Luther ran up to the front of the bus as we drove to our next destination and the music went dead for a second before the song “Time to Pretend” by MGMT came on. Luther came back to the back of the bus and smiled widely at us, “I love MGMT.” I laughed, “They seem very you.” He nodded, “Right?” I smiled as he settled down into the couch and sang along with the lyrics that he knew. The rest of us joined in, messing up pretty much every line, and as the line “we’re fated to pretend” came, I laughed at the complete irony of this song, and how much it related to my life. Well, roughly. I was lucky enough not to be placed in a band of druggies. In fact, none of the guys even drank alcohol, but all for different reasons. Luther because- and this reason was so Luther- he thought it tasted gross, Kevin because of moral objections, and Joel because he resented it because his dad used to be an alcoholic. Joel leaned his head against the back of the arm chair and said, “I can’t wait for the warm weather. Washington rain is not my thing.” I laughed, “Anywhere rain is not your thing.” Joel reached out a finger and pointed at me, “Exactly. Which is why I am excited for California.” Kevin took a swig of one of Luther’s Pepsis and sighed, leaning his head on the back of the couch where he sat next to me and staring up at the ceiling of the bus, “I’m just glad to be back on the bus.” I rose an eyebrow, “You’re glad to be back on the bus?” He grinned and nodded, “At least on the bus we can lay on our beds without fans pounding on the door. Luther rolled his eyes, “Aw, come on. We’ve got good guards, only a few fans even made it up to our floor.” Kevin shook his head, “Yea, but it’s nice to be on the bus, where we don’t need guards to protect us.” Joel laughed and shook his head, walking over to the mini fridge and pulling out his own Pepsi and a pack of his Sour Patch Kids. All the eating and drinking made me hungry, so I crossed over to the fridge, pulled out one of the mini cartons of Haagen Daaz, and took my spoon out of my back pocket. I sat next to Kevin again and offered the carton to him. He stuck his finger in, like Jeanette, and took out a huge glob of the ice cream, sticking it in his mouth and taking another swig of his Pepsi. “It’s like a root beer float,” he said with a grin. Luther laughed, “A Pepsi float.”
Our first stop after Seattle was Fresno, California, and then we heading down to LA. “I wanna make a stop in the Sierra mountains. My grandparents have a cain up there, it’s really nice,” Kevin said as he bit down into one of his Subways. Joel rose an eyebrow, “A stop. The Sierras are at least an hour from Fresno.” Kevin shrugged, “So? We’re making good time. If we stop at the Sierras for an hour, we’ll have an hour and a half to get to Fresno and make the show.” Joel rolled his eyes, “Those two and a half hours aren’t us making good time, they’re us being sent off early enough that we’d have that time to settle in before the show and get ready.” Luther smiled, “So you’re saying you don’t think we can do it, Joel?” He pronounced Joel “jole” as he challenged Joel with his sloppy lopsided grin. I smiled and Kevin and I looked over at Joel to see his reaction. Joel narrowed his eyes and said, “Fine. We’ll do it. But we’re only staying forty five minutes in the Sierras.” Luther smiled, “Chicken.”
“Shut up.”
“I wanna swim,” Luther said, pouting. Joel rolled his eyes, “Of course you do, Luther. But we only have forty five minutes up here. So go right ahead, if you wanna perform wet.” Luther’s eyes lit up, “That might be cool.” Kevin rolled his head back, “Luther. We can dry off in the bus. You won’t have to perform wet.” Luther smiled, “Aw, but I kind of want to perform wet. Maybe we all should!” Joel groaned and Kevin laughed. “Come on, Joel,” Kevin said with a wide grin, “I dare you.” Joel narrowed his eyes at Kevin, now, and just like that, he took his shirt off and waded far enough into the water that he could dive in, jeans and all. Kevin laughed and copied him, though he was wearing swim trunks anyway, and Luther went in last, rolling up his own jeans. They swam and laughed and splashed for a while before they noticed me sitting on the shore, my arms crossed over my chest, grinning but not getting anywhere near the water. “Hey!” Luther yelled, “Aw, come on, Jackson! It’ll ruin the whole thing if everyone but the lead singer are wet!” I laughed but didn’t move. “Come on, Aepatt!” Kevin called. I shook my head. Joel dove back under the water and then came up again, slicking his hair back over his head. He tilted his head at me, his eyes narrowed and his lips grinning mischievously, “Scared?” My eyes widened and then narrowed and I unlocked my arms. I looked down at the pile of shirts, stared at them for a moment, and then looked back at the guys and grinned, slipping out of my shoes but leaving my shirt on as I ran, screaming, into the water.
© 2010
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