Early Sunsets Over Newark

I was worried for her. I always worried for her. From the moment our eyes met across the courtyard in high school; i knew she was broken inside and out. Something inside me told me she was going to make me cry too often to sleep, too often to be happy. Yet, I couldn't help but get close to her, and make her apart of my own family. I could remember the night she came over to my house with a black eye. I could remember the day her mother got arrested. I cringed thinking about the week we shared my room and barely slept. Most of my time had been spent holding her and listening to her cry. Despite everything that had happened, deep down she missed her mother. Even now, while we were traveling a million miles away; I knew that apart of her still wanted to be home. She knew she had to take care of her mother, that her mother only hit her because she had her own problems. That little part of Samantha didn't know anything else.

I stayed outside of the bathroom door. I could remember all of my emotional break downs in which Sam had played my current role, awaiting my return outside of the bathroom door. I sighed, and then sat down just outside of the door and leaned against it.

"Sam! I'm going to wait for you!"

Gerard snorted, and I glared at him. A look in my eye that told him how much he had no clue how just how close we were. He nodded in response and looked away, just as the bus came to a halting stop. The bus driver cursed and Gerard stood, walking to the front. The both of them exchanged words with each other, and when Gerard came back, he was infuriated. I didn't want to ask, so I waited for him to explain it to myself and the rest of us.

"The engine's been smoking for the past three hours and Dennis-the-wrecker didn't think it was dangerous until the bus stops moving. The GPS says there's a business two miles up the road. We should head up there. We might even get a real bite to eat."

Everyone but myself and Sammy (who was still locked in the bathroom) jumped to their feet and piled off the bus. Matt waited behind, staring at me down on the floor.

"Terra, are you coming?"

I shrugged.

"I can't leave her. She's all that I've got." I mumbled.

Matt sighed, and then held out his hand. When I accepted it, he helped me up off of the floor and then continued to bang on the bathroom door.

"Sam! We're going a liquor run! Wanted to know if you needed anything?!"

The bathroom door opened, and she stepped out, barely recognizable. Her eyes shimmering in the sunlight and the bottle of liquor was now empty. She stared at me, and then turned her gaze over to Matt, smiling playfully.

"So, are we going or what?" She giggled.

The GPS system had been right. There nwas a business two miles up the road. However, it wasn't what anyone would have imagined to be in the middle of nowhere. Gerard had no problem walking inside and making himself comfortable. However, Frank refused to enter Tanya's Tot-Sitters without some sort of inscentive. Which he quickly found in the big-breasted teenage girl working there. The daycare center was huge, but smelled like bleach and spoiled milk. I plugged my nose as I walked through the place. Tanya, the proud owner, offered to take us up to the mechanic's place to get help for our buses. Unfortunately, she could only take the bus driver in her two-person truck. The rest of us would stay at the daycare center with Monica (the big-breasted teenager Frank was so keen on boning) and relax in the air conditioning.

They were only gone for twenty-minutes before this whole plan started to go downhill. Monica left Gerard with a two-month baby and three toddlers; all of which were crawling on him like a jungle gym. He didn't know what to do, except try not to cry for help and mercy. When I went looking for Mikey, he was sitting on the 'Story-time' circle with the five year olds and six year olds, talking about the power rangers; I decided that he was better off there. I heard Brian screaming soon after that, and remembering both of this morning and what Gerard was going through; I followed the sounds of his agony to find him wrestling with a three year old for his hair. I loosened the little girls grasp and released the child to go play, unfortunately in Gerard's direction.

He stared at me with gratefulness in his eyes and I nodded to him, feeling uneasy since I now knew that he had bedded my best friend. He seemed nervous too, and just as I turned to leave; he stopped me.

"Terra, do you think Samantha hates me?"

I froze for a moment. Did he think I was her emotional radar or something? I couldn't even tell when she was doing her pee-pee dance. I turned around to face him and sighed, trying not to seem disinterested or rude.

"Um, good question! I really don't know. She's just been through, so much. Right now she just needs to figure some things out. It's really not about you, so don't worry? I mean, I'm sure lots of girls her age try to-"

I was then interrupted by a sound that would forever change the way I looked at things. Frank cursed at the top of his lungs, and then stormed through the room, between me and Brian. The front of his shirt was covered in spit-up and Brian started to gag. I simply plugged my nose and gave Frank a small shove, which unfortunately shoved him into Brian.

"Gross! Frank! That's fucking digusting!"

Brian flinched, then screamed like Frank's shirt was Count Dracula, and then threw up on Frank; who looked as though he was about to cry. At that moment, the room froze as Gerard walked in, with three children holding onto both of his legs and a baby wrapped around his neck. He coughed at the stench coming from Frank and his eyes widened at the sight of the vomit.

"Dude! Take care of that! That's totally gross!"

I chimed in, unable to help myself.

"Worse than gross! That's gank!"

Gerard looked at me and started laughing.

"Yeah! Gank! Wait.. What's gank?"

I laughed at Gerard, and then froze for a moment when I remembered something.

"Where's Sam?"

Brian looked over at me, holding his stomach like he would be sick again.

"She's outside with Ray."

I sighed, and then walked through the hall, out to the p[layroom, avoiding Mikey and his new friends who were currently played Poke'Mon. When I finally exited the building, Sammy was smoking a cigarette and Ray was looking at the building like it was a methodist church and he was Satan. I paused, looking up at Ray and his big hair.

"What's wrong? Why don't you come inside where it's cool?"

He shook his head, not even looking at me.

"I can't, man! I feel like the modern michael jackson... It's just not right."

I held my breathe, taking a few steps backwards before walking over to Sam.

"Okay then. Um, Sammy; I think we need to round up all the boys. It's getting kind of crazy in there."