Chapter 25
(Rebel)
Days and nights on the road tended to blend together, even when we stayed in hotels instead of our bunks on the bus while it was parked in a campground.
My restlessness should have been off the charts by now, but when we’d popped into the hobby shop so Kit could pick up supplies, I’d gotten lost in the section of the store with jewelry-making supplies and found so many pendants I wanted to turn into necklaces that I’d raided the O-ring section, picking up the heaviest gauges I could find.
There were enough YouTube tutorials on chainmail construction that it was easy to find a handful that focused specifically on collars and necklaces.
After a great deal of trial, error, and mangled O-rings, I was finally getting the hang of piecing together the strands.
Having something to do with my hands kept me from dreaming up other ways to amuse myself and, surprise, surprise, helped me settle my thoughts enough that when I crashed at night, I slept hard for a solid seven hours.
Not waking up with the sun was a welcome change with the late nights we kept, and if I found myself not guzzling as much caffeine before I could function, then I’m sure my jittery nervous system thanked me for not sending it into overload.
Kit seated beside me, working on one of his seascape dioramas, was a huge help too.
Across from us, Dash was steadily scribbling away on his drawing tablet, working on the cover for our next album.
What he’d shown us this afternoon was fucking badass to the core, but he claimed it wasn’t close to being finished.
I loved that he’d based it off some of the pictures he’d taken on our trip through the mountains.
Taking a train tunnel and turning it into a gaping demon’s maw had been a brilliant twist, as had turning what had originally been a snow-capped mountain into an erupting volcano, complete with flames bursting from the top, the shadow shapes of winged beings appearing in the smoke.
He’d drawn the lava flow like a macabre face, adding yet another sinister element to it, but the most badass bit of all was that he’d drawn the train with our logo on the side, sparks shooting from the wheels as it raced towards the tunnel.
Wicked Hellride was the title we’d decided upon, which I personally loved, but then I was biased because I’d suggested it.
The whole vibe on the bus was just chill.
Ozzy was parked in a chair, reading a book, while Sully was up front with our driver.
The only one missing was Johnny, but he split his time between riding with us and riding with Draven, brainstorming new merchandising ideas while spending time with his Daddy.
Sleeping for four was all the bunk space our buses could handle, so him crashing over there worked out for us while Ozzy was still part of the tour.
It was going to be weird to have him gone.
For twenty years he’d been a part of my life.
Realistically, I knew he’d constantly be in touch, but not seeing him was going to take some getting used to.
As long as he didn’t mind me blowing up his phone in the middle of the night, I’d figure out how to manage, but I was gonna miss the hell out of him.
Three more rings attached. The deep purple ones interspaced with bright silver really resonated with me, though I still hadn’t decided on the pendant I wanted to attach.
The castle with a dragon wrapped around it was my top choice, but there was also a reaper that I’d fallen in love with, and its eyes were almost the same shade of purple as the O-rings.
Decisions, decisions.
I was so focused on connecting two rings together that the sudden bounce barely registered.
It was the bang and the resulting fishtail that caught my attention when I was thrown into Kit.
O-rings, shells, and sea glass slid across the table; Ozzy’s book fell from his hands as Dash cursed and jerked the stylus away from the tablet.
“Hang on back there!” Sully barked.
“Trying!” Dash called back as the bus spun before finally coming to a stop in the middle of the highway.
“Is everybody okay?” Sully called out as we all tried to get our bearings and retrieve the things that had scattered everywhere.
"I'll let you know after I check my shorts,” Kit muttered, managing to get a bit of a chuckle out of the rest of us.
Fortunately, this stretch of road was fairly empty and our driver was able to turn the bus around and limp it to the shoulder.
“What happened?” I asked as I brushed my hair from my eyes.
“We hit something in the road,” Sully said. “Pretty sure we’ve got a flat. Pat’s going to check it out; you four stay put. I’ll call Draven and see what he wants us to do.”
“Yeah, okay, thanks,” I said, blowing out a long breath to steady my shaking fingers.
“Are you okay?” Kit asked when I sent an O-ring skittering instead of grabbing it.
“Fine. Just had a sudden flashback to the last time I was in a spinning vehicle.”
“With Johnny?”
“Yup.”
“You guys were fine though, right?” he said. “I heard that you both walked away without a scratch.”
“We did. The metal gods were smiling on us that night. Just wish they’d done more for the other folks involved.”
“This isn’t that,” he said, running his hand up my back. “So breathe and let me get those, okay.”
“Thanks.”
He caressed my back for a while longer before collecting my errant O-rings.
By then, my breathing was back to normal, even if I couldn’t shake the memories of that night.
It was my fault Johnny had been behind the wheel in the first place.
It was my car, but I’d pounded so much booze that night that I’d shoved my keys at him and begged him to get me the fuck out of there before I did something stupid.
The something stupid on my list had been blond, about six-foot-five, and a walking advertisement for a good time.
Only that night, a drunken fuckfest had been the furthest thing from my mind, despite the way he’d been hanging all over me.
Now that I look back on it, that’s the first time I truly remember feeling like I wanted something more, something real with another person, instead of the endless stream of hookups.
“Feel better now?” Kit asked as he placed the last of the O-rings back in the container, closed the lid, and sat so close to me that you couldn’t have slid a piece of paper between us.
“Somewhat.”
Ozzy ruffled my hair, and when I gazed up at him, he passed me a cart.
“Let it go, brutha. What happened that night is on the idiot who used the highway like his personal speedway, not the people who got caught up in the chaos. You started turning over a new leaf the night you walked out of that party alone.”
His noticing helped ease the ache in my chest when I thought about that night. Sometimes it was hard to see anything besides the way it had ended, but Ozzy was right; I needed to move on and focus on being better than the guy I’d been back then.
“Okay, guys, here’s the deal,” Pat said when he stepped through to the back.
“We’ve got a rear tire blown; it’s an inside one, so we’ve still got one good tire left on that side and one of those big-ass highway rest stations six miles up the road.
They’ve got mechanics there and a shop that’s used to dealing with big rigs, so we should be okay.
You guys just sit tight, and I’m going to take it nice and slow.
As long as we don’t hit anything else, we should get there just fine. ”
“Thanks, Pat,” Ozzy said, plopping on the couch beside Dash.
“We might as well stock up on snacks when we get there,” Dash suggested. “And grab something for supper, since we probably won’t be able to stop until we get to Chicago.”
“We, um, might want to grab hoodies, baseball caps, and sunglasses,” I suggested, “just to blend in and all since the only guard we have is Sully. Maybe, um, lose the band t-shirt too, Dash, before someone realizes that you’re walking around with your face on your chest.”
“All good ideas,” Sully said from where he stood in the kitchenette portion of the bus. “I was just coming back here to suggest that and tell you to do your best to blend in for however long it takes them to change a tire.”
“Hopefully not long,” Dash said as he stood and headed to the back.
“From your lips to the goddess’s ears,” Sully said, eyeing me until I squirmed and hurried to tug on a hoodie and a pair of shades.
I tied my distinctive hair back too, swapped the sleep pants I had on for jeans, snagged my wallet, and attached the chain to one of the loops as we pulled into the rest stop.
“Want to help me pick out the chips and popcorn for movie night?” Kit asked as we headed for the door.
“Sure, maybe we can find nerd ropes too,” I said. “And Reese’s Pieces.”
“Just do me a favor.”
“What?”
“Don’t pour them in the popcorn this time.”
“What???” I grumbled as we stepped off the bus behind the garage and headed for the giant convenience store beside it. “Man, I love places like this.”
“Check it out, they’ve got a claw machine,” I said and immediately fished a dollar from my wallet and fed it into the machine.
There was a squirrel holding a nut that looked like the one from Ice Age that I absolutely had to have, but the claws slipped off instead of gripping when they closed around it. Fine. Another dollar, another try. This time I dislodged it some before the claws slipped free.
Getting closer.
This time the claws lifted the squirrel free of the pile, but the moment it swung, the damned squirrel slipped free and landed on top of the pile.
Grumbling, I fished out another dollar, shoved it in, and narrowed my eyes on my prize, determined to land it this time.
The way the squirrel was angled made it tricky, but I got the claws around it again, only to lift it and drop it in a worse position than the one before.
“Oh, come on!” I snarled, wishing I could just grab the machine and shake the fuckin’ squirrel out at this point.
“Want me to try?” Kit asked, dollar already out and in his hand.
I stepped aside, too frustrated to try again. “Have at it.”
I studied him while he studied the squirrel before slipping his dollar in the machine. I think we both held our breath when the claws closed around it, lifted it, and started carrying it towards the slot.
“Yes!” I yelled when it fell, unable to resist doing a victory dance in celebration as he fished it out and held it over his head in triumph.
“What are you going to name him?” Kit asked.
“Name him?”
"Yeah, man, you’ve got to name him,” Kit declared. “He can be the new bus mascot.”
“In that case, I dub him Nutzilla! Rawr!”
“And in his honor, I propose a Godzilla-themed movie night,” Kit suggested, just as Dash stepped behind us.
“Hell yeah. Let’s do a burrito tower for that one just so we can crush it,” Dash said, waving a burrito at me. “I’ll go back and get more. Their selection is sick!”
“We’re doomed,” I moaned as I watched him hurry back to the frozen food section, snagging a basket along the way.
We’d probably need a couple too, so I snagged them and headed with Kit to pursue an impressive collection of chips and flavored popcorn.
“Cheddar, white cheddar, jalapeno cheddar, spicy jalapeno ranch,” I muttered as I stood each one in the basket so more would fit. “Ohhh, caramel corn, gotta grab that for the sweetness factor.”
“Wait, you plan to mix all of those?”
“Yup.”
“Yup, we are doomed,” Kit groaned, and he wasn’t wrong.
Once gaseous warfare commenced, we were likely to send the bus into orbit.
Every now and again I’d catch a glimmer of Sully out of the corner of my eye, moving through the store, going from band member to band member, keeping an eye on us while occasionally adding something to the basket he carried.
I snagged a classic car magazine from the rack, spied a Guitar World, and grabbed it too, along with the latest edition of Metal Manics.
It was always interesting to read about what other bands were up to, and it was always an added bonus to find an article about our band to add to the collection we kept in a scrapbook.
We’d need to pick up another one soon. The one we’d kickstarted the tour with was filling up fast. We returned to the garage toting a boatload of bulging bags and a box the clerk had found for all the snacks we’d picked up to restock our cupboard, all without being recognized.
Guess the metal gods had decided to smile on us after delaying our trip.
It wasn’t until Kit leaned over and whispered in my ear that I realized I’d forgotten something when I got off the bus. “Steel’s been texting you. Wanted to make sure everything was alright.”
“Shit, I left my phone on the bus,” I muttered. “Did you tell him we’re fine?"
“Yup,” he replied, giggling when he received a message back and turned it so I could read what Steel had written in response to Kit telling him about my phone.
Unacceptable.
“Oops.”
“Uh-huh, I’m typing that too,” Kit replied, fingers moving over the keyboard on his screen, turning it back to face me when he received an answer.
Big oops.
I took the phone and typed, sorry, I wasn’t thinking about it when we changed clothes. I knew you were on bus duty, so I didn’t expect to hear from you.
I can appreciate that. Just wanted to check in after hearing about the tire.
It was a little freaky when it blew, but Pat got us out of the road, and the tire is being replaced, so it’s all good.
I get off at nine. You guys should be at the hotel by then. Would it be okay if I came up?
Hell yeah. Would it be possible for you to bring a deep-dish pizza with you? From a local place? Not one of those chains?
I’ll find something.
We owe you, man.
You best believe I’ll collect.
Laughing, I turned the phone back toward Kit so he could read the conversation, since we’d been sharing a room for weeks now.
“You put us on the line for a deep-dish pizza?” Kit asked, cocking his head at me. “You know that’s going to cost us.”
“Yup.”
“That’s one bill I’m going to enjoy paying, isn’t it?” he asked, our eyes meeting over the phone, wicked promises in them as we thought about the night ahead.
“You know it!”