KISS: Road Trip

Ch 34: But It's Three AM (Gene)

"Gene. Gene, wake up."

I rolled over in bed to squint up at Eric, who was shaking me. "Mmhph what do you want?" I mumbled, definitely more than half asleep. "Come on, get up and get dressed," he whispered, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me even more. I closed my eyes and sank back to the pillow. "Eric what time is it."

"Shh, not important. What is important is that you get up and get dressed."

I let out a groan, sitting upright and grabbing my phone. "It's 3 in the morning." "I know, I know, but just trust me! It'll be fun, it'll be nostalgic!" he whispered excitedly. "Also wait, how the hell did you get into Paul's basement?" He grinned, shrugging. "He hasn't changed where he hides the spare key since the summer of senior year. Now seriously, come on!"

Intrigued now, I slid out of bed and got dressed in the dark, trailing after him as he led me to his car. "Come on, get in!" he said eagerly, smiling. I raised an eyebrow but climbed into the passenger seat. "Are you kidnapping me?"

"No, no. It'll be fun, hopefully!"

I just let out a sigh, leaning my head on the window and falling back asleep until the stopping of the car woke me up. I sat up, blinking the sleep from my eyes, looking at the building in front of me and feeling a slow smile spreading across my face. "Eric." "Yeah?" "Thank you."

He grinned, jumping out of the car and pulling me inside. "Come on! I have $30 to burn, let's see how much of the worst stuff we can get for our money!" Shaking my head with a laugh, I followed him into the 7/11, looking around the shelves with a smile. Of course he made a beeline for the slushie machine, grabbing a 52 ounce cup and filling it up with his usual. This time, however, he tossed one to me. "You're not behind the counter, you get to have fun tonight!"

Heart melting, I nodded, filling mine with lime. "Oh, that's a good flavor. Not as good as the combo but still good. Let's get more stuff though!" Laughing, I followed him through the store. "Shit man, I haven't been here in years," I said, looking around the aisles. "I know, it's been awhile," he said, before drawing to a halt, eyes wide.

"Gene. We gotta." I followed his gaze to the steak and cheese melts in the warmer and grinned in spite of myself. "Well yeah no shit we gotta. Get some of those too," I said, pointing at the chocolate pies. Eyes shining, Eric grabbed four of each, then like six hot dogs while I carried our slushies to the counter, where a guy who looked older than us was waiting.

"It's not the same exactly because you're not behind the counter and I can't sit and talk to you until your shift's up but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?" I nodded, throwing down some cash even though $30 was more than enough to cover what we had bought. "Wait hold on let me grab more stuff," Eric said cheerfully, darting off to the candy aisle and returning with his arms full of MnMs. "Oh gosh this is just like that one tournament at the casino," I said, shaking my head as he dropped what must've been like twenty bags onto the counter.

"And I love them as much now as I did then," he retorted, before grabbing all the stuff from the cashier and walking with me to the car. I slid into the passenger seat, definitely awake now, and gave him a grin. "So where to now?" I asked. He frowned, running a hand through his hair. "Hmm. What's a good place to sit and eat and talk around here?"

"A restaurant, probably," I said. Rolling his eyes, he punched me in the arm. "I even missed the smartassery from you, dammit. But come on, help me out here! There's gotta be like a park or something! Oh wait it's 3 am nevermind. Not trying to get stabbed again. Oh! I know!" he said, driving off before I could say anything. I just sat drinking my slushie as he drove through the city, squinting at street signs. "I swear I saw it earlier. It's been awhile though, I might be way off or something, I don't know," he muttered.

"I feel like you're way off and we're definitely lost," I teased, savoring the taste of disgustingly sweet lime. "Ah! Perfect!" he said, pulling into a parking garage and driving up to the top level. "There! It's quiet up here and no one else is around." "Again, really feels like you're kidnapping me to murder me or something," I said with a grin. He punched me again before grabbing a bag and sitting on the edge of the parking garage with his legs beneath the railing.

"Keep it up and I might," he said with a wink, before grabbing one of the chocolate pies and eating it, closing his eyes as he took a bite. "Ohh man these are good. I mean I'm definitely eating all my daily recommended calories but it's worth it."

"No this alone is at least twice that," I said, taking a bite of the steak and cheese melt and immediately being blown away by the unhealthy deliciousness, sitting next to him.

We sat in a happy silence eating for a while before he gave me a grin, throwing an MnM at me. "So what, you glad you got up or no?" I laughed, throwing some MnMs right back at him. "That I am. I'm impressed, you had a good idea for once."

"Oh so that's how it is, is it?" he said, look of mock offense spreading across his face, before throwing more MnMs at me. It took about two seconds for us to get in an all out war, hurling the little candies at each other across the roof of the parking garage with no way of telling who was winning.

The sun was starting to rise as Eric held up his hands at last. "Alright, truce, truce! I want to eat some of these and also my phone's ringing!" I grinned, chucking one last one at him for good measure. "Ahh, victory!" I said, before pulling out my phone and realizing I had twelve missed calls from Paul with another one on the way. "Hey who's calling you?" I asked. "Bruce. Why, who's calling you?" "Paul."

Eric's face lit up and he grabbed my phone. "Okay okay here's what we do, we put them both on speaker and don't say anything and just let them talk to each other." I nodded, biting back a laugh as he set both phones to speaker and waited.

"Where the fuck are you?!" Paul shouted. "The hell do you mean, where am I?! You're the one who up and left!" Bruce snapped back. "No I didn't! You're the one who drove off in the middle of the night for no damn reason!" "For fuck's sake man would it kill you to leave a note?!"

They kept going as Eric doubled over, shaking as he did everything possible to stop himself from laughing. I was in the exact same situation, sides hurting from the effort. He cracked first, sitting on the ground and laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face. I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe as Paul and Bruce both went silent. "Eric I'm going to kill you when you get back," Bruce growled, before hanging up. All Paul said was a simple "Fuck you."

"Oh my gosh! Oh I can't breathe, I can't breathe! Oh, that was perfect!" Eric gasped, handing me my phone. "They're so pissed! They're so fucking pissed oh it's hilarious!" I cried, pulling him to his feet. Wiping away tears, Eric shook his head. "Oh man, they're gonna be so mad when we get back. Come on I'll drop you off before I head home, it has been a few hours."

I nodded, getting in the car and still grinning as he drove back to Paul's house. "This was fun though. It felt like old times but more fun. Thanks for waking me up," I said, giving him a hug as he pulled into the driveway. "Yeah! It really was fun, I'm glad it went so well. Good luck dealing with Paul," he said with a grin, driving off with a wave.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need that luck," I said under my breath, pushing open the front door.