“I’ll just be back here,” I yelled out the window. I waited for the bus to stop, then I pulled into the street, idling behind it. I lowered the passenger window.
“Are you fuckin’ serious, dude?” Tommy hissed from the back of the line.
I smiled. “Yup!”
Tommy’s safety was number one, and if Ellie worked her schedule around picking him up so he wouldn’t get into trouble, I was going to make sure he didn’t get into trouble.
Tommy looked like he wanted to punch me out. But at least he got on the bus.
The bus was a milk-run route: it stopped every other block, and on the highway, every other mile. It was an hour later when we arrived at the stop closest to Ellie’s place. Luckily, Henry had fallen asleep in the back, so he wasn’t fussy. Unluckily, at the stop, Tommy didn’t get out.
What the hell?
He didn’t get out at the next stop, either.
I started to panic. Had he somehow gotten off when I wasn’t paying attention? But I’d scrutinized everyone disembarking. At every stop. I’d even examined anyone who looked mildly like Tommy in case he’d somehow found a way to disguise himself.
By the following stop, I was in full-blown sweats, convinced he’d pulled some kind of stealth Houdini escape. I waited for the bus to come to a complete stop, then swerved in front of it diagonally, so it couldn’t move.
I jumped out of the minivan just as the driver laid on the horn.
“Sorry!” I called out to her.
I leaned into the backseat, the driver yelling inside the bus now. When I pulled out Henry, she paled, running out to meet me.
“Is the baby okay? Is it a medical emergency?” Before I could do anything, she blew a whistle she’d produced out of nowhere, which promptly woke Henry up.
His eyes were round. Then he burst into tears.
“No!” I exclaimed. “A teenager emergency.”
She frowned, confused.
“The baby’s fine.” I didn’t have the time or energy to explain more. I ran onto the bus, Henry screaming now.
“Tommy?” I called.
My chest heaved with release as I saw Tommy, slouched in the back, his headphones on. When he saw me, his face flamed red.
It was a full bus. Everyone on it was staring. No, full-on ogling.
“Tommy,” I said. “Why’d you miss your stop?”
“Getlost!” Tommy said from between gritted teeth.
“Come on, I’ll take you home.”
Henry took a breath, then wailed louder than I’d ever heard him. He gripped my hair, managing to let his next scream loose directly into my ear.
“Kids these days, huh?” I said to the elderly woman next to me. I couldn’t hear a word of her response.
I bounced Henry, trying to calm him down, but he was truly agitated. So was I.
“Please, Tommy?” I pleaded.
Several people started expressing their discontent. “Get off the bus, kid!”
A grumpy-looking older man in front of Tommy huffed, stuffing his fingers in his ears.
