Page 25 of In the Shadows

Chapter

Five

Once we were loaded on the bus the next morning, we got back on schedule and headed to our next show in Houston. Several painstaking hours later, we arrived at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Spring, Texas and were happy to find the guys from BOD already there. I think collectively we were expecting the worst, but who knows, maybe the last incident helped BOD pull their heads out of their asses.

Things were quiet as we pulled into the parking lot and the lights were off inside their rig, so we hoped they’d crashed for the night as we were planning to do the same. That was a long ass travel day, I really felt for our driver Rob. He was a trooper for sure.

Having been to Houston before, I found the weather to be as expected – still warm for it being fall. Back home, the temps had been steadily dropping and the rainy season had kicked in so the warmth was a welcome change. Rob was staying on the bus as opposed to watching the show since we were slated to leave right after the fan meet and greet session to continue along the southern leg of our tour. Tomorrow night’s show was in Shreveport, LA. From there we were scheduled to hit Jackson, MS, Birmingham, AL, Atlanta, GA, down to Tampa, FL then back up to Jacksonville, FL where we were parking the bus for our holiday break. We were looking forward to heading home for the holidays, so I knew by then we’d be sprinting to the airport to catch our flight in a rush to get home to our families.

Thankful that the venue had showers, we cleaned up before hopping on the bus. Once the doors closed and we were seated on the couches, trying to catch our breaths, Mickey came running out of the back with a game in hand.

“All right, guys,” he slapped his hand against the plastic case, demanding our attention while showcasing it like he was Vanna White, “who’s up to be owned like a bitch atFortnite?”

“Owned like a bitch? Your punkass has never played that game before,” Diamond said, grabbing it out of his hands to load in the console. “Sit your lame ass down and let me show you how it’s done.”

He’s such a cocky fucker.I know I act all cocky and shit when it comes to band stuff, but Diamond was the cockiest fucker of all of us. Joey and I rolled our eyes and laughed.

But Diamond plopped down on the couch, controller in hand and told Mickey, “I’m ready to make you my bitch.”

“Oh, it’s on, baby!” Mickey retorted.

“How’d you get that game anyways?” I asked.

“I gave Jamie the money and asked him to pick it up for me while they were cruising around,” he answered, his eyes never wavering from the TV screen.

Huh, good idea.

Joey curled up against my side and began scrolling through our social media accounts on his phone while I did the same. Not long after, his head grew heavy and eventually found its way onto my lap. Without thinking, my fingers threaded themselves through his curls, gently massaging his scalp. I was so engrossed in making postings to our online profiles that I hadn’t realized he’d fallen asleep until the light snores coming from him filled my ears. When the pad of my thumb grazed his cheek, his sleepy eyes opened. Unfocused, he looked up at me and grinned before closing them once more.

“Come on, sleepy head, let’s go crash.”

He nodded.

Gracefully, I tried to stand without dumping him on the bus floor and somehow succeeded. As soon as we laid down in our bunk we curled up together and were out.

This leg of the tour was especially grueling. Every day was either a travel day or a show day without any rest for the wicked. By the time we reached Jacksonville, we were dead on our feet. I still wasn’t sure how we made it to our gate, let alone to our seats on the plane. This was the first time any of us had ever flown in first class well except for maybe Easton. Rob had family in Florida, so he opted to stay there for the break and visit with them. Having a hiatus for the next four weeks sounded like heaven to us.

After boarding the plane, we took our seats and waited it out while the rest of the passengers loaded. Diamond and Mickey had the two side by side seats on the left side of the plane, but in the same row as us with Joey and I on the right and Easton sat in front of us. Joey took the window seat and was already dozing off by the time the stewardess came to take our dinner orders. The seven hour flight was going to be brutal, but I figured we were going to crash out anyway. As soon as she handed us a blanket, we leaned against each other as best we could with the armrest between us and were out.

The stewardess woke us when she brought our food, which was surprisingly good. I couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I plugged in my earbuds and watched the inflight movie which wasThe Last Jedi.Seemed Joey had the same idea as he tucked in beside me and popped in his ear buds.

Sal sent a car to collect us meeting us curbside at SeaTac. Five guys but only three stops to make in the early morning hours wasn’t such a bad gig for a driver. Easton was dropped off first since he lived in Ballard, then Mickey and lastly the three of us who still lived next door to each other. I didn’t want to wake Brandon so I crashed at Joey’s house. His dad was asleep when we went inside and we were dead on our feet. I texted my mom to let her know where I was and that I’d be over later after we woke up. After stripping down to our boxers, we curled up together and passed the fuck out.

Seemed they couldn’t wait that long. Joey and I woke when Brandon jumped up on the bed and crawled all over us.

“Ricky, JoJo, wake up.” He shook us with his little hands as best he could.

“Ugh,” Joey grumbled.

“Brando, buddy!” I said, tickling him.

His giggles filled the room. Joey rolled over, brushing the hair out of his face so he could see.

“JoJo looks like a hairy monster,” Brandon said, staring at Joey like he couldn’t make out who he was.

“Grr,” Joey growled before he startled tickling him.

I looked up, spotting Brett from the doorway. “Your mom sent us over. Wasn’t sure what she’d walk into if she came in herself.” He cleared his throat and snickered. “She’s cooked enough food for an army and said to get your,” he looked down at Brandon, “butts over there and eat. But she didn’t say butts.”

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