The Basketball Atrocities

Fifty Four - Rumors

THU 2/12/2004 11:57am (Josh)

The guys were all sitting in the lobby of the hotel, lounging around. They were waiting to go to the Peace Memorial Park later that day to explore both Ground Zero for the atomic bomb right beside Aioi Bridge as well as the park that was commemorated to the memory of the people that were killed in the Hiroshima bombing. They had only today and tomorrow left of their stay in Japan before they flew back to America. They would be taking roughly the same route back to Columbus, the only difference being that they would be stopping in San Francisco instead of Los Angeles.

Tyler sighed. "Feels weird that these are our last couple of days in Japan." he said.

Pete hummed in agreement. "It's weird. I've been here three days, but I'm already so used to it."

"Emerson?" Jon asked.

"Yup?" the boy answered, taking the cigarette out of his mouth.

"Have you taken a lot of pictures and videos? I want all of them." he said.

"Same here." a bunch of the other guys answered.

Emerson chuckled. "Calm down, ladies, I have everything. I'll have them to you guys by next week." he promised.

"Alright, bet." Jon answered. "In the meantime, let's just stop thinking about leaving. We're here to enjoy the trip and be in the moment, not worry about leaving."

Tyler nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a plan to me. I'm in no rush to get back to Ohio." he stated.

Josh chuckled. For someone who comes from a patriotic family, he sure does hate his state. he observed thoughtfully. Me, too, honestly. Ohio's always been a little chaotic.

Josh looked out the windows of the lobby to the bustling streets outside. People walked up and down on the sidewalks, some were on bikes. The occasional bus passed as well among the several cars he could observe. They were staying indoors because it was supposed to rain soon and they didn't want to get caught in a storm outside. Last time that happened, they nearly got killed in an EF5 tornado at a mall. Of course, Japan didn't really experience tornadoes hardly at all, especially not in the big cities, but the underlying sentiment of worry lingered with the ones that were at the mall when the tornado tore through Easton five months ago.

Once again, a quiet spell fell over the group as they all looked at their phones, read a book, or busied themselves with drawing. This time, Josh was thinking about graduation. It was only a few months away at the end of May. He was sort of nervous about walking across the field and grabbing his diploma from Principal Yao. He was even more nervous about the fact that he would be preparing for college right after that. Time was going by way too fast nowadays and everything was starting to change even faster. Josh kind of just wanted to press the pause button on life just so he could be able to live out this time a little longer.

Brendon looked up. "Hey, Ryan, wanna go see what they got for lunch?" he asked curiously.

"Sure." Ryan answered, setting his book in his small, drawstring backpack. The pair walked off.

The guys all watched the star-crossed couple leave in silence, all of them sharing the same thought about what would happen this time. Pete was the one to speak up. "Is anyone else wondering if they are about to fight about something again?" he asked.

"Yeah." Brendon, Patrick, and Joe all answered.

Tyler sighed. "I just wanna know what's up with them."

Jon raised his eyebrows. "Ain't it obvious? It's Nevaeh and Jacob." he replied.

"From what I hear," Andy started. "they've been talking to other people for a while."