Long Rides

Austin put a finger over his lips, motioning us to be quiet. He then mouthed and the fingers counted, “One… two… three.”

“Merry Christmas!” we all screamed in the morning, making the couple woke up. Kyle fell out of the sofa in shock. Verion that was asleep in his arms snapped her eyes open.

“What?! Where!? How?! Who died?!” Kyle shouted as he jumped up.

“It’s Christmas, you bafoon,” I laughed.

“CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!!” Jack exclaimed as he jumped up and down childishly. I swore this kid either has too much sugar running in his blood, or he’s gonna be forever 5 inside.

We all sighed and piled out of the lounge to get the presents. Some were still in the lounge, maybe they kept their presents there. I went to our van and opened the trunk. I grabbed the big bag filled with presents and went back to the bus. Inside, there were bags of presents lay everywhere. I placed my white bag of presents next to a blue bag of presents and plopped myself next to Jonathan in the sofa.

“Jack, choose a bag you want the person to give presents first,” Alex said from the coffee table.

“YAY!” Jack chimed excitedly and skipped towards the bags. He took a moment deciding, before he lifted up a dark purple bag with white stripes.

* * *

After 2 hours of hanging out in the bus, we were finally hungry for breakfast. It was 10 sharp by the time we entered Denny’s.

We were done eating breakfast, when everyone mixed their leftovers onto a full piece of waffle. Cheese, blueberries, onion rings… and other foods that I couldn’t name. Ick.

Rian poured some ketchup on top of the… food on top of the waffle.

“Add some tobacco!” Caleb shouted and Alex added some tobacco, and then some pepper and salt.

“Eww,” Ali whined.

“Anyone wanna try the Awful Waffle?” Kyle offered.

“I’ll try!” Zack offered himself.

Austin cut a piece and stabbed it with a fork before handing it to Zack. Zack shoved it into his mouth and swallowed it. We all chimed an ‘ooh’ and gave him an applause.

“Anyone else?” Kyle asked.

“I do!” I answered. They all turned to me. “It’s okay; it looks pretty…. Interesting?”

“Applause, everyone!!” Kyle shouted before clapping his hands, followed by everyone as Austin cut a piece for me and handed it to me.

I gulped, staring at it before I held my breath and shoved it into my mouth. They watched. I chewed it quickly and swallowed it.

“OOOH!” Austin chimed and they all followed, clapping their hands. I put the fork on the table and grabbed my drink for a drink.

It tasted horrible! It’s a little bit of mixture of everything left on the table. Miraculously, I didn’t throw up.

As Austin cut the next piece, Jonathan suddenly shouted, “Kyle!”

We all followed, calling out his name. Kyle backed away and attempted to run away, but Marc, Jack, and Alex held him back and pushed him back until he sat on the edge of the table. He stood up and gave Jonathan an ‘I’ll-kill-you-after-this’ glare, before taking the fork from Austin.

We all chimed, “Do it, do it, do it!”

He stared at the fork – looking grossed – before shoved it into his mouth. We cheered and clapped our hands, but a moment later, he seemed he was about to puke. Verion gave him an empty plate. He took it and stared down at it for a while, before throwing up onto it.

“Awful Waffle – way off the menu!” he declared after he was done throwing up.

We laughed, and that was when my Blackberry vibrated. I walked away from the noisy group until it wasn’t so noisy anymore, and looked at the caller ID. I didn’t recognize the number, but answered it anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hello, baby. Merry Christmas.”

My eyes widened, and I felt a big lump in my throat as my breathing got heavier.

“W- Who is this?”

“Aww, don’t tell me you forgot about me, beautiful.”

A flashback rushed into my mind. All of them, at a time.

My nightmares.

“…B- Ben?”