Falling Slowly

Pt.3|Ch.2

•••••Benjamin's Perspective

It took two full days of driving for us to arrive in Appleton, Wisconsin.

By the time we got there on the second day, Josh had won eighteen hands of solitaire against himself, and played countless games of slapjack with anyone who would give him the time of day.

I slept the majority of that last ride, only waking up when Sky decided to pull on my ear repeatedly.

We weren't sure there was even a reason for the ear-tugging, just that boredom had begun to take over.

For our stay in Appleton, the entire cast and crew would be residing in a local hotel not too far from our show's temporary venue: the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center.

The plan was to go two to a room, unless an angry redhead was involved.

It was supposed to be Josh and I in one, Aiden and Austyn in another, and Sky as the odd man out, but he wasn't too happy about that.

Rather than try and talk him into sleeping in a room by himself, Josh and I agreed to let him have the couch in ours.

"Sleep in a room alone." He grumbled, wrapping himself up in his blanket. "That's right, go ahead and leave Sky out to fend for himself."

"You have no right to talk about 'fending for yourself'." Josh said under his breath, climbing into bed.

I gave him a sympathetic look. "We owe you, Joshy."

"Yeah, you do." He shot back. "I am the reason the two of you even have girlfriends in the first place."

"It will all be returned in full, someday." I promised, taking my glasses off and setting them atop the nightstand.

He yawned. "I'm not sure I want either of you managing my romantic affiliations."

"Well, you don't really have any other friends, so—" My sentence was interrupted by a flying pillow.

"Try me, Benjamin." Josh mumbled, dozing off. "I will end you."

•••••

"I bet it's not even real wood."

"Dude, jealous much?"

"Shut up, Joshua."

My eyes cracked open, greeted by a bright, blue light.

I sat up, blinking the sleep from my vision.

Sky was passed out on the couch, but Josh was wide awake, his smiling face illuminated by his computer's screen light.

"Welcome to the party." He said, glancing at me.

"What party?"

"Well, it looks like you missed all the fun," he pointed at Sky's sleeping figure, "but let's just say that Skybelle has a strange grudge with Cephas."

I tilted my head. "Aiden's violin?"

"Mhm." He nodded. "I woke up because he was engaging in some very vocal trash talking," he accompanied his words a strong head jerk and a defined blink, "and I was like, 'dude, jealous much?' And he was like, 'shut up, Joshua', and then he fell back asleep."