Page 20 of One Wild Night
‘I do get us into some scrapes, don’t I?’
‘You do,’ I tell him. ‘But you’re Dylan King.’
‘Yeah, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’ve actually made being trapped in a blizzard a fun, crazy adventure,’ Mikey adds.
‘Yeah, with anyone else, it just would’ve been cold,’ I joke.
‘And, here we are, the bus,’ Mikey says proudly. ‘Right where we left it.’
I have never been so relieved to see the tour bus. Usually, I can’t wait to get off it, to stay in a hotel, or to get home to my comfortable bed, but right now it’s the only place I want to be.
We left the bus unlocked, and the keys in the safe, so that if a mechanic got to the bus before we did, they could get on with the repair work. Well, who is going to burgle a tour bus, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a blizzard?
‘After you,’ Dylan prompts Mikey.
‘Why me?’ Mikey asks.
‘Because you’re my big brother,’ Dylan reminds him in a baby voice.
‘You’re older than me too,’ Taz reminds Mikey. ‘And Nicole is a girl.’
I’m all for equal opportunities for men and women but if a little sexism means I don’t have to be the first person to board the abandoned bus in the dark, then I’m all for it.
‘Okay, fine,’ Mikey says with a sigh. ‘But stay close. Strength in numbers and all that.’
Strength in numbers may well be a thing but, looking at the four of us, I don’t think we add up to much.
Walking up the steps, to head upstairs to the living area, you can’t even see what is in front of your face. Once we’re up the stairs though, all tentatively walking behind Mikey, there is some emergency lighting on at least.
‘The back lounge is probably the best place for us,’ Mikey whispers. ‘We can sit there, make a plan.’
‘Good idea,’ Dylan says. ‘We just need to keep warm for tonight. Help will be there in the morning.’
God, I hope so, because I’ve never ruled out dying on a tour bus (I’ve probably come close, a couple of times, with some of the older buses/more chaotic drivers) but freezing to death was never the way I thought I would go.
That said, now that I think about it, it’s not actually that cold in here at all. I was expecting it to be freezing, after sitting in the snow for a day, but it actually feels quite nice.
Mikey stops in his tracks, causing the rest of us to bump into him, one at a time.
‘What is it?’ Dylan asks.
‘There, look,’ Mikey instructs us. ‘In the middle of the floor… has someone been here? It looks like they’ve trashed the place.’
‘Ah shit,’ Dylan says, confidentially walking forwards. ‘They better not have taken anything of mine.’
Dylan reaches forward, to start looking through the items on the floor, only for a pile to rise up in front of his eyes. As random items of clothing fall away, all that’s left standing in the centre of the lounge is Jamie.
‘You gave me a scare,’ he says, groggy, and bizarrely pissed off.
Dylan shoves him back onto the sofa.
‘Wegaveyoua scare?’ he blurts. ‘Yougave us ascare.’
‘You’re being dramatic,’ Jamie moans. ‘Pat wanted me to move logs, I did a couple, it was hard work, so I decided to sack it off. He came out, laid it on thick about how we all had to pay our way and earn our keep and whatever. So, I waited until he wasn’t looking, and then I came back here for a bit of peace. It’s no big deal.’
‘It’s no big deal?’ Dylan repeats back to him. ‘It’s no big deal? I thought we were eating you.’
Jamie laughs.
