Chapter 37
TRAVIS
My muscles tense as the bus stops next to us. Ellie doesn’t say anything, and when the doors open, she tosses my bag of possessions at me and steps on. I sigh heavily, preparing myself for the absolute hell that’s about to ensue, and follow her.
My feet aren’t even fully inside before all the yelling starts. Of course, it’s from Calvin and Tanner. They put Liam in charge of driving, which shows just how much they wanted to bitch at me.
We’re all going to die.
Liam can’t drive when he’s anxious. He’ll put us right through a tree.
My eyes go to Penn, he’s sitting at the kitchen table, arm draped across the back of the booth, staring at me with his usual stoic gaze. Guilt gnaws at me. He’s the one person I hate disappointing, even more than my parents. They’re easy to disappoint. He’s not; he has my back always.
“This is a nightmare. I hope you’re happy,” Calvin barks as I make my way through the bus. I intend to go straight to my bunk and tell them all to fuck off for the next six to eight hours.
“Where the hell are you going? Deal with this shit, Travis,” Tanner bites out, right on my ass.
When I spin around, he’s in my face. “Leave me alone,” I seethe.
He presses closer, our noses nearly touching. “Quit being a bitch and tell us what the fuck happened. You hung us out to dry tonight. You don’t get to play the victim.”
I shove him back, and he stumbles into the table.
Penn jumps up. “Ok, everyone chill.”
Tanner straightens himself, his glare leaving me for Penn. “No, you don’t get to take his side right now.”
I smirk. “Jealous?”
“Travis,” Penn growls.
Tanner scoffs. “You’re a dick. Grow up and take some responsibility for once. They threw a fucking shoe at Liam!”
My eyes flick to the back of Liam’s head as he tries to drive the bus. He seems fine. “I didn’t do anything! I had to piss!”
Tanner laughs, getting in my space again, and my fists clench. “That’s rich. It’s never your fault, is it?”
“Fuck off.” I turn to head for my bed, but Tanner grips my shoulder. I shake him off and shove him again, but this time he grabs hold of my shirt and yanks me into him.
All hell breaks loose.
“Get the fuck off me!” I swing, landing a punch to his jaw.
He staggers, but comes right back for more, hitting me square in the mouth. My tongue flicks out, tasting the blood already pooling there.
Penn jumps in, trying to tear us apart while Calvin yells some stupid shit from the sidelines. The bus swerves, sending us all flying sideways.
I fucking knew it. Liam is going to kill us.
“Guys, stop!” Ellie cries, and in the commotion, I’m vaguely aware of her trying to get in the mix.
“Travis, stop,” Penn huffs, attempting to wrangle me, but I’m fucking pissed, and Tanner seems like a good way to unleash some of this shit that’s been sitting on my chest for a while. Besides, he started it. Kind of.
“You’re always on my ass! Back off.” I thrust my fist into Tanner’s gut. He bows forward, grunting. Then he straightens, landing a blow to my stomach before slapping me across the face.
My head rears back, and I freeze, my hand coming to my burning cheek. “Did you just…slap me?”
Calvin has a hand on Tanner’s arm, trying to rein him in, but he’s useless as always. Tanner could flick him with his pinky and send him to another universe.
“Damn right, I did. You’re acting like a little bitch.”
I wipe my busted lip with my arm and pop him across the face. A searing pain shoots across my palm. Goddammit, that hurt worse than throwing a punch.
“Stop!” Ellie shrieks again. I glance up and see her trying to wedge herself between us when Calvin reaches out and grabs her. It’s possible he was trying to keep her from getting hurt, but I don’t like the way he yanks on her. I immediately see red.
Fighting with Tanner is one thing. Tension builds between your buddies in close quarters like this, and it’s not unusual for him and me to fight. Hell, we do it on the daily. Maybe not a fistfight, but this isn’t the first time either.
“Keep your fucking hands off her!” I roar, shoving Tanner aside so I can push Calvin off Ellie. The image of me tearing his head off and punting it like a goddamn football runs through my head, but the sound of her little shriek drags me back.
Calvin still has a hold on her, and they both go sideways. I reach for her, but then the bus comes to a screeching halt. Everyone lurches forward, tumbling to the floor.
Limbs go flying, and I throw my hands out, trying to catch myself before crushing Ellie.
“Motherfucker!” Tanner barks, having been slammed into the kitchen table, leaving a gash down the middle.
“I’m sick of the fighting!”
All heads snap up.
Liam is standing in front of us, arms crossed over his chest, breathing heavily for someone who has done absolutely nothing but drive the last ten minutes. “This bus isn’t moving another inch until everyone calms down.”
No one says anything. We’re all equally in shock. We must have really pissed him off. He’s normally the chill one of the group, and I’ve only seen him mad once since I’ve known him.
I groan, pushing to my feet. This night can’t get any worse. First jail, then getting a black eye from Mr. Pissy Leg throwing me up against the wall the way he did.
“You ok?” I ask, reaching a hand to Ellie, but she slaps it away and pulls herself up. The fuck? I was trying to help!
“Everyone, sit down,” Liam demands calmly.
Penn and Tanner sit at the busted table. Calvin takes the small chair in the corner, and Ellie drops down on the couch, moving to the far end when I sit beside her.
“Thank you,” Liam says.
We sit quietly waiting for Dad to punish us, but he stands there awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck like he didn’t think this through.
“I think—” Calvin starts, but fuck if I want to hear a goddamn word from him right now.
“You shut up,” I snap. “Stay out of this.”
He looks at me with wild, bulging eyes. “What did I do?”
I bare my teeth, wanting to tell everyone exactly what he did, but I’d be outing myself. When his expression turns smug, I know he knows it too.
I open my mouth to tell him to piss off, but Penn beats me to it.
“Shut up!” Penn roars. “We’re dealing with this now so we can get back on the road.”
Everyone stares at me, waiting for me to speak up, but I don’t feel like it.
Penn sighs, rubbing his temples. “What happened tonight?”
My tongue ring runs across the roof of my mouth as I wonder what’s the best way to spin this so I’m not the one at fault.
All I was trying to do was piss. “I went to use the bathroom, and the line was crazy long. I knew I didn’t have time to wait, so I went outside to piss in the alley.
” At least, I thought I was in the alley.
Turns out I stumbled a little farther away from the building and was nearly in the street, pissing on the dumpster of the pizza shop next to the bar.
It just so happened to be at the same time two cops were strolling by, and from the way that random chick was hanging off me, it looked like we were doing some freaky shit.
My eyes slide sideways to Ellie, wondering if that’s the pictures she was talking about online.
I hadn’t thought about it before, but that must be why she’s so mad.
More guilt presses down on my chest. Fuck, I cannot get it right when it comes to her. Shit, when it comes to anything.
“And?” Tanner urges.
“I was peeing and two cops walked by.” I shrug.
He scoffs. “We’ve seen the charges online, Travis. That’s not all it was.”
Shit.
“Public intoxication, indecent expos—”
I cut him off. “I know the charges.”
“You urinated on a police officer.” He stares at me, and I try not to laugh. It’s not funny, but damn, I probably ruined that cop’s night.
“That was an accident.”
“Jesus,” he sighs. “That’s not even the worst part, is it?”
I grind my teeth, flicking my eyes to Penn. I know what’s next, but the minute my eyes catch his, I see the shift. His brows furrow into confusion, and I realize he didn’t read the charges. He was probably waiting for me to explain myself. Fuck.
“Possession of a controlled substance without a prescription.”
Penn’s eyes close, his chest rising with a heavy breath, and my stomach knots.
“Real cliché, Travis,” Tanner quips. “What was it?”
“It wasn’t like that,” I grit. “It was just some Adderall someone from the bar gave me. I wasn’t going to take it.”
“Sure.” Tanner laughs sarcastically.
Penn’s eyes shoot to mine, searing into my goddamn soul, trying to tell if I’m lying. I stare back, doing my best not to give anything away.
“Alright, let’s move on for a moment,” Calvin chimes in. He’s probably sweating over there, waiting for me to give him up. “You’re going to need a lawyer for the assault charge. I’ll reach out to some of my connections. What was your bail, and how did you pay it?”
“Uh.” I hadn’t thought about that. I was booked and released fairly quickly, considering, and Mr. Pissy Leg wasn’t happy about it either.
But one cop had a teenage daughter who is a huge fan.
I signed some stuff for him, promised him VIP tickets to any show he wanted, and he was cool with letting me out.
“His bail was two thousand, and I paid it. His court date is in two weeks, so we’ll need to make sure he can be here,” Ellie says.
My spine goes stiff. “You paid?”
“Well, it’s not like I had a choice.”
“Use the business card! Not your personal account,” I yell. She’s never once flaunted her money around, but I know she has it. Her parents own their respective practices—Dental and Law—and her car is probably worth more than my house.
“That is not a business expense,” Calvin notes.
“Shut up.”
“You’re welcome, Travis.” She hisses my name with venom I’ve never heard from her before.
“I didn’t ask you to do that.”
“Travis, damn,” Penn huffs. “Stop being a dick.”
“I’ll go to the bank and pay you back tomorrow,” I tell her, standing up. Although we both know I don’t have that kind of money right now. Christ, I’ll have to ask my parents. Just another fucking thing for them to hate about me.
“Fine.” She shrugs, staring at her nails.
I head for my bed. I’m done with this shit.
“This isn’t over,” Tanner calls. “You’re on notice.”
My feet halt. “Notice?”
“Yeah, we said no drugs. Don’t fuck up again.”
“Or what?” I challenge. “I started this band, you can’t kick me out!”
“We started this band,” Penn interjects.
I frown. Why’s he taking Tanner’s side all of a sudden? “Who else is going to sing for you, huh?”
“Just don’t mess up again,” Tanner says, turning and making his way to the driver’s seat.