Me, Too | Joshua Burrage

chapter five

Cincinnati was great. The zoo was great. The performance was great. The crowd was great. I loved being there, but the entire time I was anxious to get to Kentucky. I wanted to be in my home state and perform in the first theatre I saw a professional show at. The whole bus ride I was bouncing in my seat. I spent the two hours talking a mile a minute about what we could do after our shows in Louisville once we make it to Lexington.

"Ooh! There's this really good new donut shop near the mall we can go to! And maybe we can walk around downtown, or this park down the street from my house with a few hiking trails," I propose.

"I think we should all invade your house and sleep for ten years," Ben suggests, yawning in the process.

"Shut up, Benjamin," Julian says, "no one cares about you not sleeping enough,"

"Yeah, Ben, it's getting annoying!" Vincent calls from the front.

The entire bus bursts out laughing at the 11-year-old boy's comment. No one expected Vincent to be the one to call Ben out and get him to shut up. The look on Ben's face is priceless, and I quickly take a picture of it for later.

"I can't help that I'm tired!" He defends himself.

"You can start by not staying up late watching Friends when you tell me you're doing school work," Josh says from next to me.

Ben's face turns white, "H-how did you know I was watching Friends?"

"It's hard not to hear you laughing when I'm trying to sleep," Josh says and we all laugh again.

Ben huffs and turns to look out the window from his seat. The rest of the bus goes back to whatever they were doing before we started attacking Ben. I lean my head on Josh's shoulder and take one of his hands in both of mine.

"I'm so excited," I say.

"I can tell," He chuckles. "Do you know what you're going to wear to graduation?"

I shake my head, "I'm sure I'll find something, though. It shouldn't be too hard finding something,"

"Well, I'm sure you'll look beautiful in whatever you choose," He says, and kisses the side of my head.

We sit in silence for a few moments before I say, "I can't wait for you to meet everyone. The other boys, too, but you most of all. I, uh, I called some of my friends who are planning on driving up to see the show this weekend and they were wanting to meet up Saturday morning,"

"I don't have to tag along if you want to catch up with them," Josh offers.

"No, I want you to come," I say, "and they really want to meet you,"

"Then I guess I'll be there," He smiles. "Ben's going to be jealous, though,"

"That's what I plan on,"

---

"I see them!" I squeal and point at my friends in the distance. "Oh my, God, what if they've changed and they hate me now? Shit, what if they're just weirdos and I never noticed and now that I'm introducing them to you they'll be aliens,"

Josh laughs at me, "Babe, they don't hate you and I doubt they're aliens. They look normal from here,"

I nod, and the excitement fully sets in. My three closest friends are walking towards me. I can't stand still with the excitement coursing through me, and I start running towards them. I get to the group and we're all squealing and hugging, acting like we haven't seen each other in eight years, rather than eight months.

"You're here!" Alexis, one of the girls, says.

"I'm here!" I say back.

The four of us laugh and go through the simple "How are you?"s while Josh makes his way over.