BOND

9.

We don't know where we're going

But we know where we belong

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Joey grabbed the third bottle of aspirin and closed the cabinet.

Looking back, letting the boys get drunk wasn't a very good idea. Them agreeing wholeheartedly with his observation now that they could at least hear him.

Elena was going to take off his head, that much he was sure of.

She was officially a part of the team and hence needed to be there for every registration. In New York the papers would be sorted out and she'd stay with the boys for a couple of days before her own matches started.

Nobody seemed to complain about her tagging along and Coach Harley was all for it.

Nobody seemed as fond of her as him.

Ben shouted from his living room, "We need them today Joey!"

Joey rolled his eyes and went into the next room. All the boys were stuffed into the same room and it looked like a big bowl of spaghetti.

Their bags were all over the place and it was pretty much impossible to wade through the sea of limbs to get to the person who wanted the pill.

Still, being one of the few who were sober enough to see, Joey stumbled across to Ben and shoved the bottle in his hand.

"You're not a twelve year old, Ben. Don't drink when you know you're gonna be passed out the next day," Joey said. In response three boys sitting around Ben groaned and made a shooing off motion with their hands.

Alex looked up from his phone and said, "Yeah now your heads are aching. It wasn't when you were hollering for the pills."

Mark had just opened his mouth to speak when the doorbell rang. And all hell broke loose.

If earlier the room had looked like spaghetti it was now a popcorn machine. The boys sprang up from their places and straightened themselves out. Bags were flying across the room, from one hand to another, and arranged in neat rows along the wall. Every one of them seemed to be high on something.

And all this took place in the time it took Joey to open the main door of his house.

Coach Harley entered with narrowed eyes and took in Joey's appearance. Once he was convinced that Joey was in fact sober his attention shifted to the rest of the boys.

It would have been beyond belief that mere minutes ago this same group of individuals had been lounging around. And not standing upright, trying their best to not look hungover.

Coach Harley wasn't new to this type of thing and he quickly centered onto the ones who usually were the ones drunk. Ben very visibly swallowed as he walked past him. Matthew grimaced as Coach paused in front of him. He shot Joey a quick 'help me' look before shutting his mouth tight. Coach Harley squinted at him for a couple of seconds and moved on.

He would've kept up with this if Elena hadn't entered, dragging bags in each hand with her kit on her shoulders. 

Alex was the one nearest to her and he quickly grabbed her suitcases as she shot him a grateful smile. She looked around and for the first time noticed how tensed all of them looked. 

"Morning, Coach Harley!" she said.

A bright smile appeared on his face, "Good morning dear. Shall we move out?"