{141}✔️

Dahlia's POV

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"If Cooper didn't snore so loudly, I probably would've gotten a better night's sleep!" Billie huffed, glaring at him as we walked down the bus steps.

"I do not snore!" He defended himself quickly. "You were probably hearing Dahlia. She snores."

"Don't bring me into it!" I blushed. "And it couldn't have been me anyway. I was too busy being kept up by Cora's sleep talking."

"I don't sleep talk, you idiot, I'm not a lunatic!" She huffed. "I was pissed off so I was muttering to myself."

"Yeah, you talk to yourself and yet you're not a lunatic," I rolled my eyes. "I was pissed off too but I wasn't keeping you up by constantly talking to myself!"

"Well, if your girlfriend hadn't been stupid enough to hire a bus driver without a valid license and no mechanical experience, we would've never been stuck out here in the middle of nowhere and I wouldn't have to talk to myself. I could've been talking to Hayes instead." She narrowed her eyes.

"Oh. My. God!" I huffed. "We're literally stranded out here with no way of getting in contact with our brother who just had a baby and the only thing you're worried about is Hayes?! How selfish could you be?!"

"Oh, shut up!" She scoffed. "If Billie wasn't here you'd be talking about her constantly! 'Oh, I wonder if Billie's okay?', 'Oh, Billie must be so worried right now!', 'Oh, blah, blah, blah, Billie, Billie, Billie!' SHUT THE FUCK UP!" She screamed.

"Okay, guys, come on!" Billie clapped her hands as she stood in the middle of us. "This is ridiculous! You're both just cranky because you didn't get any sleep!"

"No, we're cranky because you were dumb enough to hire some random guy from Craig's list—"

"Craig's list?!" Cadence gasped.

"Hey, you're not about to stand here and keep calling my girlfriend names!" I spat, glaring at Cora.

"Thank you, baby." Billie grinned, trying to kiss me. I quickly dodged her and sent her a glare too. "Oh, knock it off, you idiot!"

She gasped loudly. "Harsh!"

"You guys should stop putting all the blame on me!" Cooper grumbled. "I'm a good driver, and that's what I was hired to do! Drive! Not fix some hunk of junk that your little lady got off eBay!" He told me.

"Hunk of junk?! Don't you talk about bus Dahlia that way!" Billie spat.

"Yeah! Billie spent a lot of money on this beautiful bus!" I backed her up.

"See, that's just it!" He nodded. "You think it's real beautiful because it's green and it's got your name on it, but guess what, honey? Take the paint off and you'll quickly see that it's just what I said it was. A hunk. Of. Junk." He smirked as he took his key and scratched some of the paint off, making us all cringe.

"You're paying for that! Yeah, that's coming right out of your paycheck!" Billie yelled.

"My paycheck?! You're not paying me diddly darn! I wouldn't be able to afford ordering off the McDonald's dollar menu with what you're paying me!" He chuckled. "Face it, little one. You screwed up when you ordered a school bus for only $800. You're the only one to blame for this, not me!"

"What?! $800?! All you paid was $800?!" Bea gasped. "Why are you so damn cheap?!"

"Cheap?!" Billie chuckled bitterly. "I'm sorry, do you have that kind of money just lying around? I definitely don't think so."

"Alright, okay. Those are fighting words, bitch, let's go—" Bea mumbled as she snatched her earrings out.

"Aw, fuck yes. I'd love to see that!" Kit smiled as she patted Bea's ass and sent her a wink. "Go get her ass, G."

"Kit!" I huffed.

"What?" She shrugged.

"I do not want to be rude because you guys are always nice to me, but I'm going to be rude right now because I feel it is necessary," Madi stared at the sky and played with his hands as he spoke. "You guys are all stupid and it is all of your faults. Billie is cheap, Cooper told lies, and Dahlia didn't see this coming even after Billie told her she got the bus off of eBay."

"But I—" I frowned.

"Dying out here is not that likely, but since you guys are stupid the chances are slightly higher. Madi is sorry for being rude but you people are ridiculously dumb."  He smiled.

"Roasted!" Caden grinned, holding a hand up for a high five. Madi turned and walked away from him, causing him to frown. "Way harsh, dude."

"What—What the hell is that? What is that?" Cadence questioned, clearly annoyed. "Why the hell do you sound like some surfer dude or something?"

"I think I'm having a mental breakdown." He sighed.

"Madi, do you know anything about mechanics?" I asked him hopefully.

"Short answer; no. Long answer...Long," he nodded. "This is a fast-paced conversation so I guess that the long answer would not be good." He shook his head.

"You're really improving when it comes to picking up on social cues and stuff!" Jules grinned, patting his shoulder.

"Thank you. Can I talk more about how stupid Dahlia and Billie are or should I be done with that?"

He asked.

"It's your call." She laughed.

"Okay. I will continue. I think you guys—"

"Okay, buddy, we'll discuss how stupid we are later!" Billie quickly cut him off. He shrugged.

"I don't get why we're just standing around here wasting time. We all know what we have to do." Ori sighed.

"...What do we have to do?" Heidi asked dumbly.

"We have to walk! For who knows how long until we can get back to—"

"Oh my god, a truck!" Cora cut me off quickly, pointing at a truck in the distance. We all screamed loudly in excitement.

"Hold your thumbs out like in the movies!" Ken yelled.

We all did, probably looking stupid as we jumped around and shouted, hoping the truck would stop for us.

It did. Not sure if that's a good thing.

When the people in the truck got out, I felt my heart starting to pound quicker than it had been before. I try not to judge people by their looks, but these people...

They looked like the serial killers Heidi is so sure don't exist anymore.

"Do you guys need a ride or something?" The largest guy out of all three of the guys grunted, his voice deep as shit.

"Nope!" We all shook our heads quickly, except for Kit who stepped forward, examining him.

"Motherfucker, you look like the rock. But bigger!" She nodded, clearly impressed. "And somehow...Balder."

"Is that supposed to be a joke?!" He growled, stepping closer to her.

"I wasn't laughing so there's one context clue for you right there."  She shrugged.

"So, I guess it's just fuck her life then, huh?" I whispered to Billie, wondering why she was talking to this guy like that.

"Calm down!" One of the other guys stepped forward, grabbing the guy's arm. "You'll have to forgive him. Francis gets sensitive about his hair or...Lack thereof."

Now, the guy that said that was just as big as...Francis...But his voice was higher than Justin Bieber's in 2009.

"I'm Larry, and this is Philip." He introduced himself and their other friend. "What's the problem? Bus broke down?"

"Um...Yeah," I sighed, stepping forward despite Billie's protests. "We're kinda stranded and we need to get somewhere where there's service and where there's a mechanic."

"Well, we're heading North, and you guys are welcome to come with. A few of you, I mean. All of you can't fit on the back of the truck." Francis shrugged.

"Oh...I don't know. I think it's a bad idea for us to split up and—"

"Your call, but I don't think you guys have many other options." Phillip cut me off.

"Well...How many of us could fit on the back of the truck?" I tilted my head.

"About eight of you."

"Perfect. Eight of us will stay here, the other eight will go with them. The question is, which group will survive?!" Cadence questioned sarcastically.

"Like he said, we don't have much of a choice. We're just gonna have to trust them." Billie sighed.

"I understand we can be a little intimidating upon first glance, but we're really just a bunch of big teddy bears when you get to know us." Francis' face was blank as he spoke, his muscles flexing with every word and his fists curling too.

Yeah. Okay.

"Well, that's great to know. And we may look like a bunch of teddy bears upon first glance, but trust me, we are a lot tougher than that. Don't make the mistake of getting to know that side of us." Billie narrowed her eyes at them.

Larry chuckled as he held his hands up in defense and nodded. "Alright then. Well, we need to get back on the road if we wanna get to where we're trying to get to in a decent time. So...Who's coming?"

They got back in the truck and waited as we talked amongst ourselves, trying to figure out who should go and who should stay.

We decided that Cooper should go since he's a pretty big guy too.

"Oh, no, I'm fine right here! Those guys could be killers for all we know, and I'm too young to die! Plus, I got eight kids at home who need me!" He shook his head.

"Eight? Last night you said seven!" I huffed.

"It's hard to keep up with them all," He shrugged. "The point is, I'm not going!"

"Yes, you are! Quit being a punk ass!" Billie and him began arguing back and forth as the rest of us decided who else would go.

After a few minutes, we decided that Caden, Cadence, Bea, Kit, Gigi, Cooper, Billie, and I would go and everyone else would stay here.

"Okay, we're obviously gonna be a couple hours so you guys just need to hang tight," I said to everyone. "We're gonna find somebody to tow the bus, rent a hotel room for the night since we probably won't be able to get home just yet, rent a van and let Cooper come back and get you, and then everything will be fine!"

"I'm hungry." Cora groaned.

"Eat leaves until we get back," I shrugged. "Kit, did you get my mace for me?"

"Yeah, I got mace, pepper spray, and I brought my lucky taser." She grinned.

"Your lucky—Okay, alright, we don't have the time—" I shook my head as I turned to Madi. "You're in charge. Everyone here besides you is an imbecile so look after them, okay?"

"Yes, I will." He smiled.

We said our goodbyes and then we headed for the truck. We all climbed on and tried to make ourselves as comfortable as we could in the bed of it before Phillip, who was driving, hit the gas.

He sped worse than me. This was gonna be a long ride.

Well, a short one, but you know what I mean.

***

"This is the best grub I've had in a long while!" Phillip grunted before licking his fingers and letting out a loud sigh. "Reminds me of my mama's cooking!"

"Maybe that's why it's called Mama Anne's barbecue." Larry chuckled.

So, once we got out of the middle of nowhere, it was around lunchtime. We were all starving, so Francis had suggested that we stop somewhere to eat.

I was a little iffy at first because I didn't wanna have to spend any more time with them than what was absolutely necessary, and plus, I know our friends who're still at the bus are just as hungry as we are and it's not fair that we get to eat and they don't. But...Well, how could I turn down barbecue?

It didn't take long after sitting down at the large table with them to figure out that they were just what Francis had said they were. Teddy bears.

Bodybuilding teddy bears, actually.

"This is me and Cristi on vacation in Cabo last summer! This is me and Cristi at her favorite park two Sundays ago...Oh! This is me and Cristi at her very first doctor's appointment! She was such a champ!" Francis cooed as he swiped through the pictures of him and his poodle.

He really loves his dog.

"So, I just have to ask, how do you guys know each other?" I tilted my head.

"Oh, Larry and I are both friends of Phillip's," Francis explained. "We met at his ballet recital back in 2008!"

"Ballet recital?" Caden raised his brows.

"I know what you're thinking. 'Isn't ballet a bit girlish?' Well, the answer is no. I love ballet!" Phillip smiled. "See, I got into it because of my daughter. She started ballet when she was three and we needed something to do together. I wasn't expecting to do anything but watch her but...I did a little more than that. Once I saw how beautiful the dance was I had to do it myself!"

"So, Larry loves baking, you love Ballet, and Francis loves his poodle..." Billie chuckled. "This is unreal."

"I guess we're all just a bunch of oddballs." Larry shrugged. "As much as I hate to say it, I think we need to get going." He sighed after a few moments.

We all agreed.

I'd already called Denny to let him know what had happened, and after that, I called to get a hotel room as I said I would, and then I called a towing service, and now all we have to do is go to a car dealership and rent a van. The closest one is just twenty minutes away.

We all chipped in to leave a big tip for the waitress and then left the restaurant and got back onto the truck.

The drive to the car dealership went quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to our three bulky ass friends.

"Don't forget to tell Cristi hi for me!" Cadence screamed as we all waved them off.

We all piled into the small building, my eyebrows raising quickly as I looked around the crumby little room. The place was super dusty and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in...Ever, and the guy behind the desk looked basically the same way.

"Welcome to Tom's car dealership, what you need?" He didn't look at us as he typed away on his computer, his cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth as he did.

"Um, we were wondering if you have anything that could seat at least eight people?" I asked as we all made our way over to the desk. I caught a glance at what he was doing on the computer, and he was literally playing some video game.

"Well, not technically. See, we've only got three cars that can be rented right now—Bossman tells me to tell people it's because the other ones were so nice that the people renting them decided to purchase them, but that's bologna—however, if you're willing to pay a little extra then I'm sure bossman will be willing to lend you guys his own van."

"How much extra?" I raised my brow.

"Boss!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, causing us all to jump. We waited in silence for a good two minutes, him continuing to tap away on his keyboard until his game ended. When it did, he looked up at us dumbly and then made an 'Oh' shape with his mouth, as if he'd just remembered that we were standing there. "Yeah...I guess he's not here." He shrugged.

"Well, is his van?" Bea asked.

"Yeah, it's parked out back in the employee lot. I'll take you guys to it." He sighed as he stood up and flicked his cigarette down onto the ground before stomping it out.

He led us out back to the 'employee lot' and it was just a small section of dirt with two cars parked on it.

"That's the van." He pointed lazily at the van that looked like it'd belong to a hippie in the 70s. "Rosco's most prized possession. How long are you looking to rent for?"

"We'll pay for two days just to be safe." Billie shrugged.

"Okay, that'll be six hundred dollars." He sucked in a long breath through his nose before wiping it. I cringed as I saw snot dripping down his hand afterward.

"Billie, maybe we should just go somewhere else," I whispered. "I mean, the boss isn't even here and what if he gets mad that we took his van? I don't wanna piss anybody named Rosco off, like, ever."

"It'll be fine!" She waved me off.

"Why do the cars you guys are renting out look so old?" Caden asked, chuckling. "What, did you guys steal them or something?"

"Why? Did somebody say something?!" The guy asked quickly.

I side-eyed Billie and she shushed me before I even had the time to say anything. "Ugh—We'll take that van now." She mumbled.

***

After Cooper dropped us off at the hotel, he headed down the road again to get our friends. Since it's a few hour drive and I'm sure they're gonna stop somewhere to eat before coming here, I figure we won't be seeing them for a while. That's good. The hotel we found only had one free room and we're all gonna have to share it. There's only one bed in here so...That kinda sucks.

For them.

Billie, Cadence, Kit and I called dibs on the bed. We all beat Caden, Bea, and Gigi at rock papers scissors so we get to sleep on it.

On the bright side, it's a really nice room. It's pretty spacious and it's got a nice view cause it's on the third floor.

I was the last person to take my shower after we got our stuff settled in the room, and after I did, I got my pajamas on and then headed out of the bathroom.

Everyone else had mentioned going down to the pool because nobody else was down there, but I told them to go without me because I wanted to just

lay down and watch some TV. When I came out of the bathroom, though, I noticed that Kit was still in the room, standing by the closet.

She jumped as she heard me coming out, and I frowned as I noticed her quickly wiping her face. I narrowed my eyes as I slowly walked closer to her, noticing her body tense up even more the closer I got to her.

"Hey...Are you okay?" I asked.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, I'm good...I'm good." She shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. She kept turning away from me, trying to hide her tears, but I knew she was upset.

I slowly walked even closer to her and she sniffled one final time before looking at me, sending me a small smile. "I'm good." She mumbled.

"What's wrong?" I questioned softly.

"Nothings wrong I'm...Allergic reaction." She shrugged.

"Kit, everybody cries sometimes. Everybody has bad days. It's okay. You don't have to be ashamed or anything." I told her.

She sighed and shook her head. "Just go, Dahlia."

"No. You're upset. I'm not gonna let you stay here and cry all by yourself—"

"Seriously, bro, fuck out my face." She huffed. "I appreciate you checking up on me and everything, but I don't need you or anybody else. So go on."

Her voice was trembling as she spoke and she was clearly on the verge of crying again. I simply crossed my arms and glared directly into her eyes, stepping closer to her.

We had a glaring contest for a while before she sighed and rolled her eyes. "You never know when to leave shit alone, do you?"

"Minding my own business isn't one of my strong suits." I shrugged. "I'm working on it."

"I really miss my girl." She whispered, turning to face forward again. "The girl I was telling you about at that party I invited you to. Her name was Tamera. I've been thinking about her a lot lately."

"I'm sorry." I mumbled.

"Yeah...I'm kind of scared. I mean, I ain't known Bea for that long but I really...Feel like I like her. I don't just want pussy like I've been saying. I actually...Like her. Maybe. I keep thinking about how much I actually want us to be on some couple shit. But I ain't been in a real relationship in a couple years and I don't want to be. I always fuck that shit up."

"No, you used to always fuck that shit up. You've grown as a person, I'm sure. Maybe it could work this time." I smiled.

"Nah...I know myself, Doe. I don't think it'd end well if we got together for real. Plus, I can't...I don't wanna do that to Tamera. I just keep thinking about her sweet ass." She chuckled. "We never got together officially, but I was hers and she was mine. That ain't changed."

"I really hope this doesn't make you mad because I'm sure you could beat my ass, but Kit, Tamera isn't here anymore. She's probably in heaven having a damn good time right now. You guys can't be together. Not right now. So...You know, maybe you should consider moving on. Just for while you're on this earth, at least. I bet she'd want you to do that."

"She probably would. I don't want to though. I just feel like if I move on then that's it. Remember how I told you I still felt like she's here with me? Like she's just...right fucking here?" She asked, her eyes flickering over to me. I nodded. "I wouldn't feel that way anymore if I moved on. I mean, I don't think I would. I don't wanna risk losing that feeling. It's the only thing keeping me going."

"She'll be with you no matter what, Kit. Seems like you two really loved each other. That means she'll stick around for as long as you want her to."

She nodded and shrugged before letting out a small breath and then turning to stare down at me. "This is some pussy shit, but ugh...Can I hug you?" She asked, sounding small.

"Obviously." I smiled.

She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and rested her head on top of mine as I patted her back. I really hope this talk helped her a little bit. I hope she feels better soon.

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A/N: just two more chapters left!

I just finished making the sequel book cover and it's simple but I really like it! And now all I have to do is finish making the soundtrack & I'll be done with all the extra stuff I'm doing.

I have to have that done before publishing the last chapter and I have to get the first chapter of the sequel written before publishing it as well soo I'm gonna work super hard to get that done quickly!