Bus 1: Posh Twats On The M6 | A Done stori

Chapter 8 | Her The Dragon

"That's the second time I've had to watch that boy drive away with my steed." Rowan said.
"What is wrong with you!?" Lilly yelled.
"Excuse me?" Rowan laughed.
She huffed and walked away, looking at where she was. The bug service station was located behind the big service station I meant to write before the typo of 'bug service station'. It (the big one) was white and had many walls of just glass to see into the chain restaurants and fast food establishments inside.

Rowan walked inside and ordered a meal from the Maccies. Lilly joined him at the booth and sat opposite him. She sat watching the disheveled boy eat his big burger, waiting for him to say something but he didn't. Her expression grew more and more angry and disgusted at Rowan until she snapped.
"ROWAN!" She screamed, immediately making herself smaller and covering her face to hide from the other people around them, who now looked her way.
Rowan looked at her so confused he stopped chewing.
"Huh?" He got out through a mouth full of fast food.
Lilly took a deep breath and looked up.
"How are we gonna get back?" She asked trying to stay calm, but Rowan said nothing. "Rowan?" She asked.
"Well." He said before taking another bite, "Would you like any?" He offered.
"...no." She said looking through her eyebrows.
"You sure you must not eaten for a few days now."
"It's not been..." She stopped herself and stared at the fries. Rowan pushed them over to her and she started scoffing them down.
"Would you want anything else?" He asked, "I have quite a lot." He pulled out a twenty pound note.
"Is that all you have?" She asked loudly with her mouth full.
"...yes." Rowan said.
"HOW-" She stopped herself, "How are we gonna get back with twenty quid?" She asked trying to stay calm.
"Well I got change for this as well." Rowan shrugged, finishing his burger and putting an elbow behind his seat.
Lilly finished the fries quickly and took another deep breath.
"What do we do? How do we save Evan?" She asked. Rowan stayed silent and looked around the open building.
"Well can't we phone someone?" She added taking out her phone only to see it had died. "Show me your phone." She said.
"Don't have one." Rowan said, looking as if he wasn't even listening.
"You don't have a phone?" She said in disbelief.
"No. It got destroyed way back. Anyway, I'm going outside." He got up.
"How was it destroyed!?" Lilly yelled getting up as well.
"Boys On Tour." He told and walked away.
"Rowan!" She yelled walking after him.
"What? Are you going to have a go at the choir being all boys?" Rowan teased.
"You're lucky I'm not one of them people who would hyperventilate and panic about this, I'm trying to stay calm!" She yelled.
"I don't know what you want. I don't know what to tell you?" Rowan said walking away but Lilly chased him.
"We have to do something!" She yelled.
"What?" He asked slightly limping out the building.

"Hey! You're Rowan Aboat!" Lilly had a go at him, "You're the boy who put apple juice in the sprinklers and set them all off! You... out of our whole year and loads before, you're the boy who made it the furthest in The Golden Rail. Are you the boy I've heard stories about or not!?" She stared him down.
"No, it seems I'm not." He huffed and sat down on the grass behind the service station. In front of the two kids was a large forest and Lilly looked scared.
She looked down on the boy and gave him an angry expression.
"Why'd you say that? On the bus?" She asked.
"Say what?" He asked.
"That Ev liked me." She said angrily.
Rowan slowly turned to see how red she was and she hid her face and crossed her arms.
"I was just messing around." He said looking back out to the trees and the clouds, "I don't think I should get involved. Relationships aren't... my thing." He huffed, plucking grass from the ground.
"He said he didn't..." She dropped her arms.
"Do you think he does?" Rowan asked with his eyes fixed on the forest.
"That doesn't matter." Lilly sat next to him on the grass and looked out as well.
"How did you escape last time?" She asked.
Rowan plucked a long weed from the grass and put it in his teeth but didn't like it so spat it out so why tf did I tell you that.
"The last time this happened... I had a phone." He said looking to the grass. He took a deep breath.
"The last time I was here." He repeated, "I had my phone. And I phoned someone... who lived nearby."
Lilly looked down to the boy dropping her angry expression.
"I was picked up... and taken in... and I was given money for a train back home."
"Was it Piper?" Lilly asked to which Rowan spun around to look at her with a range of emotions on his face.
"Evan told me about her." She explained and Rowan looked down.
"I don't wanna talk about." Rowan mumbled resting his head on his folded arms which were supported by his knees. "We're too distant to walk." He added.
Lilly came and sat down next to Rowan. They looked out to the forest in front of them for a while. They felt the soft wind and could hear the birds singing from a distance away.
"There's a story." Rowan broke the silence, "Of how I escaped. Last time I mean."
"A story?" Lilly asked.
"Yea... a story." Rowan said playing with the grass under him, "They said I met a dragon. And I used its feathers to fly myself home." He plucked the grass and sighed. "It's not what happened. But it's what I told people. Because, the idea of flying... anywhere I wanted. I could go anywhere. I thought it was nice."
Lilly didn't know what to say, or if she should say anything at all.
"Was Piper the dragon?" She asked putting her hand on Rowans shoulder. He quickly looked at her, then her hand, then her again.
"No..." He said angrily and got up, "Are you coming onto me?"
"No Asshole! I was trying to comfort you! Trust a man to always assume! Anyway, I thought you were gay."
"Wh- oh." Rowan sighed.
A moment went by in silence as Rowan sat back down and looked out to the forest he said he went to.
"We can't leave them." She said softly to no reply. The boy just sat still. "Rowan, we have to go after them." She added.
"I know." Rowan broke, putting his hands over his eyes.
Lilly noticed his expression grow sad as he looked towards the trees.
"Geoffrey's insane!" She told, "He killed people at a food place he took me. Rowan he killed someone! He's not okay! And now he said he's gonna kill Evan!"
"He didn't kill you." Rowan quickly said.
"...he used me..." She worked out.
"It's okay." Rowan said squinting his eyes, "I know what I have to do. But first," He changed the subject, "We have to find a charger."
Lilly was still caught up on what Rowan could have meant that she took a moments to hear 'charger'.
"Charger?" She asked.

They borrowed a charger from a family at the station and phoned Lillys mum to come and get them from, they just learnt, Popeth. A weirdly Welsh name for a place at the far top of Glandged.

"I'm sorry." Rowan said. The two sat on the curb outside waiting for Sharon.
"About what?" Lilly asked.
"Oh y'know... getting you kidnapped and that. It's not cool." He sighed, taking a deep breath before continuing, "And I let the choir follow us."
"What?" Lilly asked angrily, but that anger quickly left her.
"I wanted to play like cowboys, and I would've won and gone off with enough bus passes, but." He said sorrily. "It's not like cowboys. And no one wants to play."

Sharon took three hours to reach the two. (They sped)

The waiting wasn't awkward. They both spoke a little, but they didn't have much to say. They spoke of the academy and year ten options, Rowans bands and when he played at The Andys. Rowan spoke more normally then he'd done in too long.
They sat on the curb and held twenty minutes of silence at a time.

When they arrived, Rowan watched as the smaller academy bus pulled in and Lilly run over excitedly. He watched as she was taken in by her mother and given the warmest hug. Others crowded her and looked concerned. He watched until Richard saw him.
Rowan got up from the curb and walker over.

Lilly tried to get Richard to go after Geoffrey but he denied the idea, so Rowan approached to help.
"We have to go and save him." Rowan told.
"Like I'll listen to you!" Richard laughed.
"What?"
"Evan chose his fate, so we gotta leave him to it." Richard insisted.
"What? No. He didn't chose this though, I, I just dragged him into it..." Rowan said frantically.
"Well that's something you just have to live with." Richard said.
"Richard!" Lilly yelled, "What's wrong with you? We have to save him!"
"We can hope he's okay. We can hope he's leverage. But we can't be sure Richard." Rowan told. "Take me, lock me up in your sherifs jail until sixth form. But we have to go after Geoffrey."
"We save Evan." Lilly ordered. "It'll be my first command as queen. Of the academy, not the feminists." She clarified.
"You mean-?" Sharon stuttered.
"You? Is that a yes?" Richard laughed with mostly disbelief.
"Yes." Lilly reluctantly agreed, cringing as she spoke the word.
"Well." Richard began, "I suppose, saving students would give me a sick reputation."
"Oi!" Mr Carrotborne yelled from the drivers seat. "We got a postcode yet?"
"They'll be at The Living Pool, they have a concert and they've probably trapped them all in the bus." Rowan explained.
"That's not a postcode." Carrotborne argued, only to have everyone ignore him.
"The Living Pool?" Richard asked, "There's a black out there."
"The choir?" Lilly asked.
"I don't think so, must be a part of another story." Richard said.
"So I'm thinking we plan like-" Rowan began but was interrupted.
"Like I'll listen to you." Richard laughed.
"Listen to him." Lilly ordered.
"What's the plan." Richard said trying to move right on.
"Um... okay, I'll go deal with the choir lord, you deal with the sections, Lilly you save everyone."
"Sections?" Richard asked.
"All the boys, the rest of the choir." He explained.
"Well why can't we just get the lord?" Richard asked.
"You don't want to go after this boy." Rowan explained, "He won't hesitate to kill you. On sight probably."
"Then why would you want him?" Richard asked.
"Come on, it's me." Rowan laughed, "He's not gonna kill me." He sighed and brought himself back to the conversation.

Rowan and Lilly sat at the back, past the Bills and Bruces and watched as they left the service station.
"Rowan are you..?" Lilly started. "Is Geoffrey gonna... hurt you. I saw..."
Rowan felt a wave of cold go down him. He folded his arms and slumped down further then he already was.
"If you see him. Rowan. You should do it." She said.
"Huh?" Rowan asked, turning to see the girl with a very worried look on her face, and she continued:
"You should kill him."