Vegas

Stranded

Being a light sleeper really sucked sometimes. Scott was reminded of this when he was awoken from his peaceful slumber in the early hours of the morning due to the commotion coming from the front of the tour bus and the toxic smell filling his nose. He checked his phone which illuminated his tired face and showed that it was 4:15 am. Stepping out of the top bunk as quietly as possible without waking up his fellow band members, his curious mind led him to find out what was going on. There outside he was met with Esther, the bus driver and a thick, black fog coming out of the tour bus' engine.

"Scott, I'm glad you're up," Esther sighed when she finally noticed the blonde, black marks covering her sweaty face. "Can you wake the rest of the guys up for me? We have a slight dilemma and I'd like you to all be here while I explain it." Normally Scott would argue with this, due to the fact that all five members were definitely not morning people. However, he could see the exhaustion on their tour manager's face and nodded swiftly before clambering back onto the bus. He was thinking of a quick and effective way to wake up his friends when he noticed the empty pan and metal spoon lying next to him on the counter. Should he? They'd all probably kill him but he didn't feel like waking them all individually and gently.

"Wake up, sleepyheads!" Scott screeched, slamming metal onto metal which caused a loud, irritating bang to echo throughout the bus and the members' ears. 

"The fuck, Hoying?" A growl could be heard from inside Mitch's bunk, being slightly muffled from the black curtain covering it. "It should be illegal to wake up this early."

"Mama Esther wants us outside right now, there seems to be a problem," Scott explained with the little information he had been given. Moans and murmurs were shared around the room until finally the three of them left their warm bunks. "Where's Kevin?" Scott asked when he realised the beatboxer was the only one missing. 

"Still sleeping," Avi mumbled, stretching his arms above his head so his shirt lifted slightly, revealing his flat, hairy stomach. Scott rolled his eyes to the back of his head and roughly pulled back Kevin's curtain.

"Kevin!" Scott yelled in his ear - still nothing. A zombie apocalypse could be going on and the man would still be sleeping through it. This time he banged the spoon onto the pan directly next to Kevin which finally made him jolt up and hit his poor head on the ceiling. "Meeting outside with Esther right now, apparently it's important," Scott stated, not even giving Kevin a chance to become aware of his surroundings. Slowly and sleepily, Kevin climbed out of his bunk and followed the four of them outside.

Everyone - except of Scott, of course - was in shock to see the toxic, black smoke erupting rapidly from the tour bus. "Esther?" Mitch asked frantically to the mom of the group, his head nodding towards the bus.

"Yeah... we have a small problem," Esther croaked; the smoke was clearly affecting her lungs and voice.

"Really? Because it doesn't look small!" Kirstie burst out, making wild gestures with her arms.

"Hey, don't talk to my sister like that, Maldonado," Avi spat, glaring daggers at the small, Hispanic woman. "She's not the reason for our problems."

"Nobody asked you, Kaplan," Kirstie retaliated, looking like she was ready to pounce at any given moment.

"Here's an idea. Why don't the both of you shut the fuck up so we can listen to what Esther has to say?" Mitch exclaimed, startling everyone standing there and causing a deadly silence. 

Yup, definitely not morning people.

"Thanks, Mitchy," Esther smiled sweetly at him before scowling at her brother and best friend. "Now, to make a long story short, basically the tour bus broke down as you can probably tell by the black smoke. I've tried calling for a new bus but it doesn't look like we'll be able to get one anytime soon so we're going to have to cancel our shows in Salt Lake City and Phoenix."

"That really sucks," Kevin responded miserably. They all hated cancelling shows; it felt like they were letting down the fans which was the worst feeling in the world. 

"I know it sucks but there's nothing we can do about it, and at least it was our last two shows of the tour. So until I figure out how to get a new bus and how to get us back home, I've booked us in at the Bellagio Hotel. I've called someone to pick you guys up within the next few minutes while I sort out this big mess," Esther exhaled, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

The band all looked at each other to see what each member's opinion was before shrugging and nodding at Esther. There wasn't much they could say or do. "Wait, where are we?" Scott asked. They began their journey to Utah in Portland, Oregon; they could've been anywhere by now.

"Scott, we're in Vegas."

Pretty boring chapter but I'm very very excited for this book, you guys ain't ready :D I was planning to publish this after Coffee Love but I truly couldn't wait. Also, I promise Coffee Love will be updated very very soon, sorry for the delay there 🙈