LA to The Bay

Chapter 30: Las Vegas (1)

Motel Hell, Las Vegas

'God it's awful.' I slump face forward on to the mouldy pink sheet covering the single bed of my hotel room.

'Are you sure it's just the hotel that's bothering you?' Ana is too perceptive for her own good. 'Because you look so sad today and not your usual glowing self.' Great, if even Ana thinks I look rough then I really must look terrible.

'I just saw a dead cockroach in the bathroom, of course I look pale.'

And I genuinely did, although really it should be bothering me a whole lot more than it is, instead of what my ex best friend and some random idiot she and Louis picked up in the back of beyond choose to get up to.

Why am I so bothered? It's not like I care for either of them, but maybe this is why Harry was so non committal and called Marty clingy when I heard him and Louis talking when they were jogging on the canyon path; because he's secretly been plotting on hooking up with Lottie this whole time. Yet I had always thought Harry considered Lottie to be too wild for anything serious, good for a laugh but nothing else, but it certainly looked serious from where I was standing. Stop it Niamh, stop with all this psycho-drama and what do I even know anyway, absolutely nothing, right?

'Well Leah's right, we are only going to be here for sleeping, and who sleeps in Vegas anyway?'

Oh God, Ana is still persisting with the big sell on the hotel room; it's a shit hole so just accept it! It's starting to get irritating the way she can always manage to find the positive out of even the vilest of situations; it's making me want to slap her or at the very least myself, for being the exact opposite of her; a spoilt ungrateful child when all she is really doing is trying to cheer me up. I really am the most awful person.

'And I wonder what tonight's surprise is going to be?'

Ugh, not another surprise, please. Why must everything always be a surprise? I'll tell you why, because if we knew in advance what we are doing then we'd obviously not bother turning up for whatever it might be this time.

'So sharpen yourself up Niamh.' Ana claps her hands together ordering me to get up, 'I'm not having you look anything but your usual best. We are in Las Vegas after all, the place all those sparkly shoes of yours have been waiting for.'

Las Vegas. So it turns out we truly are here, and now all herded back on to the bus, Leah is at last going to let us see it, the spectacle we have been waiting for.

As the coach swings right at the end of the road where our motel is located, et voila!....We are on the famous Las Vegas strip. As easy as that. We really were so close after all, but that intersection, well it's clearly more than an ordinary cross roads but a gateway to another dimension, a wormhole to this elusive kingdom.

For Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore, and boy are the lights sparkling and our mouths are gaping wide like we just woke up the luckiest kids at Christmas, and we lunge from one side of the bus to the other, each of us now fighting for our survival, fighting to get the best views.

Wow it's the Mandalay Bay, ooo the MGM Grand, then next we're at New York New York, hey it's the Eiffel Tower and whoa, wait there's one hell of a big roller coaster connecting it all, until finally we are here, at the epicentre, the zenith of this Disneyland for grown ups, the iconic fountains of the Bellagio shooting up in front of us and the imposing shadows of Caesar's Palace casting down in the moonlight.

'Wow I think I just saw Celine Dion!' Juno squeals, and she might just be right, because this is Las Vegas, a place where anything can happen.

But wait, is this where we a stopping, for the coach seems to have pulled over? Maybe this is it, the surprise, it must have something to do with the Bellagio or Caesar's Palace? OMG, is Leah about to tell us that this is where we are actually staying, at one of the best hotels in Vegas, and that dropping us off at Motel Hell was just a trick to wind us all up?

Alas, the coach moves on, we had just stopped at a red light, and my heart sinks for yet another time today.

'Oh my God, you're taking us to the Stratosphere!' Stevo and Jayden yell in unison like their biggest dream just came true. 'We're going on the High Roller, that's the surprise isn't it?'

I gulp down as the needle thin structure of the Stratosphere comes into view in front of the bus. Please do not let this be true or if it is then take me back to Tijuana for the rest of my days, because there is no way in hell that I am about to be getting on a roller coaster a near mile in the sky.

'Sorry guys.' Leah looks at Stevo and Jayden in pity as the bus continues on.

But we're starting to run out of options here; if we're not staying at one of the big hotels or checking out one of the main attractions then what the hell are we actually going to be doing, since the Strip seems to be ending, and the buildings are getting smaller, more run down and decidedly more suspicious looking?

'Okay we're here.' Leah announces and everyone looks at each other, all of us as equally confused as the next.

'That's right, you're eyes are not deceiving you,' she can barely contain herself, 'we are indeed standing outside the infamous Graceland Wedding Chapel, scene of countless celebrity weddings including Jon Bon Jovi.' She looks like she is about to pass out at just the mere mention of this name, 'So what's that got to do with us? That's what you're all thinking, right? Well it turns out that two people in this coach are about to get married too, and if you want to find out who then you better get yourselves inside quickly because we've got a wedding to attend!'

Authors note: What the hell just happened? Why on earth are they at the Graceland Wedding Chapel? Can someone seriously be getting married, and if so who?