Alice

Casey

I'm immediately met with Chris hugging me tightly and picking me up off of the ground a little bit. I don't think he even realizes that he picked me up.

"Holy shit kid, I'm glad you're okay." He says. He puts me down on the ground again. Ricky Armellino and Joe aren't far behind him, both wrapping their arms around me.

Noah walks over to me and silently pulls me into a hug. He hugs me the tightest out of anyone. When he lets me go he looks at me and says "Scared the shit outta me." Somehow, out of everyone, his felt the most personal, the most genuinely relieved to see me.

I see someone running over out of the corner of my eye and realize it's Vinny, running full speed from the motionless bus.

"Mikey holy fuck you're okay!" He says, wrapping his arms around me and almost knocking me over from the momentum.

"careful vinn Jesus, don't want to put him back in the hospital."  Ricky(o) jokes. Vinny lets me go.

"no one would tell me what happened,  or if you were okay. I mean you don't have to tell me just, I'm glad you're okay." Vinny says.

"honestly there are other people who could tell the story better than I could." I laugh. No one else laughs.

"Well, now that you're back we have a 12-hour drive, that's fun!" Chris jokes.

"oh super fun!" I laugh.

"Well, we should probably get rolling soon so we can get lunch and road snacks." Spencer says.

Everyone nods and starts going back to their buses. I follow Spencer, Ricky, and Joe back to our bus.

It's silent for the first 15 minutes of the ride. We stop at a gas station to refuel and get road snacks.

"you want to come in with me?" Spencer asks.

"Sure," I say, standing up. I grab an oversized zip-up hoodie and throw it on so the outer layer of blue self-adhesive tape isn't visible.

"I'm coming too," Patrick says, getting up and following us quickly. The three of us walk into the gas station and I realize that this is the first recently sized gas station I've walked into without a mask. All I have to conceal myself is sunglasses.

Spencer goes one way, me and Patrick go the other to search for what we want. Patrick and I b-line for the energy drinks. We grab our snacks and try to find Spencer.

We do eventually find him with 2 boxes of Little Debbie snacks, more coffee grounds, and some extra coffee filters. "hey there you are! You ready to go?" He asks. I nod.

We pay for our things and head back to the tour bus. "Didn't think you were a swiss rolls kinda guy" Ricky(a) jokes.

"well we have a guest, so they aren't for me." Spencer says.

"Who's coming over?" I ask.

"August wanted to stay over here, it's okay with Andy, and it's okay with me." Spencer says.

"is she the tall one?" Joe asks.

"yeah. Tall, long hair, dresses really cool, always in heels even though she's like 6ft normally." I say  

"Mikey's girlfriend?" Ricky asks, completely seriously.

Spencer laughs, I turn bright red and bury my face in my hands. "close enough, honestly" Patrick says, also laughing. There's a knock at the door and Spencer answers it.

"speak of the devil!" he says. 

"you guys were talking about me?" August asks, stepping onto the bus and closing the door behind her.

"Ricky called you Mikey's--" Joe starts, laughing.

"shush!" I say, hiding my face in my hands. I can already tell I'm bright red.

"hey Spencer, Olson wants you to check your texts." Ricky says.

"do you guys have some sort of Ricky group chat or something?" Spencer asks.

"Actually yes," Ricky says.

"whatever" Spencer laughs, looking at his phone. "ah Mikey, this is a you, me, Patrick conversation." He says, "You can come too if you want" he says to August.

"ill stay in here unless Mikey wants me out there." She says, look at me. I shrugged and follow Spencer outside.

"It's about the docs Ricky is working on for you. He needs a fake deadname." Spencer says.

"Knowing you it would be Pamela or Annabelle or something." Patrick says. I laugh a little.

"I mean the case could be made that Michael is Michael Myers" I joke. Spencer and Patrick both laugh.

"Casey?" Spencer suggests. "or Carrie."

"Carrie is good" I say. i recognize it from a movie.

"That's too obviously horror, even for you Spencer. I vote Casey." Patrick says.

"Well, it's just a birth certificate, so I don't know if it's too important."  I say.

"well hold on, this is the first name given to my son, it has to count a little bit." Spencer says. I smile a bit.

"I think Casey." He says, decidedly.

"Does that mean Alice is officially dead?" I ask.

"murdered, 6ft under." Spencer says. I laugh, Patrick just looks at us and laughs a bit.

"I'm starting to think you two are actually related." Patrick says.

"Oh, before I forget, here is that phone that I promised. Try not to let any psycho family members break this one." Spencer jokes.

"so wait, if I get a birth certificate, who's the other person on it?" I ask.

"great question. We'll have another little get-together when we get to the next venue." Spencer says.

"for now we gotta hit the road." Patrick says.

Me, Patrick, and Spencer all get back on the bus. "everything okay?" August asks. 

"yeah, just paperwork stuff that needed to be sorted out." I say, smiling a bit. August looks confused for a moment. I see it click in her head and she smiles at me.

"oh yikes, am I allowed to ask what kind of paperwork?" Ricky(a) asks. Spencer looks over at me.

"bio-dad is being a bitch and saying Spencer kidnapped me. He's fucking insane." I say. August laughs a bit and Spencer just nods.

"fucking delusional." Spencer says. I laugh a bit but hold it back enough so it doesn't seem suspicious.

"so, are there any road plans? Because I brought a few games." August says, sitting on the floor in front of the couch and pulling out a few game boxes.

"Exploding kittens?" Joe says, picking up one of the boxes.

"that one is so much fun!" August says. "we should play that one!"

As the drive starts, we all sit down and play a silly game about cat bombs, burrito cats, watermelon cats, and potato cats. It's fun.

I like having August over. maybe it's because she's the only person my age that I know now. either way, she's fun to be around.