Being Butch Green || ✓

Chapter 25 - The Dumplings That Became Cannonballs

"Come on you stupid piece of crap!" Hailey shouted in irritation. "No! No don't do that! I just want the goddamn map! No! Stop glitching!"

"Have you tried turning it off and on again?" I asked coolly, staring out the bus window. I was glad the Myki system on this particular bus was broken today. It counted as a small win. Who needs to give more money to the pointless objectives of billion-dollar companies? In my opinion, buses were like small nightmares wrapped in a gigantic moving box.

Through the corner of my eye, Hailey shot me a look, before furiously tapping on her phone screen.

"Finally!" she gasped. "Useless piece of shit."

"So, you know where we are?"

"Kinda. It appears the bus will go down McQuarrie street. We can get off there and walk the rest of the way."

"Is that before or after the highway? Cause I remember it being off the highway," I instructed, giving her a sinister look.

"Ummm.... I think so. I think we're taking the back way in, so we'll avoid the highway all together."

I nodded. "Hopefully it's quicker then. Henry should be pleased to see me again."

"Also, why aren't you googling this yourself?" she asked, frustrated at her phone's dilemma.

"Hello!?" I mocked, pointing to my injured arm. "I'm disabled at the moment."

"Fantastic," she murmured, peering back down at her phone.

The bus returned to an awkward silence. We were the only one's cruising along in the moving box and the emptiness of it reminded me of racing to the back of the bus as a kid. If you weren't quick enough, you'd have to do with sitting at the front behind all the teachers. Or worse, you'd end up sitting next to them with the teacher making conversation about how their granddaughter was doing excellent at basic maths. I smiled at the sweet memory, watching as Hailey stood and grabbed my wrist.

"This is our stop," she said, glancing down at her phone to confirm. "I hope you know where to go from here."

The bus exhausted to a halt as it reached the stop and the doors opened. Gracefully, we both stepped out into the fresh morning air and looked up the street.

"I have no idea where we are," I stated, a lost expression plastered on my face.

"Lucky for you, I do. I just had no idea that this was called McQuarrie street," she exclaimed.

"I thought you didn't know where we were?"

"Well, now I do," she shot back quickly.

"Well, at least one of us knows," I muttered, following her up the street as she skipped along gleefully.

"I don't know about you, but I'm starving!" she insisted, skipping backwards.

"I think we should just get the file and go," I said. "I don't think it's a fantastic idea to grab food at the moment."

"What do you like? Greek? Snazzy local coffee? Or what about Chinese? Do you like Chinese? I know this great dumpling restaurant just up the road here!"

"Did you not hear me?"

"All I heard is that you want food."

"It's barely seven! None of them will be open!"

"Wanna bet?" she asked firmly.

"Okay, so we're just gonna ignore the fact that those dudes have Jack and Maggie then?"

"No. We're just making a necessary pit stop before we go and rescue them. Besides, we have to get that file from that Henry friend of yours before we can do anything. And I'm sure they won't mind if we refuel. It is breakfast time after all."