The Opportunity of a Lifetime

Chapter 26 (Patrick's POV)

Pete has really been clinging to me since my birthday party, and I'm trying to figure out why.

I hope he doesn't pity me because I couldn't handle that girl.

I hope he isn't guilty because of the girl.

It wasn't his fault she went farther than what she was supposed to. He didn't ask it.

I also didn't ask for him to practically be glued to my side ever since, either.

Anyway, we've done several shows since the party, and I've never seen Allie or her psycho friend since. The paranoia that I hadn't realized had creeped into my body started to dissipate, and I was able to fully enjoy the shows like I used to.

Today we don't have any shows, so all of us are lazily sprawled in random places on the bus, doing even more random things.

"We need something to do," Joe states the obvious, throwing his bracelet into the air and attempting to catch it, mostly missing and watching it go flying across the room.

"Yeah, seriously, I'm about to go insane watching your sad attempts at anything slightly athletic," Andy retorts to Joe, getting up and retrieving his bracelet for him, chucking it in his face.

"We could go paintballing at the place here in town," Pete suggests, practically burrowing his body into my side. He's been acting really strange lately. I give him a sideways glance, but he doesn't act like this is in any way weird.

"Dude, that would be so fun!" my girlfriend exclaims, resting her head on my shoulder, and I inhale the scent of her hair, sighing contentedly.

"Well, what are we waiting for, then, asshats? Let's gooooooo!" Cheryl literally leaps over Hailey, Pete and I, slamming into the bus doors because the driver didn't open them in time.

Pete jumps up from his burrow, sprinting over to Cheryl.

"Are you okay?" He reaches down, and she grabs his hand, jumping back up as if she didn't just smack her head into a glass door.

"Yeah, I'm awesome, why so worried? Worrying won't get us anywhere near paintball."

And with that, she skips off the bus. Everyone looks around, confused, because Cheryl never acts like that.

Hailey chuckles. "She really likes paintball."

"Well, after the jackrabbit, I guess," I chime in. Then Andy just starts laughing.

"What?" I ask.

"Does this jackrabbit happen to be blue?"

"Oh, come on," I groan. Will they ever let that stupid song go?

---------------------------

Standing here with this stupid armor crap does absolutely nothing for my butt. Well, nothing does, but... I just hate wearing this, okay?

I sigh, waiting for the worker to come and help the rest of them put their armor on. It was going to be me, Pete, and Hailey against Joe, Andy, and Cheryl, but Panic! At The Disco decided to tag along and play against us. The fucker with the big forehead is going down... in an earlier round.

After five more minutes of waiting, who I'm assuming is the worker walks in, but I can't see their face yet.

"Okay," they clap their hands, "I will be assisting you today. You know the drill..."

As the worker goes on about how you're not supposed to shoot at someone's face, no matter how immensely pissed or competitive you are, and to not kill anybody, because that would look bad on the paintball place, blah blah blah, I had begun to pick up that the person talking was female.