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Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Instant Karma the Down in the Dirt September-December 2023 issues collection book		get the 422 page September-December 2023 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Missed The Bus

Emma Salmons

    When I got to the classroom, I looked out the window and noticed that the first two busses had already left, so I hastily grabbed my phone and headed back towards the door and attempted to turn the knob. It was locked.
    “Shit,” I whispered to myself and ran back to the window, only to see the 3^rd and 4^th bus taking off. Luckily my bus was the last bus, and they had just finished piling in, I just might have enough time to call Johanna. I went to unlock my phone and just my luck, it was dead. I peered out the window again to see the tail of bus 5 leaving the driveway. They’re not coming back until 10pm tonight. I’m going to be stuck here until either someone walks by the classroom or until they get back. I tried knocking and yelling at the door but not a soul in sight. I slid down against the door in defeat.
    “Stupid, Stupid, Stupid,” I scorned myself under my breath. Why would I even need my phone at an amusement park? It was dead anyways, and it’d just get lost or stolen. I shook my head and sighed.

***

    About a half hour had gone by when I heard footsteps going down the hallway. I shot right up and started pounding on the door again. There were a couple of seconds of silence after my deranged attack on the door and then the knob turned from the outside. Oh, thank God.

        “Someone in here?” a guy’s voice came from behind the cracked door and a boy from my class with thick shoulder length dark curls poked his head in. I’ve seen him before around school, he usually hangs out around the stoners and weirdos. When he stepped in the odor of pot followed right behind.
    “Wait don’t let the-” but before I could finish my sentence you could hear the door condemning us to our doom. “Door close.”
    “Oh, shit!” he blurted, turned around and hopelessly jiggled the doorknob.
    “Great,” I sighed and sat back down against the wall, what an idiot.
    “Sorry,” he said and sat next to me. “Now what?”
    “You wouldn’t happen to have your phone with you, would ya?”
    “I actually don’t have one, they’re bad for your brain.”
    “Aren’t you supposed to be on the trip?” I asked, knowing that he probably wasn’t eligible to go due to bad grades or something.
    “Ah, I suck at math,” he confirmed, “but what about you?”
    “I got stuck in here!” I retorted, of course, what a genius. He’s the kind of guy that thinks he’s going to make a living by dropping out of school and get famous playing guitar.
    “Oh yeah,” he chuckled. I side eyed him for a moment before I turned my head back to the window. My mom always told me that those kinds of people never get very far in life.
    “So, what’s your name?” he asked as the cheesiest smile I ever saw crawled onto his face.
    “Kennedi,” I exhaled, slightly insulted, like how could he not know who I am? Jo and I are like the coolest girls in the 12th grade, everyone knows who we are.
    “I’m Charlie,” he added. “Nice to meet you.”
    I nodded awkwardly like a bobber on the end of a fishing pole and then dropped my head into my hands and sighed. Of all people why’d I have to get stuck with this guy? He smells like he’s been keeping a skunk for a pet in his bookbag and he’s about as sharp as a marble.
    “You like any bands?” he probed.
    “Uh, I mean my dad listens to Metallica,” I replied. “They’re not bad.”
    He laughed and pulled out an ancient worn out mp3 player and a pair of headphones. He handed me one of the headphones and motioned for me to put it in. I stared at it with wide eyes and felt a shiver go down my spine. I mean it looks clean, but God only knows what kind of diseases this kid might have.
    “They’re not dirty.” he insisted. I held it up to my ear and made sure they were ‘social distancing’. He started playing some band I’ve never heard, I was unsure at first, but it wasn’t bad.
    “Slayer,” he chimed in. I guess this isn’t so bad, could be worse and you know, the more I study him, the cuter he gets. I started to feel a swarm of butterflies in my stomach and my face heat up the more I thought about it.
    “You wanna kiss or somethin’?” he interrupted my thoughts.
    “Huh?”
    “I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Just a suggestion, nothing else to do.”
    I felt my face turn red and I attempted to reply but my brain just couldn’t compute. Before I knew it, he wrapped his arm around me and lightly pressed his nose to mine. His eyes made me melt and I submitted. I kissed him and he pulled me closer, and one of my hands wondered off to play with his hair.
    “Kennedi!” Johanna’s voice interjected from the doorway. “Now what’s goin’ on here?” I yanked my head back and saw Jo standing with the door open.
    “Nothing!” I yelped and looked back at Charlie, who was grinning from ear to ear, and then back at Johanna, like a kid who just got caught doing something their mom told them a million times not to do. “You guys came back early!”
    “Uh yeah, we just got out of the county when Mrs. Williams realized you weren’t even on the bus,” she elaborated. “She wasn’t gonna turn around at first, but I guess I annoyed her enough.”
    “Oh,” I sheepishly replied and stood up.
    “C’mon we gotta go,” Johanna said and grabbed my arm. As Johanna jerked me out of the classroom I looked down at Charlie, he just sat there, smiled and waved. I guess those kinds of people aren’t that bad.

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