Broken Strings

Chapter Four

"I hate my whole family." I say lying on the couch in our bus.

Hayden is sitting in the corner with his arms folded across his chest. He is as mad as me.

"Why is she coming?" He asks me.

"I didn't have time to ask. I stormed off and found you." I explain as I fiddled with the bracelets on my wrist.

It was true. The minute the words had left my mothers mouth I had grabbed Hayden and dragged him onto the bus. Greg had managed to slip a cap on each of our heads before we left. Mine is discarded on the floor.

"She sure as hell isn't sharing a bus with us." Hayden points out the obvious.

Tears start to form in my eyes and I clutch my hair in my hands. Hayden sits beside me and pulls him into his chest. I curl up on his lap and put my head in his shoulder.

"I can't deal with her on the tour Hayden. I can't deal with it." My breathing speeds up. Hayden runs his hand up and down my back trying to calm me down. "What if it gets bad again?" I whisper.

"I won't let it." He reassures me. And I believe him.

The door to the bus opens and I quickly wipe the tears from my eyes but don't turn around.

"It's Andre." Hayden informs me.

I turn around not really caring if Andre sees me cry. He gave me a sad smile.

"Your mother wanted Charlotte to share the bus with you guys. I proceeded to tell her how idiotic she is and Greg backed me up. So she is now travelling on your Mother and Fathers bus."

I jump off of Hayden's lap and run into Andre's arms.

"The evil twin gets to spend the tour with your parents. How lovely." Hayden grins.

"It's dad I feel bad for." I say as Andre and I sit down on the couch.

"He'll live through it." Hayden waves it off. Andre looks around our bus.

"There's four bunks?" He asks.

"All the buses have four though Hayden won't be using his. So anytime you want a sleep over there's plenty of space." I inform him.

"Why don't you sleep in your bunk?"

"Claustrophobic." Hayden says shuddering. Andre nods.

"What do you plan to sleep in?"

"You're sitting on it." Hayden says lying down on the couch.

"You guys get more weird everyday." Andre states.

"So what time we leaving at?" I ask.

"Someone's gone to get Starbucks for everyone then we should be on the road." Andre explains.

"You going to travel with us?"

"Naah I'm going with Greg. He didn't want to be left by himself."

"Someone talking about me?" Greg enters the bus with Starbucks in his hand.

I take mine from him and he also handa me some Rocky Road. I love that stuff.

"Just talking about how I can't spend time with the kids because I'm babysitting you." Andre says standing up.

"Kids?" Hayden takes a sip of his drink burning his tongue in the process.

"On this tour, everyone's going to be treating you like their kids. That's necessarily a bad thing." Greg says. He then looks between the both of us. "Well for Daddy's little princess it isn't." They then waves at us and make his way off the bus Andre following soon after.

"He meant me by the way." Hayden says eating one of the shortbread biscuits Greg had gotten him.

"Oh I'm sure."

The door opens yet again and in steps our driver for the tour.

"Moe!" Hayden cheers. Running up and hugging her.

Margaret laughs at him and walks over to hug me.

"I missed you kids." She says ruffling our hair.

Margaret was a small stout woman with multiple tattoos up her arms. Her hair was died a deep red and she was the coolest woman in the world. She was the closest Hayden and I had to an actual mother.

"You better not distract me while I'm driving mister." Margaret points at Hayden who smiles sweetly at her.

"No promises."

"I can't believe you two have a tour." She says looking between us.

There was a sense of pride in her eyes. It warmed my heart. A beeping noise sounds from Margaret's belt. She checks what looks like a pager.

"Better get this show on the road." She says as she makes her way back to the top of the bus.

"Do people still use those things?" I ask Hayden.

"Evidently so."

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Hiking for 17 kilometres is not fun. Every muscle in my body has just snapped. But I still have soccer training in like two hours. Joys of life!

The Fault boys will be arriving soon. Any ideas what they are going to be like?