Amy has finally gone quiet. I think I preferred her screaming. The silence is...Terrifying.

"Is Amy okay?" Gloria asks.

"Yeah," Jake mumbles. As I look at him, he looks woozy. "She just passed out. She's still breathing. I need to sit..."

He stumbles onto the ground, leaning against a crumpled seat. He shuts his eyes as Gloria goes to him. She talks into the phone she still has pressed against her ear.

"Just so you know, I think my eye is okay. I can see a little, so maybe I just bumped it or couldn't see with all the blood."

She kneels in front of Jake after moving aside some glass with her foot. "Are you okay?"

"My head is killing me," Jake tells her. He opens his eyes. "And yeah, I don't see any glass by your eyes, luckily. Your face is all cut up though."

She shrugs. "I'll live."

It makes me love her even more. She's a tough lady.

"Here, let me see your scalp."

"No, I'm sure it's gross," Jake tells her.

"Jake," she tells him gently, "it's fine. My son was stupid a couple years ago and got into a motorcycle accident without wearing his helmet. He got a bad road rash all over and he got gravel embedded in his scalp. I had to help him clean it twice daily. I'm sure this is nothing compared to that."

Jake looks at her in surprise. "You have a son? Gloria! In all the years I've known you, how did I not know you have a son!"

She smiles at him. "Would you be upset if I told you I have twin daughters, too?"

"What?! Yes, yes I would!"

"Secret keeping bitch," Ben calls to her, and she laughs.

The banter seems normal. It was nice. It would've been nicer if my side didn't feel like it was going to burst and my boyfriend wasn't lying in my lap, dying.

"Let me see," she tells Jake again.

He lowers his head.

"Yup...you have a flap of skin where something cut you. You're going to need stitches for sure."

"I suddenly don't feel good..." he admits to her.

"Are you hurt elsewhere?"

"I don't think so, I feel okay. My head just hurts a lot where the cut is."

Gloria gets to her feet. "You rest. You probably feel shitty because the adrenaline is wearing off. I'll go check up on Amy and Tristan. We'll take turns until help arrives, okay?"

Jake nods. It's definitely the adrenaline rush wearing off because he bursts into tears then.

"You okay buddy?" Ben asks him.

"Y-yeah..."

Gloria moves towards the back of the bus.

"Talk to me?" Ben asks.

"T-this just sucks..."

"I know. We'll be okay."

"I'm scared, Ben."

"I know. I am too, but we'll get through this and everyone will be fine."

"P-promise?"

Ben doesn't reply.

"H-how're you?"

"I think out of anyone I'm the best," Ben says in a chipper fashion. "I don't think I'm hurt anywhere--I'm not in pain. I can wiggle my toes and stuff. I think I'm just stuck."

"L-lucky..." Jake teases.

"I think Amy--the woman with the broken leg--is going into shock. She doesn't look good, her skin is the wrong color and she's unconscious." Gloria says quietly into the phone, although with the silence we all can hear her. She looks at me and bites her lip. "I think someone else is, too..."

Jake looks at me in worry from where he sits. If I look how I feel, Gloria is probably right. I look back down at Orion.

"What should I do?" Gloria asks 9-1-1, her eyes still locked on me.

~

Can you talk?

I frown down at my phone. I had received that message three hours ago. It was from Orion. Taking a bite of my sandwich, I slip off my hardhat and call him.

"Hey babe," Orion greets after the second ring.

I smile. "Hey, love. Sorry, I just saw your text now."

"It's okay, I know you're working. How's your day been?"

I look down at my hand that's bandaged. I accidentally sliced it while cutting some metal. Nothing bad, not like it needs stitches, but enough to be annoying.

"Uneventful."

"So I have a proposition to make."

I glance around myself quickly. "Sexual?"

I can almost hear him roll his eyes. "That's always on the table, goes without saying."

I grin. "Good."

"I'm being serious," he whines at me.

"Alright, shoot."

He takes a deep breath. "So, I know last month you told me you didn't want to move in because of your job and lease."

"Orion--"

"Let me finish, Tristan."

I frown in silence.

"What if I were to either pay the year's rent up front so you could break the lease, or I just sent a check to your landlord monthly?"

"Orion."

"Come on, baby. Please? I miss you. I really, really miss you."

I rub my sweaty forehead. "I d'no..."

He sighs. "Look, the whole divorcing my parents thing is moving along smoothly, and I wanted to go to my actual mom's house to tell her about it. I want to stay with them for a while, too. And, um, well--" His voice shifts nervously. "Well, I was kinda hoping you'd come with me to meet them."

This surprises me. He wants me to meet his family? His actual family that means the world to him? Holy shit.

"Do you--is that maybe something you'd wanna do? Do you have vacation time?"

The hopeful tone in his voice kills me.

"I don't have vacation time, love, I'm still considered a new hire."

"Oh."

"I'm not done," I tell him gently. I glance about myself to make sure no one is around. "This job is scheduled to wrap in a couple weeks. After that I can quit--I'll tell them I have to move due to personal reasons."

"You will?!"

I smile. "Yeah..."

"Tristan," Orion says, a little softer. "I know I was kinda twisting your arm, but if you seriously don't want to, you don't have to."

"Orio, I love you. I miss you. I would like nothing more than to come home to you."

"Home?"

The tone in his voice is hopeful again, and it makes me smile fondly.

"Yeah, Orio, home. You're home to me."

He doesn't say anything, and I just smile.

--

"You did tell your mom we're dating, right?"

A month later we're on his mother's porch, suitcases and Orion's instruments in hand. He had knocked. They were expecting us.

Instead of answering, Orion raises his head and looks up at the top of the door.

I raise my eyebrows. "Right?"

Still nothing.

"Hello?"

He looks at me. "Oops?"

"Orion!" I snap.

Just then the door opens. The young woman who I saw once on Orion's phone launches herself at him. He stumbles back, and I have to throw my arm out to steady them.

"Amy!" he yells at her immediately. "I'm holding my guitars!"

"Oops," she says, letting him go immediately, "sorry."

"Pay attention!" he continues, and then audibly growls.

A teenage boy pops up behind Amy. "Ori! Wanna play Call of Duty?"

"Guys! Could I--"

"Hi Orion!" another older looking young man greets in the background, causing me to laugh.

Orion moans. "For fuck's sake guys, could I at least come in first?"

"No swearing!" a woman's voice pleasantly calls from inside.

Amy joins my laughter as Orion groans again, his shoulders slumping. "Sorry mom..."

The kids disperse (though not very far) and we walk in.

"Is it always like this?" I ask Orion.

"Yeah," he mutters, struggling to get his backpack, duffel bag, and two guitars in without hitting his guitar cases against the door frame, "I'm like, the cool older brother or some shit."

"Filter!" the same woman's voice calls in the same sing-song voice.

"Sorry!"

I laugh.

"Damn," Amy says quietly, giving me the elevator eyes. "You're even cuter in person."

The older boy slaps her on the back of her head. "Didn't you say they're together or something?"

"Well, yeah, but--"

"Oh," I say, "so they do know."

"Except my mom!" Amy says in a chipper voice, giving a devious grin that makes her look exactly like Orion. She puts her hand on my boyfriend's shoulder. "You get to tell her that."

"Oh gee, thanks."

"Tell me what?"

A woman who looks exactly like Orion enters the room. I mean, exactly. While Amy might look like Orion when she makes certain faces, this woman is Orion's female doppelganger. It's truthfully a little unsettling.

"Nothing, we'll talk later--"

She pushes past her sons and extends her hand to me, smiling. "And you must be Tristan, right?"

"Yes ma'am," I tell her, shaking her hand.

She looks thoughtful a minute and then her eyes go wide. "I think I remember you. Didn't I see you at the hos--"

She cuts herself off. An uncomfortable silence blankets us. So I rush in.

"Yes, I think we've seen each other in passing before."

"Oh." She looks between me and Orion then. "Are you guys--is that a thing again then, or?"

"Yeah," Orion replies simply.

"Oh," she replies again. To my shock she gives me a hug. "Well, doubly-welcome then, Tristan! Make yourself at home."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Amy looks disappointed. She crosses her arms. "Really? That's it?"

Her mother laughs and walks away with her two sons.

"What?" Orion asks, narrowing his eyes. "Were you hoping for a blow out or something?"

"No," she says, flipping her hair and starting to walk off. "I was just hoping you'd do that thing you do, where you stutter and turn all red. It's funny. I could use some amusement in my life."

"Hey! I'm not here for your entertainment!" Orio snaps at her even though he's smiling.

She flips him off over her head before turning the corner and disappearing. I laugh.

"Jesus. She's like your mini-me."

"Am I really that annoying?"

I grin. "You can be."

He punches my arm.

The younger boy who I know is John comes back up. "So--Call of Duty?"

Orion sighs but then cocks his head sideways, giving his lopsided smirk that I love. "Only if you help me unpack."

Without a word, John grabs Orion's bags (he wouldn't dare touch the guitars) and runs upstairs, leaving Orion and myself to follow behind him wordlessly.