We stepped into the tour bus. The guys' large faces imprinted on the side were to the left of me, welcoming me inside.
The bus driver gave me a smile as I anxiously stepped inside. I couldn't believe it.
Me.
Me?
I was stepping into the Jokers' bus!
"I'm calling top bunk!" Murr yelled, lifting himself up by the edge of each bed. The corridor was so thin that you couldn't barely even pass it.
"I'll take the bottom," Sal said, crawling in to fit his bag in there. "Olivia?" He looked up at me. "Do you want the couch?"
I nod.
After Q decides to sleep on the top of the second bunk- Joe on the bottom- we sit around the small tv.
"Right," Joe says, a controller in his hand, "last year we set this up with all the right games and settings." He plugged in the wii and a driving game popped up on the screen.
"I could beat everyone at this," Sal gloats, cracking his knuckles.
Q chuckles from behind me, frightening me.
That was all I can remember from that night, the pitch black sky was the same colour 2 hours ago. The time had suddenly not become an issue. We were drinking our hearts out.
First it was Q, a complementary drink for his winnings, then he took another swig and passed it to me. I took one sip. One.
Then it went downhill.
Q won again. Sip. Q passed it to me. Sip.
The Sal joined in, he won his race against me. He took a sip.
Soon the sips turned into gulps. We had finished a whole bottle of whatever we were drinking. Then a second bottle.
Q toppled to the mini fridge close to the driver, stared intently, the slurred: "We're out."
"Out?" I squeaked.
"We're out of beer." Q replied, walking back to us and falling onto the sofa.
"Dude, I gotta get to sleep," Sal moaned, watching Murr and Joe who had set off to bed half an hour ago.
"No, dude. Wait."
That's all I can remember from that night.
Maybe we drank 2 bottles, maybe we drank 5. Maybe we went to bed, or maybe we barely managed to get into the bed.
But, sure enough, at 8:12 in the morning, I woke up in Q's bed, Sal was in his bed, opposite me, and Q was asleep half on the sofa by the TV. (Which was still turned on.)
"Oh my god," I whined, trying to recap last night. "Sal."
I flicked him. Strangely, he was still fast asleep.
Holding my head, I fell back onto the pillow. At least I hadn't done something I'd regret last night.
Right?
"Sal." I almost yelled.
"Yeah?"
"What happened last night?"
"Uh, we didn't go to sleep I know that much."
I got up and clambered to Q, waking him up simultaneously.
He groaned unconsciously, then stretched and woke up.
"Oh god," he said, "how drunk... was I?"
"I can't remember," I admitted, stumbling precariously from the moving bus.
Sal came over; still in his clothes from last night. So was I. I had a small beer stain on my top. What had I been doing?
So now me, Sal and Q were perched on the leather sofa- watching the blurry view pass by- wondering what we had gotten up to.
"I'm getting a drink," Sal announced, beginning to blend up fruit and some orange juice.
Then, surprisingly, Joe hopped in. Jolly. "Hey," he drawled, doing an impression of our drunken selves.
"We get it," Q put his hands up in defeat.
"You guys were too funny."
We stopped.
"Wait, do you know what happened?" I asked him, with 3 glaring eyes pointing Joe's way.
"Yeah, I saw everything," he rolled his eyes, "couldn't get to sleep until you guys passed out."
"Passed out?" I repeat, "no way."
"Yeah, I got some on video." Joe said, pulling out his phone.
The 3 of us shared anxious glances.
The first video came up.
At first, it showed Joe trying to talk to the camera, but there were people yelling in the background. Us. Joe was trying to say, 'I can't believe this'.
Then, the camera swivels round to show 3 figures dancing and yelling. Q was holding an empty beer bottle and jumping up and down to the music we had to turn down. I was having a fight with Sal whilst also trying to dance. One pirouette. Punch. One super cool dance move. Block Sal's punch.
The second video was one that Joe had uploaded to Twitter. It showed Q giving me a piggy back ride, and spinning around really fast. Sal was trying to get more alcohol out of the bottle but I remember now that I had already tried to get some more.
"Oh god," I laughed, but it wasn't as bad as I had initially thought.
"You think that's bad? I have a pretty bad one here... but I'll keep that one hidden until I need to blackmail one of you two."
He didn't look at any of us.
You two? Which two? There was like a 1/3 chance that I was in this video.
I just needed to find out what it was.
But first:
Breakfast.
——
Season 7 our today! Hope you enjoy