"Mikey, stop being such a girl and get with the program." I laughed as he sighed and groaned on the floor by me. He flopped back from doing his sit-ups and looked at who was behind us.
"Help me." he pleaded.
"You challenged. You said, 'I need to workout', so this is what you get." Zach said, shrugging. "Sorry bro."
"When I said 'workout', I meant just that. Not DIE trying to kill that bowl of pasta I ate." Mikey sighed.
"Not to mention those two bowls of cereal you packed away." Jesse grinned at our bassist.
"And that sandwich." Zach rolled his eyes.
"And those burritos." Bryan added.
"Okay so, and?"
"It's not even two o' clock Mikey and you got up at twelve." Bryan looked at him and his phone clock.
The exasperated bassist sighed once again and sat up with a groan. "Well, it hasn't hurt me before to eat so much, so I quit for the day."
"No pain, no gain." I replied, doing my last rep of sit-ups.
"You're a looser." he said as he walked behind me and rubbed my head.
"Your mom Margott."
"Queer!" he yelled from his bunk.
"Says the guy who goes out and buys random bras to put on his speaker box because he's to lame to get real girls to throw them at him."
Everyone laughed so hard. Bryan was loosing it; bent over with weak knees at the fridge. Even Riker joined in.
"Haha Mikey! She got you there!"
I looked at Jesse, his eyes twinkling. My mind flashed to last night; the pain and horror in his now glittering pupils. I tried to remain cool, like I knew of no such thing. However, the image of the terrorized little boy kept killing my subconscious. It's like blaming someone for doing something bad to you in a dream: you know they didn't do it in real life so you just have to be cool because it never actually happened.
"Ever stop to think anyone else might've wanted one of those last burritos you ate Margott?" Bryan questioned.
"You SAW me eat them!" Mike-Mike came back from his bunk and yelled at the drummer.
"Shut up." Bryan placed his palm over Mikey's face and pushed him away playfully.
I shook my head and pulled my feet out from under Jesse's couch. The Neighbourhood; crazy, crazy, crazy.
*
I was in the bunk room, putting clothes back in my bag after getting out of the shower, when my phone rang. I picked it up and answered it as I walked out to meet the boys.
"Hello?"
"Hey Koda, it's Donna." the other line said.
"Oh hey Donna!" I waved my hand to try and silence the five wrestling boys on the floor.
"We're here!" Riker yelled at the front of the bus, alerting us to our arrival at dinner.
"Okay!" I yelled back. " Sorry Donna, what were you saying?"
"Koda, s-something bad h-has happened." Donna's voice shook on the other line.
I furrowed my brow as I followed the boys out into the six o' clock light of this new state we were in.
"What? Please tell me." I begged.
Air rushed me; hot air. The smell of delicious food wafted to my nose, but I was too concerned to try and figure out what it was. As I held the door whilst standing on the last step, everyone knew something was up.
"Uh, Donna?"
"Koda, your sister is dead."
