▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 2║▌║▌║█│▌

John and I sat down near the middle of the bus, and expected to leave right away since there wasn’t anybody waiting with us. To our surprise someone else hopped onto the bus right when the doors were closing. It was that red-haired bitch from the party. What was she doing here? Wait, is she following John? I looked at John, and he was looking at her as well with a confused face. I leaned over and whispered him a question.

“Do you know who she is?”

“She is a friend from one of my classes. Her name is Giselle Howard. I didn’t think she lived close enough to us to ride the same bus. This is probably going to get awkward.”

You think? After what happened in that room and what she told me, this couldn’t be any more awkward. To make the matters worse, she was making a beeline for us in our seats. She walked straight up to us and pointed her finger at John and told him a matter of factly, “Just where do you think you were doing leaving the party so soon? Did you forget you still owe me a dare after that favor I did for you, and you will pay up!”

Ohhh, so that was why she did what she did so easily. John promised her he’d do anything for her basically. Sometimes John is too nice, it will get him in even worse trouble than this if he keeps this up. I looked at John, and he had a worried look on his face. He told her, “Well, you really didn’t complete the dare, so I don’t have to do anything for you.”

“Wait just a Godd…”

“Well John, she was definitely going to.” I said, wanting just to see what would happen if I stirred the pot, “I was the one that stopped her, but she was definitely going to do the dare completely. I think if someone wants to get in your pants that badly, why not do a dare for them if it’s in reason? I never had a person want to get with me that badly, so I don’t know exactly how these things go. I also think that she is a pretty shitty human being, but if she has gone to all this trouble why not just hear what she has to say then make a decision.”

John looked at me with a thoughtful expression and smile as I looked at him with a slight grin. I love teasing John about his abundant love life options. This isn’t the first time a girl has walked up to him asking to go out, or do something with him. I like to stir the pot sometimes to get a reaction from them sometimes, depending on what I already think of them. If I know they aren’t a good human being, I make it seem like they have hope just so the rejection is even sweeter. If they seemed to be nice or okay before, I just stand by and mind my own business, contemplating where I went wrong in life. John never seems to date anyone, yet another aspect of love him and I are different on. He rather just has fun with anyone, while I just want a committed relationship with just one girl. I looked back at Giselle, and she seemed as confused as ever. John looked back at her and told her in an annoyed voice, “Well what was the dare you have in mind?”

“It’s not anything bad. My dare is just that you and I go on a single date together.”

That response was unexpected. I thought she would have asked for sex or something. Just a date doesn’t seem that bad at all. “No.” John responded dryly.

I looked at him with an eyebrow raised. I know he doesn’t like to date anyone, but it is just a single date. Doesn’t bother me though, that’s what she gets for being so stuck up in the first place. Maybe it’s better if they don’t go on the date because John would verbally kill her if he knew what she was really like. Giselle looked confused and angry. As her face started to get red, she asked as her voice waivered, “Why not? It’s just a single date. That’s all I ask in the dare. You don’t have to enjoy it or anything.”

So, this is a pouting girl huh? Never seen one before. John responded to her plea just as dryly as he said no, saying, “I just don’t want to, that is all.”

Before she had a chance to respond, the bus jolted and started going forward. In all the commotion Giselle forgot about the bus moving, and didn’t get in a seat. As a consequence, she fell forward between John and I. “Well this looks familiar.” I retorted.

“Shut up.” She replied in an annoyed voice.

John couldn’t help but giggle at the situation. Giselle took a place in a seat, and we sat in silence for a couple of seconds that seemed like hours. All of a sudden, I felt really tired. I could feel my head getting heavy, and my eyelids drooping as the scenes outside got blurry. Before I knew it, I was out cold, sleeping on the bus.

I woke up, and I could see that it was early morning from the light shining through the bus. I sat up right away, shocked that I slept the night on the bus. My foster parents are going to kill me. I looked around the bus, and I saw that John and Giselle are still asleep in silence. I stood up and decided to take a look around where we are at. I walked back through the bus, to see where the bus driver was at, and to my little surprise he wasn’t. I noticed that the door was open though, and there was a slight smell of smoke travelling through the air. I walked out of the bus and into the cold damp morning air. I took a deep breath, and could automatically tell we weren’t in the city anymore. The air was too fresh, and the breeze was too clean. Aside from the smoke, the air was the cleanest I have ever breathed in my life. I looked around my surroundings, and immediately understood where this air was coming from. All around me stood massive trees, and the colors on them were all more vibrant than usual. The Greens were greener, the browns were browner, and the flowers were explosive with color. I was walking around the bus in awe of the scenery around me, and I didn’t realize I was subconsciously following the smell of the smoke. I turned the corner of the bus, and saw a band of…People? Some of them looked normal while others look different in some ways. Some had hooves, one eye, wings, and some just looked like animals. I got knocked on my ass from the shock. What was going on? “Oh, so you’re finally awake. I hope you had a good sleep. Sorry about that, drowsiness is usually a side effect when travelling the roots. You look a little pale, are you feeling okay?”

A person with hooves stood up and asked me this like it was normal. I had my mouth wide open, trying to speak, but the only thing that came out was, “Ho…Hoo…Hooves.”

My introducer looked down at his feet, and bellowed out a mighty laugh that would put a normal person to shame. He looked back at me beaming, and said, “Yeah, you’re probably really shocked at this huh? Come near to the fire with us and I’ll tell you what you are doing here. We got some grub ready to eat too, so you woke up at just the right time.”

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued ║▌║▌║█│▌