Barriers

The sound of the squeaking leather underneath my bare thighs broke the silence in the bus because I slung my right leg onto my left as I read my last lesson for the day in my computer, which was history. I still had 45 minutes left of home schooling before I could wander around the arena. The bright Californian sun shined brightly through the wide window next to me, with the bright blue sky and no clouds in the way. My pearl blue painted nails tapped on the edge of the computer in bore when the bus door opened.

Footsteps were heard as someone came into the bus and then, uncle Shannon appeared with an amused look on his face when he saw me with my computer. “Still in school, eh kid?”

I rolled my eyes and propped my elbow on the table before resting my head aside on my hand. “Please, tell me about it.”

“Even though there is no way your dad would let you go to college, meaning being away from him, he still wants you to be smart, Ari.”

“Oh, please, uncle Shanny.”, I snorted with the name I came up with him when I was still a kid. “I can do damn Logarithm in my head now. I wish dad would just let me go out for a bit.”

“Out? Where? You’re a part of a moving circus, Ariel.”, he chuckled. “You’re always out.”

“Yeah, by the arena and some of your fans were glaring at me because I have a laminate and gossiping how the hell I could get one. Can they see the fucking resemblances?”

Uncle Shannon widened his eyes on my language. “To me, you’re the splitting image of your dad, for sure, and I think the day your dad took you away from your mom and when the media found out, every one knows you.”

I let out a heavy sigh and dropped my head down onto the table, resting my forehead on my arm. It had been six years since the last time I saw my mom, and it was the day dad came to our house and took me away. I was glad he came right in time because mom was about to kill me, literally kill me. She already had a knife in her hand and yelling at me because I was 5 minutes late to be home from school. Dad kicked the front door down because she wasn’t answering and found us in the kitchen, with me, sitting in the tiled floor with teary eyes and pale face.

He took me away immediately and brought me into his ‘traveling circus’ world, like uncle Shannon said himself earlier. Since then, I was home schooled in the bus, 3 hours of school every day before I could wander around the arena or just simply walk around in the venue while dad do his sound check and things. We spent so little time at home, making me didn’t have any permanent friends, but I didn’t mind nor care.

“Ariel, finish your lesson first, then you can go wandering off.”, uncle Shannon reminded before he went out from the bus again. I grunted and sat up straight before scrolling down the page to read the last part of the E-Book. He was just like dad, the ones that always reminds me that I still had school.

It was only five minutes left of school when a pop up window appeared on the screen. I narrowed my eyes to get a better vision when I realized what it was saying. Bamboozle Roadshow was in town, the first show of the summer actually, and the arena was only 15 minutes away from where I was.

This was the kind of situation where my teenage hormones raging in; The one that wanted me to rebel out on dad. I did some mental math about how much money I had in my pocket and it came to an end when I dug into my pocket and found a 100 dollar bill. The ticket was only 45 bucks and I could just run. Yes, I had to run, because if I didn’t, dad could ask the securities to get me and they were the size of gorillas.

When school was over, I closed my computer shut before putting on my jacket even though it was blazing hot outside, but I didn’t care. I rushed out from the bus and looked around to see if anyone was there, but they weren’t. A loud noise came from the inside of the venue and dad’s singing was heard, signaling that they were doing their sound check. I smiled to myself before running out from the parking lot and out to the sidewalks. I was free! I made it out!

Thank you for the GPS dad installed in my phone, I found the arena easily and because a lot people were going to that direction. After buying the last minute ticket at the booth, I went in because there was no more queue line since the festival started hours ago. This was my first time to go anywhere alone so I looked around to see some band at the stage or wandering around the merch booths.

Some people were looking at me weirdly and I pretended that I didn’t notice their stare. I touched my necklace and cursed myself for wearing this. Probably they realized it was 30 Seconds To Mars’ necklace and what the hell I was doing here because they were playing a different show 15 minutes away from here. A girl noticed my Echelon bracelet and believed me, she was giving me a weird look.

When I was about to check the timetable of the sets, I wiped the bead of sweats on my forehead because of the scorching sun. I wasn’t that good with heat and the mixture of wet grass, sweats, odor and other scents that I didn’t want to know about, stung my nose, making my head spun around. My vision was getting blurry and when I was walking through the crowd, I fell back without me noticing and fell to some guy’s arms. I looked up to the one who caught me and his green eyes looked back down on me.

“Whoa there, are you okay?”, he asked with a bemused face. His green eyes were warm and it made me had this tingling feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I stuttered and gained my legs back, standing up on my own two feet before tucking my hair into the back of my ear. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry, I was losing it.”

He nodded and I studied his face for a bit. He looked older than me, probably 21 or something and there was something of him that made me captivated. The way he looked at me wasn’t the look everyone gave me my whole life. He looked at me like I was normal, a normal girl. “It’s okay. Are you alone?”

“Y-Yeah, this is my first time going to a festival and my dad… just kinda dropped me off here.”, I lied smoothly. The truth was, my dad was 15 minutes away and having his sound check, not even knowing I was here.

“Really? Your first time?”, his eyes widened in excitement. “Then, I’m Jonathan, and I can be your guide.”

“Ariel.”, I lend out my hand and he chuckled before accepting the handshake. It was funny how my small hand in his large one and the way our palms attached to each others’ made me nibbled in the inside of my lips.

“Ariel? Like the Disney Ariel?”, he asked. It was the most obvious question that people would ask after I told them my name. I didn’t know what was going on inside my parents’ head, or my mom’s head, when she was about to give me a name, since from what I’ve known, dad wasn’t there when I was born.

I nodded automatically like it was already programmed. “Yes, like Disney Ariel.”

Jonathan grinned and I had to admit that he had a really great smile for a guy. “Well, Ariel, I will definitely be your guide.”