Long Rides

“Oh my god Athe you don’t know what happened earlier,” Verion cried as got in the bus. Kyle followed behind her with shopping bags in his hands. “It was horrible!”

“What? What happened?” I asked, getting up from the couch, followed by the other three.

“Caleb and Alex had a huge fight.”

My eyes widened and then the door clicked open. Our eyes darted off to the door. Alex walked in with an unhappy expression. I saw a dark bruise on his cheek. He stopped walking for a moment when he realized we were staring, and then he went to his bunk after looking away from my gaze.

A little while after that, we heard Rian was talking. “Don’t you ever, ever do that again!” he scolded.

He went in with Caleb behind him. His expression was the same as Alex’s: unhappy. I swore I saw his lower lip and right temple has some blood… shit.

Our gazes met, and for the first time in a few days, his eyes weren’t angry when they saw me. Actually, they were still angry but somehow the word angry wasn’t the exact word to describe them.

I looked down to my hands and sat down slowly as my fingers played with each other.

“Um, Athe…?”

And for the first time in a few days, I heard his voice calling my name.

I looked up at him.

“Can you help me cleaning my bruises?” he asked, unsure.

“Yeah, sure,” I answered as I stood up.

We went to the small bathroom in the back part of the bus. He sat down on the toilet that had its cap or whatever-you-call-it closed. I took a small towel and let it wet with some water running from the water tap. I turned off the water tap after it was wet enough.

I turned around to face Caleb and my heart skipped a beat when I saw him watching me intensely. Their eyes looked… sexy.

I walked over him and lifted his chin with my hand. I wiped the blood away from his lower lip carefully not to hurt him. I moved on to his right temple and cleaned the blood. I hope the bruises won’t be stuck on his pretty face forever.

I didn’t realize my hands were shaking when he lightly touched my hand that were cleaning his temple and said, “Are you okay?”

I chuckled. “I should be the one who’s asking that. Why are you fighting? With Alex?”

He rolled up the sleeve of his jacket and I saw more bruises on his arm. I took his hand and carefully cleaned the bruises.

“Jealousy.”

I stopped for a while, looking into his eyes.

“I was jealous of him – with you.”

I looked down to his arm and held back the tears that were threatening to fall.

God, Athe! You’re such a crybaby! Don’t cry!

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “For what I have said.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I replied. “Wait here, I think I see a first-aid kit somewhere in the lounge,” I said.

I placed the towel on the sink and went out of the bathroom, to the lounge at the back of the bus. I bent down next to the sofa and spotted a first-aid kit, and took it. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand to wipe off the tears.

I took a deep breath and went back to the bathroom.

I took out Caleb’s arm and started wrapping bandage around it.

“You’re really good with this,” he said.

“With what?”

“First-aid.”

“I used to hurt a lot,” I answered, smiling a little.

“Back to where I was saying. I’m really sorry. I’m really stupid, hurting the girl I really like.”

“You were hurting me because I hurt you first.”

“But at least I can talk to you softly – I was yelling at you. Twice. And then I glared a lot. I feel like shit.”

I was done wrapping his arm with his bandage when he said this.

“I feel even shitter. I shouldn’t be giving you hope when I don’t like you—“

I stopped, tears stinging into my eyes.

Oh god, what did I just say?! I swore it hurt his feelings even worse!

“I’m sorry—“ I was about to walk out when he pulled me and turned me around by the waist and buried his face in the crook of my neck.

“Finally you made it clear,” he mumbled.

I sobbed, wrapping my arms around his back.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured against his hair.

I felt him taking a deep breath before pulling away.

“Do you mind…? I want to go um…” He pointed down to the toilet and I knew what he wanted to do.

“Oh, alright.”

I then went out of the bathroom with the first-aid kit. I closed the door and slid down to the floor with my back against the door and my face buried in the palm of my hands.

I’m sorry, Caleb.