“Grand central station, what the fuck do you want, we’re about to get naked in here!” Zakk bellowed. Now that got Tripp to move back a little and get those cold ass hands from off his skin.
“Save that for later and get out here!”
Rolling his eyes, Zakk huffed a heavy sigh at Riley’s demand. “And why the hell would I want to do that?”
“’Cause we’re all waiting on the two of you, now climb off him and let’s go!”
“What do you mean, let’s go? Where the fuck are you supposed to be going? Why am I just hearing about this!”
“Before you ask who’s bright idea this was, which, if the pattern holds, is sure to be your next question, just come on already and you can find out with the rest of us.”
“Wait, you don’t know?”
Riley poked his head in the room and narrowed his eyes at them both. “Nope. Now let’s go! Come on!”
“Then what makes you think we want to go anywhere?” Zakk replied, stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest.
“’Cause James said no one is going to find out anything until we’re all out by the gorge, so come on. For fuck’s sake, why aren’t you moving?”
Tripp caught his eye and shrugged. “Guess we’d better listen. It’s not like he’s going away.”
“Maybe if we ignore him long enough.”
“Or I just pin you to the bed.”
“You do that and I swear, I will send James back here with a bullhorn and a bucket of ice water,” Riley grumbled.
“Ohh kinky.”
Riley’s eyes narrowed at Tripp, who stared right back at him. Now Riley had his arms crossed, and Zakk could feel the level of stubborn in the room ramping up to unbearable proportions.
“Okay, damn, we’re coming,” Zakk said, rolling off the bed and heading for the door before Tripp could drag him back down beside him. Behind him he heard Tripp muttering beneath his breath about how that might have been a pleasant reality if everyone had left them alone.
“Come on, the sooner we find out what the fuck is going on, the quicker you can get back to wrecking another set of linen,” Riley teased. “I swear, you two are going to drive their laundry bill sky high with all the bedding you go through.”
“Uh-huh,” Zakk muttered as he bumped shoulders with Riley. “Pretty sure that wasn’t me stuffing a set of purple sheets and a pillowcase down the laundry shoot.”
“Wait, how the fuck do you mess up a pillowcase?” Tripp asked.
“If you’ve got to ask, you’re not having enough fun,” Riley replied.
“Exactly the issue I was trying to remedy when you barged in and broke shit up.”
Not that Riley cared about Tripp’s protests, he just laughed all the way out to the path where a light on the distant rim of the gorge directed them as to which way to go. The air was cool bordering on cold as it had been every night for the past week. The change of seasons was clearly here to stay, which meant it might be a good thing they would be headed back out on the highway.
“Took you long enough,” James remarked the moment he laid eyes on them.
“Don’t start old man, we wouldn’t have come out at all if you hadn’t sent the biggest pest this side of a plague of locusts down to the room to find us.”
“And now you know why it was him I sent. Now sit your asses down and enjoy this!”
Someone had left them space between both bands, which was fitting, considering they wouldn’t have come to know one another if it wasn’t for their fellow bandmembers. Dez passed him a mug from the platter in front of him, then a second one to give to Tripp.
“Damn, what the hell is this, it smells amazing,” Zakk declared before taking a sip. It was piping hot, spicy, citrusy, and smooth, like orange tea with some extras added in. He was glad that the first thought to enter his mind wasn’t about which liquor he could add to enhance it. He’d been heading down a slippery slope and not even seen it, something that scared him a little, now that he thought about his old man, and where it could take him if he didn’t keep shit under control.
Dez shrugged, his own mug clutched right beneath his nose, like he was using the smell as a type of aromatherapy. “Tang, iced tea mix and cloves or something.”
“Seriously?”