Outnumbered

Charlotte sat on the ground beside Kennedy looking up at Alex and Tanner as they worked on the engine of their van. Charlotte fell back to the ground as she heard Alex swear.

“This is lovely. When we need our van the most it breaks down. Awesome.” She said, spread out on the concrete.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with it. It was fine earlier.” Tanner said, pushing his hat back as he looked farther into the engine. “This is weird, that it just stopped working.”

“Tanner, you’re the car expert. You’re supposed to know these things.” Kennedy said.

“I know, but I have no idea what’s wrong. Everything seems to be in place.” Tanner replied, leaning against the van.

Kennedy let his head fall into his hands and mumbled, “Great.”

“Maybe the guys who are bringing Toby back to us can help. They might even give us a ride.” Alex spoke, walking to sit next to Charlotte.

“Do you really think that? They don’t even know us.” Charlotte said, staring up at the dark sky. Plus, they might not even have enough room.”

Alex sighed and ran his fingers through his hair before putting his hat on. “That’s true.”

“I just want them to hurry up and get here. I want Toby now.” Charlotte said, closing her eyes.

“But what are we going to do? We don’t have transportation now.” Tanner said, walking over to the group and sitting in front of Charlotte.

“That is a great question, Woodie.” Kennedy said.

The group of four sat in place in complete silence trying to come up with a plan. Charlotte was beginning to feel defeated. She always had a plan and if the first one failed she had a backup. But at this exact moment she had no idea what to do. She couldn’t even focus, especially since she didn’t have Toby by her side. Her mind was a mess. Charlotte continued to lie on the ground until she heard a noise in the distance. She opened her eyes and sat up quickly. She turned her head to face the road and saw lights coming in their direction.

“That’s probably them!” Charlotte said excitedly, as Tanner jumped up and grabbed the biggest flashlight and began flashing it at the bus. They all watched as the bus pulled over into the gas station and pull behind them. They all held shocked faces when they saw the massive bus in front of them.

“Yeah, they definitely don’t have room for us.” Kennedy said, sarcastically, making Tanner and Alex laugh. Charlotte smiled and began walking towards the bus. She stopped short when the door opened and saw a guy around her age holding Toby. She saw her little brother smile and began wiggling in the arms of the man. She watched the guy place Toby on the ground and began running towards him.

“Sissy!” Toby yelled, jumping in Charlotte’s arms.

“Hey baby boy! I missed you so much.” Charlotte said hugging him tight and running her fingers through his hair.

“I missed you too. Matt found me. He is nice.” Toby said, resting his head on her shoulder.

“Oh yeah?”

“Uh huh, he saved me from the bad people.” Toby said, looking at her with his big blue eyes.

“I’m never going to leave you behind again, Toby. Never again.” Charlotte said, softly.

“Pinky promise?” Toby muttered.

Charlotte linking her pinky with Toby’s and kissed his forehead. “Pinky promise.”

“CJ! Come here.”

Charlotte looked ahead and saw Alex, Kennedy and Tanner standing by the guy who was holding Toby and an older man. She walked over to the group and stood in between Alex and Kennedy.

“This is my sister CJ. CJ this is Matt and Davie.” Alex stated.

“How are ya?” Davie spoke with a kind smile.

“Hi. Thank you guys so much for keeping my brother safe. I was losing my mind the entire time he was gone.” Charlotte said.

“Your brothers told us. It was no problem. Mattie here has a good heart. He would’ve never left him behind.” Davie said, while Matt shrugged. “So we have some extra room for you guys on the bus. If you get your things we can load it in.”

“Yeah, its this way.” Kennedy said, leading Davie to the van, as Alex followed.

“What’s up you little monster?” Tanner said, poking Toby’s cheek as Toby giggled.

Charlotte handed Toby over to Tanner who walked towards the van playing with the young boy.

“So yeh’re sissy?” Matt said from beside me. “Toby only talked about yeh the whole time.”

Charlotte laughed lightly before responding, “Toby is my everything. I can’t believe we left him behind. I feel like such a shit big sister.”

“ ‘Ey don’ beat yehself up about it. It was jus’ a mistake. Coulda ‘appened to anyone.” Matt said, comfortingly.

“I guess so.” Charlotte said.

“So, yeh want to get yeh’re stuff?” he said awkwardly.

“Oh yeah. Yeah, let’s go.” Charlotte said leading him over to the van.

“Hey CJ, it’s just a few bags left. We have everything else.” Kennedy said, walking towards the bus.

Charlotte watched Matt pick p the remaining four bags and immediately stopped him.

“I can take two of those.” Charlotte said.

“It’s alrigh’. I’ve got it.” Matt replied.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” He said. “Jus’ close the door for meh.”

Charlotte closed the van door and bid a silent goodbye to the vehicle that had gotten them this far. She turned to Matt and they began walking to the bus,

“So you sound like you’re far away from home.” Charlotte stated breaking the silence.

“Yeh, England is pretty far, isn’t it?” Matt said, chuckling lightly.

“Just a little bit.”

“Hey Matt, just sit those bags right here and we can get going. CJ you can go ahead and get on the bus.” Davie said, smiling at Charlotte. Charlotte smiled back and climbed the stairs of the bus. When she got to the top she was met with an empty front lounge. Charlotte walked forward slowly, taking in her surroundings. The bus seemed pretty big. It had two couches, a table, two televisions and a refrigerator.

‘Yeh never been on a bus?”

Charlotte jumped, surprised by the voice behind her.

“Sorreh love, didn’t mean to scare yeh.” Matt said laughing lightly.

“It’s okay. I’m just…really jumpy right now.” She said embarrassed. “I’ve been on a bus before but never a tour bus. Are you in a band or something?”

“Yeah. This is a step up from bein’ in a van.”

“I can imagine. I went on tour with my best friend once and they toured in a van. It was fucking awful.” Charlotte said seriously, which made Matt laugh out loud.

“Yeh didn’t love it?” He asked sarcastically.

“I mean, I got plenty of pictures and writing material for my journalism class, and I got to hang out with my friends and see them play music but spending that much time with six guys in a van was not ideal. I’ve never seen so many bottles filled with pee in my life.” Charlotte said

Matt continued to laugh loudly and Charlotte joined him.

“Yeh’re brilliant. I needed a good laugh.” Matt said looking over at Charlotte.

“Well, you’re welcome.” She said with a small smile.

“Alrigh’, come on, I’ll show yeh the bus.” Matt said.

They walked through the lounge and past a curtain.

“ ‘Ere are the bunks. I’m not sure where yeh will be sleepin’ but if it’s not ‘ere it will be in one of the lounges. My bunk is this one, if uh, yeh ever have a question.” Matt said stopping in front of a door and pointing to a top bunk. Charlotte simply nodded before he continued, “And this is the back lounge.”

Matt opened the door and Charlotte immediately saw her brothers and Tanner sitting on one side of the lounge and a big group of guys spread throughout the rest of the room. They were all well into a conversation.

“CJ! It’s Bring Me the fucking Horizon!” Tanner said excitedly. Toby stood up immediately in his lap and slapped him in the mouth before yelling, “You say bad word! Bad bad bad!”

The entire room laughed hysterically as Tanner rubbed his mouth and Toby ran to Charlotte. She picked him up and continued laughing along with everyone else.

“You know the consequences of saying bad words, Woodie.” Charlotte said smiling. “That’s a no no. Ain’t that right Toby?”

Toby nodded enthusiastically making the room fall into more laughter.

“Alrigh’, yeh guys are funny. Yeh can stay.” A guy with blonde hair said.

“CJ, these are meh mates. Jona,” Matt said pointing to the guy who had just spoken. “Lee, Oli Matt, and Tom. Guys, this is CJ.”

“Hey.” Charlotte said, waving with her free hand.

“ ‘Ello.” Matt Kean said.

“What are your last names?” Charlotte said looking in between the two Matt’s. “I can’t call you guys the same name.”

“Yeh can call meh Kean, that’s meh last name. Or Vegan. I also go by tha’.”

“And meh last name is Nicholls.” Matt said from beside her. “Take yeh pick.”

“Okay, I’ll weigh my options.”

“I like yeh.” Jona said. “I think we’ll get along just fine.”

“Hopefully. I’d imagine being mad at someone while stuck on this bus would be terrible.” Charlotte said.

“If only you knew dear.”

Everyone turned their attention to Davie who was standing behind Matt, Charlotte and Toby.

“We’re about to get back on the road. I think it’d be a good idea for you all to sit down together and come up with some kind of plan, yeah?” he said before leaving the room and walking back to the front of the bus. The room stayed silent until the heard the hum of the engine and felt the bus move. Oli stood up and motioned for Charlotte to take his seat. She smiled at him, thankfully, as she sat down still holding Toby. Oli took her previous spot next to Matt and opened his mouth to speak.

“So, ‘ow about tha’ plan?”