Page 11 of Yo Ho Ho
"No." Jordan gave him an eye roll. At least someone was still paying attention to his stupid jokes. "But something's up, right?"
"Something is definitely up," Alex replied from his locker. "Those guys looked way too hung over after the night we had with them. You think they went out without us after that?"
"It's not that," Logan said. "Did you see Max when she got on the plane this morning?"
Jordan shook his head.
"I passed out as soon as I sat down," Alex explained.
"Do you think it might have something to do with her?" Jordan asked.
Logan just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to say anything more. He didn't want to give it away that he was worried about her. But one thing was for sure: he was worried about her. Something wasn't right about the whole situation, and he really hoped that situation didn't involve Max.
The crew that shared drinks last night at the bar was now the same crew shoved into a tiny elevator at some fancy modern hotel in San Francisco. The ride back from the arena on the bus was awkward enough. This was worse. Much worse. Charlie and Bob both looked like crap and Jake's camera bag seemed to weigh an extra 30 pounds on his hunched shoulders. Max was still pale and glassy eyed.
And then there was Alex, whose elbow kept bumping Logan's arm in a way that sent shooting pain to his bruised shoulder. He was pretty sure Alex was trying to send him a message, which was only confirmed when Logan turned to look at his teammate.
His roommate's eyes were wide and shifting around the small space.Ask them what's going on, he wordlessly conveyed with the look on his face.
Shove in the arm.
Logan's eyes narrowed.Knock it off,he wordlessly said back.
But Alex was relentless and the pain in Logan's shoulder was finally getting to be too much.
"So hey, Charlie?" Logan asked. "You didn't roll your eyes at my stupid answer today. Are you guys turning into lightweights?"
Awkward laughter from Logan. Only Logan. Even Alex had abandoned him.
But Logan saw exactly how the reporters responded to his question. Jake just stared at the ground. Charlie and Bob instinctively looked at Max. She was still staring at the elevator doors, only now Logan could see tension in her jaw line that wasn't there before. He had hit a nerve, asking something he shouldn't have asked, and without realizing it, he had asked about Max.
The doors dinged open on their floor, and Logan had never felt more relieved to get off an elevator. He stopped and stared, watching as most of them just drifted down the hall. Max was the worst, dragging herself away with her shoulders hunched over. She was missing that spring in her step that he admired about her. It was a little thing that always reminded him to not mess with her. She wasn't a weak flower. She meant business, she took her job seriously, and she was damn good at it.
But not today.
Logan felt a hand grab his bicep, and he turned to see Bob standing next to him, the two of them now alone in the hallway.
"It's about Max," Bob said quietly.
Logan had that crushing feeling on his heart again. Something was wrong. Max was hurting, and he couldn't stand that. He could feel his mouth go dry as he took a deep breath to compose himself.
"What's wrong with Max?" he asked.
"It's not really just Max," Bob explained. "It's theDetroit Herald. They shutting the paper down."
Logan felt like the wind had been knocked out of him as his mind began to reel. "What do you mean shutting down? You can't shut down a whole paper, can you?"
Bob gave him a sad smile. "Their last edition is going out on New Year's Eve."
"But what will happen to everyone who works there?"
Logan knew the answer to his question. Deep down, he knew it. But he needed to hear it from someone else. Bob seemed to understand and gave him a sympathetic look.
"They won't have jobs anymore," he said.
"Even Max?"
The old man nodded solemnly. "Even Max," he said. "She's got three weeks before her season is over so go easy on her, will ya?"
