Chapter 33 - Ocean - The World’s Longest Bus Ride

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Ocean

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No sooner had I sounded like an idiot did the bus start up and we were off. Makai was still looking at me even as the bus jerked and he rocked back in his seat a little. I still felt like a complete moron from my stupid stuttered way of greeting him and he was just looking at me like nothing was wrong. What was with him?

I wanted to make the tension go away. I wanted to make it easier for me to just nap against my window and not have to deal with this at all right now. How did this end up happening to me?

"I've noticed you've gotten a lot faster lately." He was still smiling at me like nothing was going to deter him.

"Hmm." I just hummed a noncommittal response to let him know that I actually did hear him.

"All of that practice you've been putting in is paying off. Not that you needed it really. You could have beat me from day one really."

For some reason I just felt like he was patronizing me. I don't know why, I just did. It was like he was telling me that I didn't put enough of an effort into trying to beat him until just recently. It felt like he was saying that I almost killed myself with training and then passed out and hit my head all for nothing.

My blood was boiling at the moment. All I wanted to do was scream at him that he didn't know anything. That he didn't know what I was going through at the time. He didn't understand anything at all. And that I was probably only beating him now because he was being poisoned by Brittney's nasty twat.

I didn't though. I didn't rant or rave. I didn't scream or yell. And that made me quite proud of myself. I was able to keep my anger in check unlike I used to. Maybe I was growing after all. It was just a little over three weeks until my birthday. Twenty-two days to be exact. I would be eighteen then, so perhaps I was just acting more like an adult already.

After a few deep breaths I turned back to Makai and tried to talk civilly to him.

"I don't think I could have beaten you back then. It took a lot of work to get to where I am now." The words came out strained and it was easy to tell that but I was trying my best to not lose my control so I didn't mind.

"I think you were just distracted, that's all. You're not nearly as distracted now. Imagine how much better you can be when you have a completely clear conscience." He was spouting off nonsense now like he was some fucking life guru. I didn't need to know how to center myself or meditate for a better me. I just needed to swim, that was all.

"I'm kind of tired." I lied to him. "I think I am going to take a nap during the ride. Buses make me sleepy." That last part wasn't a lie but still, I just wanted a reason to ignore him.

"Oh, yeah, sure. No worries. Go ahead and sleep. I am going to read a book." He smiled at me and pulled said book from his jacket pocket. It looked like some kind of romance novel but I wasn't going to take a closer look to find out. He was probably reading it to help him pick up chicks.

After that I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. I sincerely wanted to fall asleep so the ride would feel like it ended that much sooner. Sleep wasn't coming that easily though. I tried and tried but I just sat there with my eyes closed and my head bouncing off the window of the bus.

I could hear everyone else on the bus having conversations with their seatmates or calling someone, or they were texting someone and their phones were dinging. It didn't matter what was going on with them, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Even Makai seemed to be enjoying himself as he was reading his book. I knew this because he would laugh at something that was on the pages from time to time.

And as for me, well I was pretending to be asleep with my head bouncing painfully off the window of the bus. Why did I have to choose this position to pretend to be asleep in? This was not comfortable at all.

I couldn't move it though. I couldn't blow my cover. I couldn't let Makai know that I was basically sitting over here waiting for the next time that he would laugh so I could listen to how cute it was when he giggled.

What the fuck did I just think to myself? I did not just think that his laugh was cute. That was not what I was thinking, I swear it wasn't.

And of course that happened to be when he laughed again and I had to stop myself from sighing at the sound that I had been waiting to hear. He really did have a nice laugh. It wasn't too deep or throaty but it wasn't high and feminine either. It was also kind of musical, but not like an instrument. It reminded me of a windchime I had seen once, it had been made of sea shells and it made a lovely sound in my opinion.

I was just thinking that when I did finally fall asleep. I knew the ride was already more than half over but at least the rest would pass fast. I didn't even dream either, which was really good since all my dreams have been about Makai lately.. I didn't want to wake up from one of those right now.