Franklin and Jill exchanged confused glances, but then decided against saying anything.  Jill began to clear the table and I sank into my chair even further, beer in hand.  Franklin took a look at his watch and then gaped.

“My shift starts in an hour.”  Pete grabbed Franklin’s wrist and looked at the time too.  

“Yeah and I have to get this bus back to impound before someone notices its missing.”

“I should probably go to school…” I added and they both just nodded.  Then Franklin stood and stretched.  His shirt rose some, revealing his belly button.  Pete reached forward and tickled him there, smiling at me as he did so.  Franklin shrieked and stepped back. “You’re gonna pay for that,” he said wagging a finger in Pete’s face. I chuckled even harder.

“So you ready Ash?” Pete asked, ignoring Franklin’s antics.  I nodded.

“I’ll just go and get Spencer then,” Jill added from the doorway and my heat shrank a little.  She disappeared out of the door.

“You gonna be okay for the ride home?” Pete asked and I nodded.

“I’ll be there to keep the peace,” Franklin added. reassuringly.  I loved these guys.  

“I just need to use the bathroom,” I said, standing.  Pete stood too, and fished his keys form his pocket.

“We’ll be in the courtyard waiting for you.”

I didn’t really have to use the bathroom.  I just walked into the small room and began to cry, hard, harder than I think that I’ve ever cried before in my life.  My shoulders shook so hard that i was afraid they would slip from their sockets.  I was sure that someone could hear me, that is unless that bathroom was sound proof.  I doubted it.  I gripped the faucet to keep from falling over, resting my head on the sink ledge, my stomach screaming for me to stop.  But I couldn’t.  The tears just kept on coming.  And I just kept on falling.

When I finally stepped outside, I was sure that my eyes were bloodshot.  Franklin and Pete stood holding hands.  Spencer was a ways off, already on the lip of the forest.  She was staring into the trees, away from me.  Jill and Sunshine stood a few steps away from the cabin.  Jill was smiling at me, and Sunshine was too, but hers was laced with something else, knowing.  She had heard me, I’m sure.  The bathroom hadn’t been sound proof.

“Hope to see you again Ashley,” Sunshine said in her heavy accent, and I nodded at them both.  Then I started toward the forest.  Spencer sensed our movement and started into the brush, never looking back once.  The entire walk she stayed a couple of meters ahead of Franklin and Pete, and I stayed a couple of meters behind them.  They did a very good job of ignoring or discomfort and cracking joke after joke nonetheless.  I laughed at a few, and if I wasn’t mistaken, Spencer laughed too, at the exact same jokes.  

When I finally reached the playground, Spencer was already waiting outside the bus.   She had one hand on the door, as if by just willing it open, it would do so.  That was her problem.  She thought that as long as she wanted things, they would happen, they would be hers.  I walked up to the bus too, standing a couple of paces behind her.  She knew that I was there.  Pete and Franklin had been busy arguing the best route home.  Noticing our discomfort, Pete hushed Franklin and they headed to the bus.  He unlatched the door and Spencer and I boarded.  She headed straight to the back of the bus.  I sat in my usual seat, and as I did so, our eyes locked for the first time since the argument.  Hers were a deep red, as if she had been crying non-stop for hours.  Some sick part of me was glad, glad that she was hurting, that she felt horrible, but most importantly I was just glad that she still cared.  I stared for a few more moments into those bright blue eyes and she stared right back, silently.    Then I looked away and at the two men still bickering at the front of the bus.  

This was going to be a long ride.