Barriers

The bus was still moving as I lie inside my bunk while reading Dracula. Dad thought I spent too much time inside my bunk, having a quality time of my own, but he couldn’t blame myself either. I was the only girl in the bus, well not really, there was Darla, who did the band’s hair and make up for the show, but she was 25.

I was going through the pages when somebody yanked the curtain of my bunk roughly. “Hey!”, I protested and threw my book to whoever did it. Everyone in the bus knew that I hated to have someone interrupted me when I was in my bunk.

“Easy, kiddo!”, uncle Shannon covered his face with both of his hands from the book I threw, which went to his side instead of his face.

“Uncle Shannon! You know I hated that!”, I grunted and pouted, waited until he showed his face again. “What do you want?”

He took a deep breath and eyed the book that already lying on the floor below him. “I just wanted to tell you that we’re almost at Anaheim.”

I nodded. “Okay. Anything else?”

“Yeah.”, he muttered and folded his arms on the edge of my bunk. “You have to know that your dad and I only wanted the best for you, Ariel, including the guy that you’re close with.”

Curiosity grew inside me. I furrowed my brows and tilted my head to the side. “Is this about Jonathan?”

“Jonathan? The guy who showed you around the other day’s name is Jonathan?”
I bit my tongue. I spoke too much. “Uh…”

“Look, Ariel. I know your dad since he was born, when he loved something or someone, he would do his best to keep it safe, and now, it’s you. Don’t think that I’m trying to be your dad, but since I’m your uncle and your dad is my little brother, you’re like my own. I let you date, but we still want the best guy for you.”

“Uncle Shannon.”, I chuckled a bit and moved closer to the edge of the bunk before snaking my arms around his neck. “Thank you for worrying about me.”

“Anytime, kiddo.”, he hugged back and ran his hand up and down my back in affection.

We pulled away and I smiled. “You have to know that I’m not seeing anyone, including Jonathan. He’s just a friend that I met yesterday. He’s nothing but a friend.”

Uncle Shannon nodded in understanding. “He looks too old for you. You should go for someone… like Quincy! Even though he looks really gay to me.”

“Ew!”, I scrunched up my nose. “I love Quincy as a brother, besides, he is gay, uncle Shanny!”

“Okay, remind me to tell your dad to block his ass hole.”

We both exploded into hysterical laughter until dad showed up from the front lounge. “I can see Ariel changed her bunk rules.”

“No, daddy.”, I shook my head as I tried to control my laughter. “Uncle Shanny just told me something really hysterical.”

Dad turned his attention to me to uncle Shannon, but uncle Shannon put his index finger in front of his lips to me, telling me to not tell dad about the joke. “Nope, just a little private joke between me and Ariel.”, he answered dad.

I nodded. “You don’t have anything to worry about, dad, it’s just so funny.”

“Suit yourself. Ariel, you want to go anywhere in Anaheim?”, Dad asked after uncle Shannon sauntered off to the back lounge. It was nice to have a private time with my dad, even though just a little chit chat like this time.

“I don’t really know. I still have school.”, I rolled my eyes on the word ‘school’.

Dad chuckled and ruffled my hair. “You know you do. You could take Quincy if you go anywhere.”

“Okay.”, I muttered. Dad kissed my temple before joining uncle Shannon in the back lounge. I sighed and closed my curtain before pulling my phone out from my pocket. There was a new message and I could easily guess it was from Jonathan. We had been texting with no special reason at all, he was just really cool to talk to.

“Where are you? :D”, he texted. I laughed at his creepiness.

“Almost at Anaheim. Thinking of going out. u?”, I tapped the screen to reply and tapped send before putting the phone right on my stomach.

I didn’t really know where to go in Anaheim actually. Well, I could go to a wasteland there, but I didn’t really want to skate at the moment. Quincy would probably be busy with his job, so I couldn’t ask him to come along with me. when I was deep in my thoughts, the bus stopped and I almost rolled out from my bunk because of the sudden movement.

Like it was programmed, I carefully got out and jumped off from my bunk before pulling my backpack out of my bunk with my personal stuffs and iPad inside it. I already put my phone inside my pocket and it vibrated right after I pushed it down, but I ignored it so I wouldn’t get squished by the others that were trying to get their stuffs out from their bunks.

When I stepped out from the bus and onto the concrete sidewalk, the sun was blazing down on me. Dad and uncle Shannon were already in the shades. I grunted and dragged my legs to their spot.

“Can I just drop my pack in the dressing room and go?”, I asked in mutters, but I knew they heard me.

“Ariel, don’t you have school today?”, dad asked with his eyes on me.

I bit the inside of my cheeks. “Can I have a day off, dad? I swear I’ll do 6 hours tomorrow!”

He looked at me with his “thinking look” before nodding a bit. “Thank you! Thank you, dad!”, I tackled him into a hug for a moment before pulling away and running back to the bus. Everyone was giving me a look when I threw my bag to the sofa on the front lounge instead of the dressing room, but I just waved them off after I grabbed my skateboard.

“Where you goin’?”, Quincy asked when I got out and arched his brow when he was about to push one of the black boxes of instruments.

“I don’t really know.”, I stopped when I realized I didn’t have any destination, but I remembered someone who was talking to me but I haven’t replied him yet. I pulled out my phone, unlock it and tapped the new text message.

“Really?! I’m in Anaheim too until tomorrow :D have anything to do today…?”

It didn’t take me too long to just tap his number and “Call”. The dial tone wasn’t too long until someone on the other line picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hey, do you wanna hang out today?”
****************
I leaned back onto the wall outside Vans Skatepark and looked sideways to see if Jonathan was already near or not. It was a hot day in Anaheim, so I didn’t want to spend my time outdoor too much.

“Hey, Ariel!”, someone called me. I looked to my left and saw Jonathan was jogging to where I was.

“Hey.”, I smiled and let my leg fell off from the wall. “I’m sorry for asking you to hang out with me today, I just don’t want to rot in the bus.”

“It’s okay.”, he smiled. “Do you have anything you want to do?”

“Actually… is it okay if I skate a bit first?”

His eyes widened and eyed my board. “You skate?”

I nodded. “Sometimes it gets boring after being on the bus alone, so I learned how to skate on my spare time.”

We walked into the indoor park and there weren’t too much people in there, skating or just watching. Jonathan went upstairs to watch and I decided to just hit it off now. I got on my board and skate around before grinding the nearest rail. I did some tricks and skate around because there weren’t too much people, so it was spacey.

After an hour, I was already tired and I walked off the course and Jonathan was already there. “You were awesome!”

“Not really.”, I giggled. “So, are you hungry?”

“Finally!”, he exclaimed. “My stomach had been growling all hour long.”

“Come on.”, I laughed before pulling him by his arm out from the park. We were walking down the sidewalks while talking about each other. When we reached a Denny’s, there was a bunch of other people in tables that were joined.

“Crap.”, he breathed. “My friends are here, are you okay with that? We could get a different booth.”

He looked really sorry, when he actually didn’t have to feel sorry for it. “It’s okay. We could join them… if they still have some seats left.”

We walked towards the crowdy table and a guy with platinum blonde hair noticed us first. “Hey, dude!”, he waved off to Jonathan.

“Hey, guys, I have someone to introduce to you all.”, Jonathan grinned widely before pulling me front a bit. “This is Ariel, I met her at Boozle the other day.”