Page 21 of One Wild Night
‘No, literally, he thought you were being eaten,’ I point out.
‘Chance would be a fine thing,’ Jamie jokes.
I don’t even want to think about what he means by that.
‘Anyway, you should be thanking me,’ Jamie continues.
‘Why?’ Mikey asks.
‘I fixed the bus,’ he announces proudly. ‘Well, kind of. I’ve turned it off for now, because I don’t want to run the battery flat, but I charged our devices and put the heating on. It was easy to see, in the light, how to restore the power.’
‘So we can head home?’ Taz asks.
‘I can’t make it drive through the snow, clown,’ Jamie claps back. ‘But we can sleep here. We’ll be warm, and safe in our bunks.’
‘Then why were you sleeping on the floor?’ Mikey asks him. ‘I had a few beers when I got back. I fell asleep in here. I couldn’t be arsed moving, so I pulled some clothes over me.’
He says that like it’s a completely normal thing to do. I guess on tour it is.
‘I carried a bunch of food up here, and some drinks, if you guys wanna chill for a bit?’ Jamie suggests.
‘There’s not much else to do,’ Dylan says as he swigs a beer that he seemingly pulled from nowhere.
And just like that it’s like we never left. We grab drinks, and snacks and Mikey digs out his acoustic guitar. He noodles away on it, like he always does when we’re just sitting around on the bus.
‘You know, one day, I think we’re all going to laugh about this,’ Dylan says confidentially.
I just laugh.
He’s right, I’m sure we will all laugh about this one day, it might even be today. I’m just glad that we’re all here, all alive, with all of our hair still on our heads.
‘We can laugh at Nicole’s face, surely?’ Jamie says.
‘Oh my God, I’d forgotten about that,’ I reply. ‘Kitty did it. Apparently, she wants to be a make-up artist. I think she just wanted to torture me.’
‘And you do genuinely look like you’ve been tortured,’ Mikey jokes.
‘Nicole, the Insane Clown Posse called, they want their face back,’ Taz joins in.
‘All absolutely fantastic jokes,’ I say sarcastically. ‘Thank you. I’ll go find some face wipes.’
‘Nah, leave it on,’ Dylan tells me. ‘You look great in anything.’
I smile. I will take it off, later, before bed, but for now – who cares? This face full of chaos just shows what I’ve been through over the past twenty-four hours.
Plus, if any strangers do board the bus, at least I can scare them away.
Chapter 10
Tour bus bathrooms aren’t great. They’re small, the facilities aren’t great, and it’s pretty much a universal rule that you don’t actually use them for anything beyond peeing, washing your hands or brushing your teeth. I don’t suppose there is any reason why you couldn’t use them forother things, or use the small shower, but I guess some things (especially the former) are just considered anti-social. Still, I think we’ll all make exceptions tonight, don’t you?
After scrubbing off my make-up in the mirror – getting through pretty much an entire packet of face wipes – and putting on a vest top and some trackies, my plan is to get in my bunk, get cosy and see if I can fall asleep.
The chances that I’ll be able to sleep, in these weird circumstances, seem slim though. Well, some nights I get into my comfortable bed, in my nice bedroom, in my safe home, with the doors locked, and absolutely nothing to worry about… and I still can’t sleep. I really don’t fancy my chances here.
‘Oh my God,’ I say, jumping out of my skin as I open the door to find Dylan standing there.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you jump,’ he says with a laugh. ‘But I have a surprise for you.’
