“She can’t be here, Lauren. You know better than this. No one is allowed back here.”
“Oh, I’m sorry I took the one chance I had for them to ever see their father!”
“Yes, you should be sorry.”
“They’re three. Three years old, and this is the first time you’re even laying eyes on them.”
“Take them out of here, Lauren.”
“Where is Gabe? Moni, where is your brother? We’re leaving.”
Gabriel only realized he had drifted into an exhausted sleep when he woke with a start. The first thing that registered in his head was hunger—then, immediately afterwards, Arius in the bus seat beside him. Gabriel leaned down and grabbed the plastic grocery bag at his feet. It was only as he was lifting out the cracker box within that he noticed the bus was not moving. A small succession of people were finishing their exit off the bus, making their way through the narrow middle aisle.
Gabriel’s eyes flickered up at the stop number displayed in LED at the front of the bus, and his heart quickened. Immediately shoving the box back into the bag, Gabriel reached out and grasped Arius’s shoulder. “This is our stop,” he whispered before getting to his feet and pulling Arius up with him.
Behind him, the elderly person with shades and ballcap stood up as well. A tingle of alarm crawled up Gabriel’s back, and he met eyes with the stranger for a split second.
Arius was taking a long time to finish getting up. Gabriel grabbed his arm and pulled the younger boy past him into the middle aisle. Then, grocery bag in hand and ready to exit the bus, Gabriel cast one last wary glance over his shoulder. The elderly stranger was standing, as if waiting to follow, shaded eyes fixed in Gabriel’s direction like he had not so much as taken his gaze off the twenty-two-year-old. But Gabriel did not have the chance to figure out if the suspicious stranger actually intended to follow them.
In front of him, and just far ahead enough to be out of his immediate detection, Arius wavered beside a bus bench, caught himself against the back of it, then collapsed anyway not half a second afterward.
Gabriel’s reaction was not the quick, responsive one he would have hoped for. At sight of the collapsed nineteen-year-old in the bus aisle, every muscle in his body froze with panic. All within the same second, he became conscious of Arius’s condition, the countless eyes around him, the threatening feeling of being stared at, watched, judged. Almost hunted.
A stranger in the bench close to the one Arius had fainted beside stood up suddenly. The guy snatched off a pair of wireless earbuds and moved hurriedly over to the invalid.
“Should I call an ambulance?” a woman across the aisle asked. She had her hand in her purse, presumably reaching for her phone.
Gabriel watched like it was all a video he was powerless to stop. The stranger beside Arius gently grasped the boy’s shoulder and carefully turned him over onto his side. That image burned itself into Gabriel’s mind. Arius lying unconscious on the floor. The dark marks crawling up his neck. His nose was bleeding, a trail of blood running across his soft features like dye against his pale skin. And still, Gabriel could not move.
“I think you’d better,” the stranger beside Arius decided. He was gently holding Arius’s face, now, lifting it carefully toward the light, frowning at the strange marks crawling up the side of his cheek.
Gabriel watched helplessly as the woman across the aisle dialed three numbers into her phone and lifted the device to her face. A small voice in the back of his mind pleaded with her to stop, but his lips were frozen.
The bus driver was calling something in, also. He had gotten out of his seat to view the situation and was now on his radio with someone.
Gabriel saw Arius’s chest lift with a slightly deeper breath, and the small sign of returning consciousness finally triggered the twenty-two-year-old to move. He jerked forward, absently dropping the grocery bag, and got to his knees beside Arius.
“She’s calling an ambulance,” the stranger beside Arius informed Gabriel. “I think he fainted or something. He looks pretty worn out, maybe he was travelling from far away.”
Gabriel dimly registered blue eyes, blond-dyed hair, pierced ears, and the words, “Ink It, Then,” on a black tee shirt before the details swirled into a panicked blur. The kindness in the stranger’s face was all that mattered, and Gabriel suddenly had the urge to simply give into the offer of help. He was too tired, too exhausted, too absolutely drained to continue like this.
Something in Gabriel’s face must have tipped off the other guy that Gabriel was more than just a random stranger. His expression froze for a moment, eyes watching Gabriel uncertainly. “Do—Do you—” he began.
“He’s my friend.” The three words toppled out of Gabriel’s mouth before he could even think. Reeling confusion at his own statement hit seconds later. But all of it was pushed aside when Arius’s eyelids lifted a little, and his arm shifted an inch across the floor.
“Ari,” Gabriel breathed, immense relief flooding him with a feeling of tangible warmth. Those delicate eyelashes fluttered for a moment, then lifted, revealing the beautiful brown of Arius’s irises. Gabriel watched that pretty face for a moment before grasping Arius’s arm and starting the boy upright again.
“Is—Is he okay?” the stranger beside them asked, a finger half-raised in cautionary hesitation.
“He’ll be fine,” Gabriel muttered before starting Arius for the bus exit. Everyone was watching them, but all Gabriel could feel were the short, tremorous breaths Arius was taking. His unsteady footsteps. The way he lifted a trembling hand to his face, wiped his fingers through the blood trailing from his nose, glanced at it in bewilderment, then nearly lost his balance again, only to be quickly steadied by Gabriel’s outstretched arm.
They got off the bus, and Gabriel started down the city street they stepped out onto. Getting as far away as possible from all the watching eyes was the first priority. After that, Gabriel would borrow a phone and call someone. A bench around the corner caught Gabriel’s eye, and he started Arius toward it. Behind them, the bus hissed, lifted, and started away, taking with it all the curious onlookers.
“Sit down.” Gabriel directed Arius onto the bench, then glanced around for someone to borrow a phone from.
“Gabriel.” Arius was staring up at him, almost straining, when Gabriel turned back. A small hitch darted across the boy’s chest, and he raised his sleeve to wipe at the blood on his face. “Gabe—Gabriel…where…where are we?” Those wide brown eyes drifted around, bright with fever, shining with fear.
“We’re in Cincinnati. I’m going to borrow someone’s phone and get us a ride, okay?” Gabriel started toward a woman with a dog on a leash. But he did not get more than two steps away from the bench.
“Gabriel, this doesn’t look like Cincinnati.”
“Arius, you haven’t seen every part of Cincinnati—” And right then, Gabriel froze. For a strange moment, he became distinctly aware of how hard the sidewalk felt beneath his feet. Letters, numbers, and bus stop codes became a confusing blur in his head. There were no skyscrapers on the horizon. No Queen City Square visible in any direction. No Carew Tower. No Ohio River. No memory of the bus going over a bridge.
“This…This has to be the right stop.” Gabriel’s voice hushed almost to a whisper. “I saw the number before we got off…”
And yet, now he could not remember the number he had seen. He had no memory of even reading the number displayed at the front of the bus, only glancing at the LED display.
“Arius, I know this is the right stop, okay?” Gabriel said, his voice firming. He started deliberately over to the woman with a dog. “Excuse me.”
She looked up at him, and her little dog began wagging its tail.
“What city is this?”
She gave him a friendly smile. “Kennett.”
“Kennett?” Gabriel’s heart seemed to freeze. He took a quick breath. “What state?”
She seemed amused at his question and laughed lightly. “Arkansas. You’re in Kennett, Arkansas.”
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