The coach departed the service station without the three teenagers who had ran off. About ten minutes after the coach left the service station, I looked to see the shaved-head girl sat with her knees brought up to her chest, gazing out of the window. The torrential rain had died down and was spitting again. We were on a large bridge now and day had passed into early evening, with the last few moments of sunset counting down. We hadn't spoken at all since the incident off the coach earlier. Somehow I had managed to fight the urge to ask her about it. It was all I could think about. It was one of the most exciting things I'd been witness to in a long time.

She looked from the window to me. I flinched, feeling caught out for gazing in her direction.

"It's The Severn Bridge," she said, "We're crossing over to South Wales."

"Oh cool," I mumbled, "I've been to Wales before. I did pony trekking. Well, actually, it was horse riding but it was called pony trekking when I signed up to do it."

Shaved-head girl smirked.

"'Pony trekking'", she said, making a posh voice that actually made her sound feminine and not androgynously gruff for a moment, "How fancy."

"It really wasn't," I said, getting a little defensive, "It was just a weeklong camping trip in Year Ten. I only went because my friends, at the time, were going and they invited me along."

"Did you enjoy it?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said, nodding, "It felt pretty cool riding a horse along the paths and hills. Felt like I was in a fantasy movie or something. Or a western."

"I love horses," said shaved-head girl, "Never had a chance to ride one though."

I felt bad for her. I didn't come from money. My parents had fought for years about money and the lack of it, piling debts, particularly credit card debt. I was used to my Dad being eternally broke and my grandparents having to bail my parent's out when there wasn't another way forward. Despite all that, my parents had somehow forked out some money to afford a week long school trip. I tried to picture what shaved-head girl's life was like if she had never experienced even those basic kinds of trips away from home.

"One of the boys that ran away," I said, asking the question as if on auto-pilot, "Fumi I think his name was. Did he give you that lighter you used earlier?"

Shaved-head girl looked panicked for a moment. "Shh," she said, "We'll talk about it later, okay?"

I nodded and felt guilty for saying what was probably obvious out loud. I never was very subtle when it came to asking people questions. Probably one of the reasons everyone seemed to have a short temper with me. I tried to change the subject back.

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"So," I said, "Have you gone on holiday much before?"

"Nope," said shaved-head girl, "Too busy looking after my Mum."

Shaved-head girl studied my reaction for a moment. I think she could see I was genuinely listening and concerned about what she had said.

"She's got depression, and other issues," said shaved-head girl, "And my younger brother gets into trouble a lot. Dad comes and goes so it's really been up to me to keep things going. So no time for holidays."

"I'm…sorry to hear that," I said, "Are they going to be alright without you?"

Shaved-head girl made a face that was full of stress, barely contained. She hunched up her shoulders.

"Who knows," she said, "Mum's doing better than she was last year, but now I'm not with her I don't know if she'll manage. I just wish I could call her to check in but they won't let us have our phones. What about you?"

"Me?" I said.

"What about your family?"

"Oh, I live with my Mum and brother and sister. Mum takes care of anything. My brother's working at a store in London and my sister is still in school. We see my Dad every few weeks when he’s free.”

Shaved-head girl studied me some more, but kept her thoughts to herself. She made an effort to change the tone of the conversation, forcing a smile and resting her head against her closed fist. "So," she said, "What do you think about this stuff? Do you think we're going to blow up like the other teenagers?"

"I don't know," I said, "But I think it's safer to go along with what the government wants than to risk blowing up randomly one day. My...."

I thought about my friend again, then decided not to bring him up. It stung to think that my one, true, closest friend wasn't going on this journey with me. I shook my head, spasming a little, as if my head were an etch-e-sketch and shaking it was the way to get rid of the intrusive thought.

"...I mean," I said, changing what I intended to say, "I think people who are okay just risking not going along with this evacuation are being really dumb. I mean, if any one of us could potentially blow up at a moment's notice, then we should go someplace where we're not a danger to other people."

"You sound like you're coping," said shaved-head girl.

"Coping?" I said.

"Yeah, like, you don't sound convinced by your own argument. Do you really think it's safer to put us all together in one place?"

"It's not," I said, "But…I don't know…I guess I just don't want to go against what the government is telling me to do. Is that so bad?"

Shaved-head girl shrugged.

I didn't like the idea that I was intentionally giving a dishonest answer. I didn't know what I thought. If I knew exactly what I thought all the time, as if I knew how everything was going to work out, then everything would be so much simpler. But it wasn't.

"What about you?" I said, "Why are you coming along?"

Shaved-head girl gave the question some thought.

"I'll tell you but it's going to make me sound like a terrible person," she said.

I leaned in a little closer.

"Well," she said, leaning in a little too, "I just really needed an excuse to get away from my family for a while."

She smirked, and held eye contact with me, and I could see there were tears welling up in her eyes a little bit. The moment broke and she eased back, wiping at the corner of her eyes with her finger tips and looking out the window. We'd cleared The Severn Bridge and the sun had finally set.