The Throw-Aways

When I woke up, I saw that everyone else was starting to arise as well. It was still snowing outside and it looked like the bus might be stuck. What could you do about Mother Nature?

The snow stacks reached the windows as I unrolled myself from Austin’s long arms. He looked like a little child sleeping with his legs tucked against his chest and his arms splayed out.

“You’re up early.” Jack chuckled softly. Alan and Kylar continued to snore on. Alex and Jack were both sipping on a mug of coffee. Stepping over Tino and Phil, I went to join them.

“Yeah. So how’s your head? What happened to it again?” I asked him curiously. He never exactly explained HOW he had gotten the mark only that it was from Jay.

“Oh, it’s better. Right before Jay stormed off the bus, she threw a grass at me, and it shattered on the back wall and a piece hit my head.” Jack chuckled lightly. A bandage was plastered over it, obscuring the red mark.

“Can we throw her in jail or something?” I muttered darkly. Jack passed me a mug of hot chocolate and shook his head while grinning.

“Maybe we’ll call the cops on her later. For now, it’s Christmas Day and we’re celebrating!” Alex laughed. I couldn’t help but smile.

A pair of arms warped around my chest. I smiled and leaned up to see Austin beaming at me.

“You guys are so cute I’m gonna puke.” Alex faked gagging and Jack joined him. I rolled my eyes and saw the rest of the boys getting up. Dante, Skars, and Nico were all slowly yawning and stretching on the floor. Smiling, I looked at everyone just waking up.

Zack and Rian flicked on the TV as we gathered on the couches. Small talk congregated in open air. We all talked about nothing and the weather. For a moment, it seemed like everything was normal.

“So are you excited for that concert in a week?” Dante asked me. I nodded and beamed. Of course, my four friends had gotten tickets to it plus the backstage passes.

“Of course!” I lied smoothly. In fact, I was so nervous and scared. How would this new arm react? What would I do without Jake? Oh man, this would be tougher than I first thought!

“Great!” Dante patted my shoulder and went to go talk to Tino. Alan and Kylar will still sleeping, as usual. Both people would’ve slept for years if no one was forced to wake them up.

“So what are we going to do for Christmas?” I asked Austin. He smiled and placed a soft kiss on my lips, as if that was all we would do and that was my answer.

“EXTREME TRUTH OR DARE!” Jack cheered.

“NO!” The entire bus replied. Jack held up his hands, but shook his head.

“YES!” He smiled and I sighed. Being one of Jack’s best friends, I knew I would have to go and tag along with that.

“Ohhhh dear.”

So ten minutes later, Austin, Jack, Alex, Rian, and I were all engrossed in Extreme Truth or Dare. As soon as you added the word extreme before any game, it included the loss of clothing, weakness of dignity, and the plenty of laughter.

So on my first turn, I chose truth.

“Hmm…have you ever made out with Austin?” Jack asked. Leave it to JACK BARAKAT to ask the awkward questions!

“No.” I glowered at him. Austin looked uncomfortable. Alex and Jack, the terror twins, smirked.

“Okay, I choose dare.” Rian stated quickly, relieving us from the awkward.

“I dare you to jump in the snow.” I quick exclaimed. He sighed and closed his eyes.

“Seriously?” He gritted his teeth. As I nodded, he went to the door. Opening it, everyone complained for him to shut the exit. Without warning, he jumped, face first, into the drift.

Of course, he got stuck.

Five minutes later, we had pulled him inside and wrapped him up in blankets. Mark just rubbed his head, as if we were giving him a headache. I personally thought it was funny!

Jack chose dare and we had him go get in Phil’s face and take ten pictures. Thing was, Phil hates when people get up in his face. Needless to say, it was an entertaining three minutes with Jack coming back. His efforts were awarded with a bruise on the arm from Phil punching him.

And so the rounds went on.

At about noon, we were all up and done with the game. Mark, Alan, and Skars all worked on making everyone lunch while a couple of people flipped through channels and others went to their bunks. I think Nico and Aaron were in the middle of a heated Call of Duty: Black Ops mission in the back of the bus.

Crossing my legs, I stretched out Eternal, the robot arm. Wiggling my fingers, the joints silently complied with my every whim. The connections were strong and I made sure everything was calibrated. Glancing past the black arm, I saw everyone lounging around. It was like we were one big families of outcasts, a group of Throw-Aways.

If only Jay had stuck around long enough to see the good that these Throw-Aways were capable of.

Notes

ANNOUNCEMENT: The next chapter is the last official chapter of the story!

You guys have all been an AMAZING group of readers! I enjoyed talking to all of you, and even if you didn't comment, I hoped you loved the story as much as I loved writing it. Your all beautiful, fan-freaking-tastic people and I sincerely hope I can see you comment on my other stories!

Now, I will do something I have never done with another story before....As you all know (please grab your pitchforks), Jay is an evil character and in fact, she's THE MOST HATED character I have ever written! Out of all the stories, Jay has received the most outward hate. Sooooo.....I will give you all a gift for being such cool readers and inspiring humans.

I will write a final chapter just for her. It'll be called THE DEATH SHE DESERVED and it's not serious, not "professional", and EXTREMELY hilarious! It's supposed to be not at all likely of a death some one would experience. It's just a fun chapter and will include as many requested deaths as I can fit in there. (Example: People requested to kill her with acid, struck by lightning, pushed off a cliff, bit in half by a shark, curb stomped, etc....)

So one more chapter and one final death!