Destined

15.

The sound of crickets chirping seemed to intensify the quieter the walk between us had gotten. "Dj," Adrian finally speaks.

I turn around, waiting for him to continue. "Is Deon mad at me?" He asks.

"I don't think so, why?"

"We fought a bit earlier. It was actually just a little disagreement,"

"What kind of disagreement?"

"His style of clothes lately has just been garbage, you know? He wears these big tees that swallow his entire body. Other times he's just too colorful. I just had to let him know that it was weird," Adrian plays with the top of his hand, kicking rocks as his feet passed them.
Now it all starts to make sense of why Deon didn't want to see him.

"Adrian I think if you're really his friend you'll just have to accept his unique clothing style," I tell him. We come to a stop at a light. I decided to let Adrian press the button that gave us permission to walk across the street when the cars stopped.

"That's my bro," he tells me. "He knows I gotta keep it real with him, I would expect him to do the same with me,"

The light turns to the 'WALKING' signal and me and Adrian begin to sprint across the street. When we get to the other side I look at him pitifully. If only he knew why Deon was being so off with him lately..but then I start to think again. Adrian probably wouldn't have understood either way. I felt that his back would turn against Deon once he knew which way Deon was going. The care he had for Deon was different from the way Deon cared for him, and it was obvious that Adrian was always going to be into women—which was just going to make Deon's situation a lot more confusing.

Having those kinds of feelings for someone who possibly would never have those feelings in return for you was a difficult thing to deal with. For Deon it would be twice as hard because of how things were going with our Father. He already had enough he wanted to blame his self for.

The bus stops in-front of us. We waited for the doors to open before we made our way into it. Adrian hands her his pass and so do I. She takes them while ripping a piece off of each, waving us to the back of the bus with a fake smile. The doors close behind us and me and Adrian begin to look for seats that were near each other. We ended up in the back of the bus when it started to drive again. I sat by the window while Adrian sat on the outside. He looked at me, fear showed in his light eyes. I knew he was scared.

"It's okay," I tell him.

"But what if she's not okay?" He asks, shaking his head. I could see that he was fighting the urge to cry. He quickly turned his head from me and rubbed his face intensely.

Adrian clearly had slight anger issues, but he was getting better each time I seen him. He used to be such an angry little boy when I first met him, but he had definitely calmed down since then, and a-lot more then we all expected him too.

"Shh," I rub my fingers through his fluffy black hair. He leans on my shoulder and stares out of the tinted window. The last thing I needed Adrian to do was worry, I was worried enough.
The bus drives for awhile until we make a hard stop. I didn't know where we had to stop, or where Amber might have ended up from here but I just had a gut feeling that she was at a park. Something was telling me to stay on the bus a bit longer.

We had just hit Craig and Nellis, these were the streets me and Amber had gone too too much, but we only came to this side of town when we wanted to go to the small ghetto park. That was one of our favorite hang outs.

I nudge Adrian awake from falling asleep on me and he groans. He actually acted a lot like Amber and he didn't even know it.

"Adrian," I call him.

"Yeah?" He answers, opening his eyes to take in his surroundings.

"Don't fall asleep. We're getting off soon,"

The bus begins to accelerate again once the doors close. It was now only me and Adrian and about 3 others on the bus.

"Dj wait, I know where she likes to go to be alone. I don't know if she's there though, and she told me to never tell anyone where it was,"

My mood changes abruptly. I instantly shift myself to face Adrian. He picks his head up and looks at me. "What did she tell you?" I ask him. The little hope I had begins to increase gradually.

"Dj, I mean," Adrian stutters.

"No, you have to tell me. You need to tell me now,"

"Sunrise park," he mumbles.

Sunrise park? That was the same park I was thinking about earlier. I never knew Amber went there alone. That was the park we went to together when we needed to just get away from the overwhelming circumstances in our lives. The last time we went together was during the time my Father left.

"That's about 25 minutes from this area," I tell him. Now I was starting to regret staying on this bus.

"How do you know?" He questions. I ignore him though.

We make another stop. Since I knew the area it wouldn't have been difficult to get to Sunset Park from here. Still, we definitely could have avoided the long walk there if I had simply thought to check there in the first place. The doors quickly open and I push Adrian off of the seat, grabbing his wrist as we hopped out of the bus.

"What are you doing? We're not close to it," he tells me, pulling back from my grip.

"We're walking the rest. This bus is only gonna take us farther," I say, making him follow my lead. He sighs loudly as he hops off the bus behind me.

We started to pass a few trees before we ended up on a corner where we had to cross a busy intersection once more. I knew Vegas never slept but tonight I truly wished it did. I glance behind me, watching Adrian rub his eyes repetitively. "I'm tired bruh," he complains.

"So am I," I roll my eyes.

He childishly kicks rocks at the back of my feet. I almost slap him but he backs away. He begins to laugh at me and that's when I ignore him completely. It was already late and I wasn't about to waste my energy on him.

My phone rings. I eagerly pull it out of my back pocket and slide it open—confused when I see the number displayed on it. I pick it up suspiciously, asking "Who is this?" but I recognize the voice immediately. My heart beat begins to slow down. His voice was definitely something I needed to hear right now.