Untitled (the Roommates)

6. Grocery Store Bathrooms Are The Best Hiding Places

Aaron was the first to speak. "I'm uh, I think I'm gonna go to bed."

"Me too." Corey and Devyn followed Aaron upstairs and Amanda and Sydney got off of the couch.

"I think I'll just crash here tonight." Amanda said. She laid back onto the couch and pulled an extra blanket over her shoulders.

Sam nodded, and he, Katrina, and Colby retreated upstairs. Sydney didn't want to make anyone drive her home, so she went over and sat on the other couch, behind Amanda.

Colby didn't even bother changing his clothes. He just fell into his bed, kicked his shoes off, and pulled the covers up over his face. He texted Elton numerous times, but got no response. He turned his bedside fan on and waited a while before texting Sam.

Is Katrina sleeping?

Sam must have been on his phone, because he answered almost instantly.

Yeah.

Colby picked up his phone again, not expecting the reply so soon. He typed,

Can you come in here for a second?

After about five minutes, Sam knocked on his door.

"It's open." Colby whispered.

Sam came in and sat down on Colby's couch. "Hey."

"Hey."

"So..."

"Yeah, thanks for uh, you know, being the one that did most of the talking."

"No problem."

"And, you know, while we're here, I wanna be able to not have to worry about this later, what are we gonna do about the channel?"

"Well, I don't want to film anything tomorrow. We have a ton of backlog, and hopefully this will be all over soon."

"Mm-hm." Colby took his socks off and threw them in his clothes hamper across the room, then unlocked his phone and stared aimlessly at his home screen.

"So where do you think Elton went?" Sam asked.

"I don't know."

"You've been saying that a lot tonight."

"Because I don't." Colby locked his phone, unlocked it, and locked it again. "I really don't. I like knowing."

"Me too."

The room was silent for a while. Sam spun sideways and put his legs up on the couch and stared up at the ceiling, listening to the comforting drone of the fan.

"SAM." Colby said suddenly, a little too loudly. His eyes were wide.

"What is it?"

"Dude. Dude dude dude," Colby turned his phone screen around. "My texts to Elton have and 'R' by them."

"What?" Sam got off of the couch and took Colby's phone. "He read them?"

"Yeah!"

"Call him."

Colby hit the phone icon before Sam could even finish his sentence. It rang four times, clicked, then ended.

"What, did he answer and then hang up?" Sam ran his fingers through his hair.

"I think so."

The two exchanged confused glances, but couldn't even think of anything to say before Amanda's voice traveled up from downstairs.

"ELTON TEXTED ME."

Sam and Colby jumped up and ran downstairs. It seemed as if they were the only other ones awake, because no one else came out.

Downstairs, Amanda and Sydney were huddled over a phone.

"What did he say?" Colby and Sam came up behind them and read what they were reading.

The bathroom at Ralph's isn't a very good hiding spot. I might have to move soon.

"Does this mean he's at Ralph's?" Sam was already walking toward the door.

"Wait." Colby put a hand out. "All of us know that we're not gonna tell the FBI anything, but that doesn't mean they're not watching us. I mean, it is the FBI."

Sam stopped. "You're right. If any of us leaves our house at -" he looked over at Amanda's phone. "- 12:37 in the morning, especially under the circumstances, I don't think an 'emergency grocery trip' cover story is gonna be very persuasive."

"We all live here." Colby added. "We need someone that doesn't. Maybe Katrina could go pick him up and it'll look like she's driving home to anyone trailing her."

"Katrina's sleeping."

Everyone turned to Sydney.

"What?" She asked, as if she was just now walking in on the conversation.

"You're the least suspicious one." Colby continued.

"But how will I, like, get him back into the house without anyone seeing?"

"We'll just have to roll with it. This is even assuming he's still there." Sam turned to Colby. "But she doesn't have her car here, so Amanda needs to go with her, too. If there's anyone watching, Sydney leaving by herself in a car that nobody here can drive back will definitely look weird."

Amanda put on a jacket. "Okay."

"You can take my car." Colby pointed at the wall by the front door. "The keys are on the second hook."

"Thanks," Amanda tried to chuckle. "We won't bang it up that bad."

"Thanks, I really appreciate that," Colby said, joining Amanda's attempts to lighten the mood. He sighed. "What the hell is even going on? I am actually really fucking confused."

"So far as we know, Elton's in big trouble with the FBI, and he's hiding in the bathroom at Ralph's." Sam said. "That literally all we know."

"I cannot believe that we're about to smuggle Elton out of a grocery store and we don't even know why." Sydney said as she and Amanda opened the door. "Tell Kat where I am if she asks."

"Will do." Sam said, and the girls slammed the door behind them.

The room was silent for a minute, as the two boys stood there listening to the sleeping heartbeat of the rest of the house.

"What." Colby finally got out.

"Don't know. Don't know at all." Sam replied. "But I'm going to bed."

"Whoa, wait, what?" Colby looked appalled at his best friend. Sam showed Colby his lock screen, which brightly displayed the time: 12:42 AM.

"I was up all night yesterday editing, and I was looking forward to getting some z's tonight. Add that to the fact that with the current situation Elton can't come back here anyway, I don't particularly have to be awake when they hide him somewhere. Maybe Sydney can take him to her house. I don't know."

The more Colby thought about it, the more he began to see that Sam was probably right. The blonde trekked up to his room, and after calling Sydney to ask if Elton could stay at her place until they all meet up and talk about things (to which she agreed), Colby followed suit.