I never thought the bus would be so far. Walking 6 miles to the bus stop wouldn't be so bad right? Right? Wrong. It passes a few alleyways that were full of garbage cans and old trash bags and thrown leftovers. Beer bottles and burnt-out cigarettes included. "What a dump," I mutter. "No kidding." Ray agrees. As we kept walking we saw a few people standing around smoking and talking amongst themselves. Ray ushered me to walk faster and avoid eye contact. They didn't seem to notice us but didn't want to take any chances.
Along with this path, it also passed through a multitude of buildings. They looked like storage houses to me. "How far?" "At least 4 more miles." He said. A smile still on his face but he kept eyeing certain places may be keeping an eye on any suspicious people. My legs and feet started to hurt a little but I didn't want to complain.
"Ray, are you sure this is the right way?" I ask nervously. Starting to feel the adrenaline and becoming a little scared. He put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him and kept reassuring me that we will be ok. I decided to look around and watch the buildings and people nearby. Whilst doing so I saw a boy who was wearing a blue sweater and khaki pants and a little hat on his head. He looked like an elderly gentleman. He had slightly darker skin than we did. So I had to assume he was of African American descent.
He stared down at his phone audibly muttering to himself. "Maybe we can ask him. He seems to know where he is going." I tell my brother. He looks over to the boy I'm pointing at and said maybe we could.
"Hey, uh, can you help us?" He shouts to the boy. The kid looks up and turns to us. "Um, excuse me?" "Can you help us? We are kinda lost." My brother continues. "We can't find the bus stop we are assigned to." The boy makes an oh face and comes over to us. "Uh sure. What's your bus stop?" We tell him and ironically enough he said it's his assigned bus stop as well. And he was already heading there.
"Thank you. Oh, my mistake. My name is Rosealine Peirce Okamoto. And this is my brother Raiden Peirce Okamoto." My brother smiled at me and said hello to him. "We also go by Ray and Rose." "We just moved in." "Oh cool, my name is Gabriel. Or call me Gabe."
His laugh was a little dorky but I found it very genuine. We continued our trek. He and Ray talked about common interests. Especially in the game of Change o bots. I remained quiet by choice as I didn't want to make it awkward. Change o bots was my favorite too but how would he feel about it? Thoughts of doubt plagued my mind. The whispers telling me of all my fears and what reactions I'll expect if I speak out about it.
Remain quiet Rose, if you are invisible, nobody will notice you.