Page 3 of One Wild Night
Do you ever wake from a nightmare and, for a moment, you forget what is real and what was just a bad dream?
I wake with a start, disoriented and not entirely sure where I am, and just as I’m coming to my senses, reassuring myself that it was all just a dream, I realise that I’m on board the cold, dark tour bus, and that this is really happening.
Dylan's shoulder is still beneath my head, and for a moment, I can't believe I was able to fall asleep in such an awkward position. I'm wide awake now, and anxious to learn that things don’t seem to have improved.
I shift, relieving Dylan from his duties as a human pillow/radiator.
‘Uh, sorry about that,’ I mumble, laughing awkwardly.
Dylan being Dylan, he just laughs.
‘That’s okay,’ he tells me. ‘You didn’t miss much and, in good news, I have the solution to all of our problems.’
I rub my eyes as I sit up straight. Glancing around the lounge – which is even darker than it was before – I realise that Mitch isn’t here.
‘Where’s Mitch?’ I ask.
‘He went in the ambulance, with Fred,’ Mikey explains. ‘He banged his head, he was bleeding. They sent the emergency services for him, and said one person could go with him, so Mitch went. Don’t worry, they said Fred will be fine, but he needs treating. He’s in the right place now.’
‘I did ask if we could go too,’ Dylan tells me. ‘But apparentlyit’s a rescue ambulance, not a minibus.’
Dylan says this in a mocking tone, as though he’s repeating what someone said to him, that he doesn’t believe is a reasonable reply.
‘Mitch said he would send someone for us, when he could, but it sounds like the snow is bad everywhere,’ Mikey continues. ‘So we just need to sit tight here, until someone comes to get us.’
‘Oh God,’ I blurt, because, honestly, I feel so claustrophobic – which is ironic, given how out in the open we are.
‘Like I said, it’s all good, I’ve got the solution to our problems,’ Dylan says again.
It’s not that he doesn't sound confident it’s just that – and please, keep in mind, that Dylan is my best friend and I love him – Dylan isn’t usually the person who comes up with solutions to problems, in fact, he’s almost always the person who causes the problems in the first place.
‘Go on, bro,’ Mikey says.
You can hear in his voice that he feels the same way as I do. Neither of us expects to hear a genuine solution. The chances it doesn’t involve smoking or drinking are slim – in fact, I’d throw sex in the mix too, were it not for the fact that I’m the only female here.
‘Well, I heard Mitch say we were near somewhere called Lundsgill,’ Dylan explains. ‘So, I figured, there must be someone there who can help us out.’
‘You know someone in Lundsgill?’ Mikey asks in disbelief. ‘Because I don’t even know where Lundsgill is.’
‘Somewhere between Glasgow and London,’ Jamie points out.
‘We know that much, you idiot,’ Taz replies. ‘We’ve been on the road a while so, I’d say we were back in England, at least.’
‘That’s not important,’ Dylan insists. ‘What’s important is that I’ve found us someone to stay with.’
Oh God, I hate the sound of this already…
‘What, like a B&B?’ Mikey asks.
‘No – that was the first thing I checked, obviously, there’s only one and it’s full,’ Dylan tells us. ‘So, I went on Twitter.’
There’s a sentence that never precedes anything good.
‘Twitter?’ I repeat back to him. ‘Like… Twitter-Twitter?’
‘You sound like a bird,’ he replies with a laugh. ‘Yes, Twitter – with so many fans on there I figure there must be someone nearby who can help us out. It turns out there is someone – a fan – who lives in Lundsgill, and she says she can put us all up at her place.’
‘You want us to go and stay with some random fan?’ I blurt in disbelief.
