Epidemic

*2*

"Fuck!"

I jumped awake as my alarm screamed in my ear. I scrambled for my phone and once I found it, stabbed desperately at the screen with my thumb until the alarm stopped. I sighed and smashed my face back into the pillow, not liking that I had to be up so goddamned early. We were finishing the drive into Twin Bridges, Montana today and I was first up to drive. Why did I have to be so nice? At least the drive wasn't long and we would jump right into interviews and be scoping out the location as soon as we got there.

After about five minutes of wishing for more blissful sleep, I sat up and stretched, looking around the room. It was clean of the night before. Everything from dinner had been removed and the boys had put all of the furniture back where it belonged. Whenever we stayed in a hotel, we would all congregate in one of our rooms to talk and hang out and to work and talk about locations and investigations. I didn't know about this ritual until one night someone knocked on my door and all of them just kind of filed in one by one and just set up camp.

I smiled at the thought and got out of bed, making my way to the bathroom to take a quick shower. I stripped off my pajamas and turned on the warm water, stretching my body some more while I waited for it to get warm.

Once it was at the desired temperature, I stepped in and let it cascade over me; waking up my nerves and muscles. I washed my body and hair fairly quickly and got back out of the shower almost as soon as I had gotten in.

As I was pulling my hair up into a ponytail after quickly blow drying it, I could hear my phone sounding with another alarm; my, "you're late you dumbass!" tone sounding. I scrambled to dry off and ran out to throw my clothes on; shoved my pajamas in my suitcase, put my laptop in its' case, and grabbed my phone before rushing out the door.

In the elevator, I threw on my hoodie and kept my hood up, not wanting my partially damp hair to make my head cold in the brisk morning air. I fixed myself up a little, my clothes being slightly messy on my thin frame from where I literally threw them on myself. I rubbed my face and patted my cheeks a little to wake myself up more when I reached the lobby. When I stepped out, I saw Billy standing next to the front doors with two coffee cups, one with my name scrawled on it.

"Thanks, Billy, sorry I'm a little behind," I said grabbing the coffee from him.

Billy shrugged and smiled at me, grabbing my suitcase and heading out the door, "No big deal, the other three were running a little behind too. We just finished packing up the van, so all we have to do is throw your bag in and we can leave. Oh, I'm driving, by the way, decided I had the energy this morning."

I grinned at him and held my laptop up, "Awesome, gives me more time to write!"

He couldn't help but chuckle at me as I skipped over to the van; peeking in the side door to scan over where everyone was sitting. Jay had claimed the back and Zak and Aaron were in the middle, leaving me with the passenger's seat. I thanked them and got comfy in the front; Billy finally getting in the driver's seat and bringing the engine to life.

I crossed my legs in the seat and placed my laptop in my lap, plugging up my headphones and starting up my music. I pulled up my story and went to where I had started the other day before I zoned out and wrote seven thousand words. Surprisingly enough, I hadn't made too many mistakes and my plotline stayed on point. Usually, when I wrote, I didn't write nearly as much as I had lately. I tended to have trouble staying on plot and would make a ton of mistakes. Maybe being so zoned out was a good thing; I just let it all flow instead of trying too hard.

I edited, added, and deleted and bobbed my head to the music playing through my headphones, practically oblivious to everything around me. The hum of the car and the caffeine flowing through me was making my brain turn and suddenly, my fingers were typing effortlessly again.