, over and over again.
How could she ever hope to ask him for forgiveness, when she couldn’t even forgive herself?
—--
If there was one thing that stood out the most during her study abroad in America, it was just how cosmopolitan the country was in comparison to her own.
Ayaka had known what to expect to see to some degree during the long fifteen-hour plane ride from Tokyo to New York. If there was one country that every other place in the world had a better understanding of than any other, it was the United States. Media such as movies and television made it practically impossible for most people to not have some notion on how different the country was like. But, of course, movies and shows always exaggerated certain aspects of every nation: she didn’t expect the average American citizen to be a cowboy anymore than the average Japanese person to be a samurai.
But, boy were there enough guns in the country to make enough cowboys for a lifetime.
Nonetheless, knowing about something and seeing something with her own eyes were two completely different things. Upon arriving in the country, she was absolutely gobsmacked at how everyone looked so different from one another, in contrast to Japan’s significantly more homogenous populace. On this bus alone, there were so many people of different ethnicities, religions, backgrounds and even other countries. The girl next to her was Spanish woman hailing from Spain, with the women amicably chatting about some show on television in the seats in front of her African-American and Vietnamese-American. And that were just the people in her immediate vicinity. A diverse melting pot in just the bus alone.
Of course, other things caught her off guard as well like the ridiculously massive portion sizes (her first burger from McDonalds had been a spectacle to behold) and the sheer openness that many Americans possessed to speak about taboo topics such as sex and politics. Among many other things, but in a way, it truly was leaps and bounds different from Japan.
Having grown up in Sapporo, where the winters would collect meters upon meters of snow every other day, she had easily acclimated to the New York temperatures fairly well, and with her being very proficient, if not fluent, in English (although, her grasp on the American-colloquialism still needed some work, to her own chagrin. Things like the “tube” and “telly” were British slang she discovered belatedly), it was mainly culture shock that threw her for a loop.
But now that she was into her second semester of her study abroad program, and likewise her final one before she returned home, she felt the need to see more of the country than she had already seen. She had only been on the east coast so far, going to Florida to spend time with her fellow expats in Miami during summer vacation, Washington DC to tour the capital, and certain places like Six Flags in New Jersey and some jazz concert her friend had driven her to all the way in Baltimore.
But the country was huge, and there were so many more places she wanted to go to. She wanted to go to L.A. (no matter how much her friends told her it was dirty and just a tourist trap), Las Vegas (especially since she was now old enough to gamble, something that was illegal in her country outside of the pachinko parlors), San Francisco, Houston, Hollywood… it was as though she’d have to figure out some way to get to the other side of the country just to see those places, an expensive venture nonetheless.
Her mother had been absolutely right in saying she had a “wandering spirit,” or a travelling bug as her English-speaking friends called it.
[i]"I don’t know if it’s because your father is from Osaka or if it's just because things happened this way, but I’m not shocked you want to see the world.”[/i] Her mother had told her last year when she had told her family she was planning to spend her fourth year in the United States. [i]“You better work hard though. The plane ride is not going to be cheap.” [/i]
And she had been right. It wasn’t. But it most certainly had been worth it.
As the bus rolled down the highway, with most of the occupants either sleeping, reading, on their phones or engaging in light chatter, she took the time to look around the bus on a whim.
Carmen, a Spanish girl from Barcelona and one of the first people she had become acquainted with, had her eyes closed with earphones in her ear, no doubt fully intending to sleep for most of the ride. She, like Ayaka, were mainly history majors and had a need to see the world, it had been no wonder they became fast friends.
The girls in front of her, whom if she recalled their names correctly were Diamond and Minh respectively, were in front of her, had switched their topics to talk about some funny incident that had happened in their high school. While Diamond, the girl with curly hair and a matching pink and black exercise attire, had been in her Native American History class, she supposed that Minh, the girl with the rather thick coat and black-and-white striped sweatpants, must’ve been in the Colonial Archaeology class, something she had no idea about until now. She had talked to the two on a few occasions, and found herself liking the two, but they had been only acquaintances so far.
In the seats parallel from her were Evelyn and Angela, two girls who were transfixed on their phones, their fingers idly scrolling through whatever they were looking at, paying no mind to the others aboard the bus, or even each other for that matter.
A few others in her class like Genevieve, Rachel, Lily, Maeve, Anna-Marie and Yunha could be seen from her vantage point, either resting or on their phones. The other students she saw, whom she didn’t recognize all that much, were pretty much doing the same, with one girl, petite with pink highlights and a Pikachu-hat doing a crossword puzzle in a book with her friend, a chubby woman with long red hair and a scattering of freckles, pointing out certain possible words.
She grimaced, that pink-haired girl, whose name had evaded her, she had recognized for all the wrong reasons. Not long after she had came to the campus, she remembered crossing paths with her and almost immediately being inundated with questions about Japanese culture and anime, something she vaguely recalled her American friends warning her about. It was obvious that she was an otaku, or as the western people had said, a weeaboo, and apparently she had a proclivity towards anime that, while she had nothing against (and watched a few shows herself), she had a rather fictitious view of how a Japanese person would act.
Especially when she broke out into the “desus” and “kawaiis.”
That had been an... "encounter."
Her eyes quickly looked the opposite way before she finally laid them upon the girl of interest who was sitting in the very back.
Amerie.
Ayaka felt sympathy well up for the poor girl.
The young woman was simply lying against the window next to a bespectacled brunette, looking out the window as the scenery went by, her black eye standing in sharp contrast to an otherwise pretty face.
Ayaka would be lying to say that she knew the girl very well; especially since she noticed that she tended to keep to herself most days, not really going out to talk to others all that much or joining in at most social gatherings. That had to be incredibly lonely.
Someone tapped her shoulder, immediately making her turn her head back.
It had been Diamond, who was holding her phone.
“You dropped this, Yaya,” she said, using Ayaka’s sillier nickname while handing it to her.
“Oh, thanks, Dee,” she said gratefully; she hadn’t even noticed her cell fall off of her lap. She gave a cursory glance at the screen, seeing that it wasn’t cracked, before pocketing it in her jacket. “Don’t know why I even have it out since I barely use it.”
“I hear you girl,” Diamond replied with a chuckle, pulling up a flip phone to show Ayaka, “I have a burner with me. Don’t want anybody reachin’ me on this trip when I’m finally getting away from everybody.”
Ayaka let out a small laugh, “Away from everybody? We got over twenty-something people under a single roof.”
“I’ll take being with twenty-something strangers than having my sisters blow up my phone in the middle of the night.”
Ayaka smiled. “Blow of the phone” was such a funny slang term to her. “I should’ve done something like that, but I guess the time difference is kind of my way of having my days free.”
“I thought Japanese girls were all about their keitais and pictures.”
Ayaka shrugged. “I kind of was, back in high school. But I don’t know how to describe it, I find it um… um… how do you say er, haradatashii?”
“Oh, you mean, exasperating?”
“Yeah that,” she said, feeling somewhat (if anything, needlessly) inadequate in her English, especially since Diamond had a pretty good grasp of Japanese. Maybe she really should have chosen to do homestay instead. “I find it exasper–exas… can you say it one more time?”
“Exasperating.”
“Yeah, [i]exasperating,”[/i] the word felt very strange on her tongue, “to be called and texted all kinds of the day. Didn’t mind it so much in high school, but when I came here, I just… didn’t like feeling like I absolutely had to respond every time.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still have my main phone,” Diamond said, raising her other phone for Ayaka to see, “but it’s gonna be turned off ninety-percent of the time.”
“What’s the point in bringing it if you’re barely going to be on it?”
That came from Carmen, who had been rubbing the sleep out of her eyes; just awakening from her nap. She yawned before saying, “If you’re really going to get away from everyone, then the main phone should stay home.”
Diamond rolled her eyes, “Well, unlike you whose professors actually are willing to wait until you get back to catch up on your work,” despite her words, it was said in a playfully teasing tone, “Most of my profs send have me do the work online, so saying I was away for a week ain’t gonna cut it.”
“Poor you,” Carmen said snidely, “Should’ve lied and said there’s no internet out there.”
Minh was the next to speak, turning around to join in the conversation as she whispered “You know Dr. Burchess would’ve definitely said something though. Or else I would’ve gone with that lie.”
“Hey, I could’ve figured out some kind of excuse if I’d thought about it,” Diamond countered jokingly.
Ayaka gave out a small laugh, as did the other girls before they went quiet.
As if compelled now that she had an audience, she glanced back at the back at the bus, spotting Amerie in the back of the bus before looking forward, lowering her voice to a whisper, even though logically, Amerie shouldn’t have been able to hear her from the distance between her spot in the bus and hers. “Say, does anyone have any idea what happened to Amerie?”
The jovial atmosphere between them soon evolved into a malaise.
“I… I don’t know,,” Minh said timidly, furtively looking around to see if anyone else was listening in. “I mean… I don’t know her that much so…”
“Does she have a boyfriend?” Diamond asked, “If she does and he did that, he’s a massive dick.”
Carmen shook her head, “I dunno. Maybe. I’m just hoping it’s something stupid and not serious like a ball to the face or something.”
“I don’t think she would’ve acted like that if it was just some accident. Maybe a fight?,” Ayaka offered, fighting the temptation to look back at the girl in their topic. “I mean, does anyone know?”
“Y’know somebody’s going to ask once we get to the lodge,” Carmen stated, turning to her right, where further down, spotting the ombre-haired Veronica talking to Genevieve, unaware of the gaze of the four women further behind her. “Bet it's going to be Veronica.”
Diamond scoffed. “Bitch has no filter.”
[i]“You[/i] have no filter,” Minh pointed out with a grin.
Diamond shrugged, “I have a better filter than she does.”
“Still, shouldn’t one of us, I mean… see if she’s really okay?” Ayaka said, bringing things back to topic.
“I mean,” Carmen started, frowning, “We should, but none of us know her and she probably doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“Doesn’t she have a partner?” Minh asked. “We all kind of need a partner.”
Good question. “I… maybe when Ms. Burchess gets the chart ready, we’ll see.”
“I feel bad for her,” Diamond said bluntly. There was evident concern in her voice. “If she’s being abused, someone needs to talk to her.”
“Are [i]you[/i] going to be that someone?” Ayaka asked conspiratorially, looking Diamond in the eye. “Because if you are, I’ll do it with you.”
“Then I probably will,” Diamond declared confidently, “I mean, only if she wants to talk about it.”
Ayaka smiled. Out of all the people Ayaka’s met since she’s been in the country, or hell even back in Japan, Diamond stood out as one of the few people who possessed a strong sense of justice and didn’t mind breaking out of the mold compared to most people. It made sense, given that both of her parents were cops, a child no doubt raised to be lawful and just. She didn’t doubt that Diamond would act upon her own words, but she definitely was worried that the outcome might not be in either of their favor.
Carmen yawned again, placing her earbuds back in her ear. “Well, you do that. Any case, I’m going back to sleep. Let me know when we’re getting close, yes?”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Ayaka said, but Carmen was already closing her eyes and laying back in her chair, letting out a slow exhale with her shoulders slumping. It probably wouldn’t be long for her to get back to sleep.
“Yeah, I think I’ll do the same,” Minh said, stretching her arms above her head before getting comfortable in her chair. “I went to bed at two o’clock this morning. Getting tired as fuck.”
“You always go to bed late, you ain’t got an excuse,” Diamond teased, with Minh giving her a playful swat on her shoulder before getting back into a restful position. Diamond gave a short laugh before turning to Ayaka, “But for real, Yaya, will you actually come with me to talk with Amerie when we get there?”
She nodded, readily agreeing. “Yeah, but I don’t think she’s going to be ready to talk about it any time soon.”
“You’re probably right, but still…” Diamond’s face became more sullen, “I had a friend back in high school who… well,had that kind of situation and I can’t just… y’know…. ignore it.”
Ayaka winced in sympathy. “I… I didn’t know that.”
Diamond’s smile returned, albeit less cheerful and more wistful. “I’ll tell you about it another time.” Then, pulling out her main phone, turning it on. “Now then…”
She waited for the screen to pull up before looking at Ayaka, expectantly. “Got Uno on your phone?”
Ayaka smiled, going straight to the game on her phone herself.
The two played a few Uno games together on their phone against one another and other players before talking about Youtube videos and sharing instagram videos and photos, before independently scrolling through their own things to do. After some time, Ayaka had to cut off her phone when it had reached around thirty-seven percent, spending the rest of the time looking out the window at the passing scenery of rolling hills and farmlands in passing, eventually nodding off to sleep.
She woke up from a dreamless slumber to someone gently tapping her shoulder, calling her name quietly. “Ayaka? Ayaka, wake up.”
“Mm…mmmhm?” she groaned, her eyes flickering awake slowly. Her blurred vision coalesced after several moments of blinking, blurs of green and brown taking the shape as trees and brushes, taking only a few seconds for her to she realize that the bus was going up an incline, driving through a forest with several elongated branches brushing against the bus in passing.
She noticed that several other students who had been asleep were now also awake and attentive as she leaned up from her chair, rolling her neck around to get the kinks out from sleeping in an upright position. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, taking note of the bus beginning to slow down, bumping a bit on the dirt road.
Within probably two to three minutes, the bus came to a stop. And amidst the sound of those who had still been resting finally coming to, Dr. Burchess’ voice rung loud and clear as she stood up and looked at the twenty-three students. “Alrighty, everybody! Wakey wakey, guys!”
There were a few yawns, groans and light chatter heard about as the rest of the bus who had been still asleep were waking up. Dr. Burchess’ graciously waited for everyone to get themselves together before she sing-sung, “We’re finally [i]heeeeeere!” [/i]
Whatever residual fatigue Ayaka had was quickly giving away to elation now that she was aware that they had finally arrived at their destination after several hours of mostly staying in a rather uncomfortable seating position. Carmen, who was standing and stretching, moved to the aisle to grab her bag from the above compartment, along with several other students.
The doors opened just as Dr. Burchess said, “Let’s all wait around the front real quick, and I’ll give you guys more info on what we’re gonna do.”
The professor’s smile was wide and full of barely contained excitement when she asked everyone:
“You all ready?”