Before It Happens

Chapter V

    “Wake the fuck up, moron.”

    Ash was just swimming to the surface of consciousness when he felt his balance jolted, and then his right side was colliding quite suddenly and quite roughly with the carpet of the motel. He groaned and pushed himself to a sitting position. “Whaddisit?” He said, groggy and a bit confused.

    “It’s Christopher. It’s also six forty-five.” He said, holding a styrofoam cup of coffee out towards Ash. “We’ve got fifteen minutes to prep and then Mary’s gonna be here.”

    How oddly touching. Ash just nodded and stood up, sighing and taking a sip of the coffee. “I guess my alarm didn’t go off.”

    “Yes it did.” A voice said from the bathroom. Killian. “You slept straight through it.”

    Way to leave an example. Ash downed the rest of the coffee, burning his tongue and most of his throat in the process. He reached into the closet by the bed, fumbling through the rest of the crew’s clothes before finding one button-up shirt, putting it on with great difficulty, only to realize that he was button off, and started over again. By the time he had his shirt on, it was ten-till-seven, and he still didn’t have his pants on.

    “Here.” It was Killian. “Here’s your jacket, Mr. Ash.” He took it and shrugged it on, putting on his pants and then whipping on a buckle. By the time he had done so, Oswald had his camera sitting on the bed, Christopher was closing his case of microphones, and Killian was handing him his tie. Things were going to be okay. They were going to be okay. “Time?” Ash asked to no one in particular, jamming his cell phone in his pocket.

    “We have five minutes.” Christopher answered, picking up his briefcase and nodding his head towards the door, blonde ponytail swaying barely as he did so. Ash nodded and opened the door, and soon they were outside the motel, and waiting awkwardly, as Ash was sure they were all entirely too nervous to mention that they were late for the first time since they had been thrown together.

    When Ash was going to say something about their lack of punctuality, however, Mary pulled into the driveway and honked the horn obnoxiously. Taking it as his signal, Ash piled into the front of the car, leaving Killian, Oswald, and Christopher to pile in the back. Mary greeted Ash with narrowed eyes, looking him up and down. “You smell.” She said.

    Ash pursed his lips. “I was in a rush.”

    “No.” She said. “You smell.”

    Did he still smell of nicotine? Ash didn’t dare check, not allowing Mary to know that she had made him insecure. Instead, he shifted in his seat and folded his hands. “Nice to see you too, Mary.”

    She glared at him for a few more moments before putting the car in drive and pulling out of the small lot.

    Ash wondered what she was trying to say, before turning in the seat to face his team.

    Before he said anything, he took a few moments to just take them in. Oswald, in his ginger, burly glory, camera in his lap like some chained dog. Christopher, in his short and sun-tanned nature, blonde ponytail thrown over his shoulder. Then there was Killian, in a knitted sweater, hair looking like it had lost a fight to a blender. His entire career relied on this ragtag team of ex-janitors and sex-starved college students. What a fucking ego boost.

    “Alright.” He said, a bit more loudly than needed. He only noticed this, however, because even Oswald jumped when he spoke. “We have about fifteen minutes to prep once we get there. At seven forty-five, the mayor is out of his meeting. Our interview is on the way.”