Holiday In Cambodia

Up at the beach, the stress and emotionality of the day seemed to have taken its toll on the group, and it was only Jason and Mike who were still awake, swamped in darkness now that the fire had died out.

"I don't think I've ever seen this many stars before," Mike commented, in a hushed voice, as he looked up at the sky from his position against the rocks that edged the beach.
"Me either," said Jason, thoughtfully, "At home, even if you go out into Sequoia or someplace like that... you don't get stars like this."
Mike nodded.
"I'm glad they're here," he said, "Without them, there'd be no light at all... . It'd be pretty creepy."
Jason nodded in agreement, before slapping at his arm, scowling at the mosquito that dropped to the sand.
"Getting' eaten?" Mike questioned, tossing Jason the can of bug spray that Maggie had, thankfully, brought with her.
"Yeah," sighed Jason, spraying his bare arms with so much repellent it made him cough, "We have to be careful around these bastards."
"I know," said Mike, with a frown, "Especially as we're all on a lower dose of those malaria pills than we're supposed to be. I fucking wish we had enough for everyone."
"Me too," said Jason, gloomily, his eyes flicking to Billie Joe, who was spread out on the sand a few feet away, sleeping soundly with his head resting on his shirt. Jason watched a mosquito stalking along his upper arm and quickly wafted it away, before shaking the can of repellent again and coating Billie Joe's shirtless body in it. He stirred a little, but didn't wake up.
"If we're careful, we'll be okay," said Jason, confidently, turning back to Mike, "We're all healthy enough, we shouldn't catch anything."

Mike nodded, looking up as Lara crossed the sand towards them. She smiled a little at the sleeping bodies as she stepped over Rick, before settling down on the sand next to him and leaning her head against her backpack. She looked up at the two guys before she closed her eyes.
"Night Mike," she whispered, sleepily.

Mike had expected to wake up the next morning feeling better than he had the day before. Surely he had been punished enough for his sins now. Surely there was no need for the splitting ache that was pounding in his head. He groaned.

Rolling onto his side, he blinked a few times in the harsh sunlight, before the pair of equally bleary green eyes that stared back at him came into focus.
"Hey," Billie Joe muttered, groggily, "Good sleep?"
"Shitty-ass sleep," Mike grumbled, watching as Billie Joe lit up his first cigarette of the day, minutes after opening his eyes. "Fucking animals and bugs kept me up all night."

Mike slowly got to his knees, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, before surveying the beach in front of him. He could see the girls down at the water's edge, Rick ambling down towards them. Jason was still fast asleep on the sand, but he had no idea how he managed it with all the sunshine that was beaming down onto his eyelids.

"Hey guys," said Jack, looking up from smearing sun block onto his arms, as he noticed Mike and Billie Joe were awake, "How're you feeling this morning?"
"Like shit," Mike complained, "I feel worse than yesterday."
Jack frowned, snapping the cap back onto the bottle and folding his arms over his knees.
"Really? How?"
"Headache," Mike mumbled.

Billie Joe smiled a little, taking a swig from a nearby bottle of water, and savouring the moisture before he passed it to Mike.
"When was the last time you got any caffeine?" he asked him, as Mike took the bottle from his hand, gratefully.
Mike shrugged.
"I guess it was back in the hotel in Phnom Penh."
"That's two days ago now," said Jack, with a sigh.
"Yep," said Billie Joe, "And for Mikey, with no coffee, that's a hell of a long time. You've got caffeine withdrawal, man."
Mike groaned, as Jack laughed.
"There are worse things," he said, "Give it a day and you'll be fine."
"I don't want to give it a day," Mike scowled, "I want to get back to the real world, and get me an espresso... or five. Hey, where's Tre?"
Jack smirked.
"Over the other side of those rocks down there," he told them, " ...With Mia. I saw them when I went foraging earlier. Looked like they'd been there all night."
"Bastard," said Mike, as Billie Joe chuckled, " ...Hey, you went foraging?"
"Yep. Found some coconut trees around the bay on the other side of the island. I managed to knock a couple down, "You guys can give me a hand later, breaking into them. It takes some man power."
"Well," smiled Billie Joe, as he stood up and stretched, "We have that in spades... ."

"I'll look forward to seeing that," said Amber, smirking slightly as she approached, Maggie and Lara trailing behind her.
"How's the water?" Mike asked them.
"Gorgeous," said Maggie, squeezing the water from her hair, "But don't go in too far. I spotted a few jellyfish lurking in there."
"Ah, those bitches don't scare me," said Mike, dismissively, "I just feel like getting clean."
Amber nodded.
"I might have a go at catching some fish later," she said, "Just living off rice for a week probably won't do us much good, and there doesn't seem to be enough fruit around here to keep us going."
Billie Joe sighed.
"Not for me," he said, "I'll stick to my fruit and veg."
"Me and Bill like to look after our figures," Mike smiled.

Lara laughed, sitting down on the sand as she attempted to work the tangles out of her wet hair with her fingertips. She glanced over at Jason as he stirred from his sleep, the conversation finally having woken him up. Lara watched as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, before dusting the sand from himself and standing up, ambling sleepily towards his bandmates. He had given up bothering to look in Lara's direction now, and she could see why. Biting her lip, she dragged her eyes back to her hair and tried to ignore the ache that was growing inside of her.

Mia and Tre slept on longer than anyone, cuddled together, the rocks sheltering them from the bright sun. They were probably more comfortable than any of the others had been, and they'd definitely had the least sleep.

Tre smiled sleepily, waking as Mia lifted her head from his chest and looked at him.
"Hey," he mumbled.
"Hi," she smiled.

Her hair fell in front of her face and Tre reached up and pushed it behind her ears.
"Last night was a lot of fun," Mia smiled, looking up at Tre from under her eyelashes.
"It was," he agreed, with a grin, "It definitely made the whole stranded on an island thing easier to deal with."
"Definitely," she laughed, before thoughtfully pursing her lips, "So maybe we should do it again sometime."
Tre nodded as a smile spread across his face.
"That would probably be best," he said.

Tre would happily have spent all day making being stranded easier to deal with, but unfortunately that wasn't to be, because what felt like moments after waking up, he was being dragged away by Rick, who had apparently volunteered them to go to the rice plantation that day.

"Seriously," he grumbled, pushing the spiky branches aside as he followed Rick through the trees, "You picked me on purpose. Just cause no one else is getting any... "
Rick laughed.
"Actually Tre, I picked you because I thought you'd be the least likely to complain the whole way. But apparently I was wrong about that."
"Ouch!" Tre exclaimed, as a branch swung back and caught him in the face, "Bastard!"
"Sorry," Rick apologised, looking back over his shoulder, "Hey, at least if we do it now, it's out of the way. It'll be worse doing this job when we're tired and hungry."
"I am tired and hungry. I hardly got any sleep last night at all."
"Heh. Don't expect me to feel sorry for you on that score, mate."
Tre grinned.
"I don't," he admitted, "I just felt like showing off about it. I mean come on... she's fucking hot."

Rick's mouth skewed thoughtfully to the side as he pushed deeper into the trees.
"I don't know, man," he said, "I'm not sure about her."
"What?! Are you insane?"
Rick gave him a look.
"Hey," he said, "I don't swing that way, remember? I'm not blinded by your foolish male hormones... It's like a gift."
Tre grinned, mumbling something about pet kangaroos, before another branch smacked him in the face. And that time, the amount of laughter it elicited from Rick told him that it probably hadn't been accidental.

Billie Joe was sitting with Jason, absently drawing patterns in the sand with his finger, when Rick and Tre came back from the rice plantation, looking far more excited than anyone would have expected. He was about to ask them what all the grinning was about, when something suddenly flew in his direction. He and Jason ducked, before he looked over his shoulder to see brown leather soccer ball bouncing down the beach.

"Where did you find that?" he gasped.
"In the trees!" exclaimed Rick, triumphantly, "Scientists maintaining the wildlife, my arse. They blatantly just come here to piss about."
"Awesome!" grinned Jason, standing up so quickly he showered Billie Joe with sand, "Boredom over!"
"Um... guys?" Amber questioned, as Rick, Tre started after him, "Where's the rice?"
They stopped. Rick sheepishly turned around.
"Um... the rice?"
Amber crossed her arms.
"You didn't get the rice, did you?"
Tre put a hand on Rick's shoulder.
"Hey, don't get at him," he said, "It wasn't his fault. We just... found the soccer ball before we found the rice and y'know... "
Amber raised her eyebrows as Tre trailed off.
"Ah, we'll do it later," he said, with a wave of his hand, before chasing after Jason and Billie.

Amber rolled her eyes, turning to Jack, who was standing behind her..
"Can you believe them?" she complained.
"Um... " he mumbled, his eyes flicking between his girlfriend and the game that had broken out further down the beach, "You know what, I think we have enough rice for now..."

Amber smiled, wryly as he skipped away, before settling down on the sand between Maggie and Lara.
"Can you believe they care more about playing football than they do about finding food?" she asked, with a sigh.
"Well... yeah," Maggie shrugged, "Boys will be boys, right?"
"Besides," Lara added, "It might cheer them up. Mike has been beyond crabby today."
"He probably just looked that way cause he was standing next to Tre," smirked Amber, "And Tre hasn't been able to wipe the grin off his face all morning."
She glanced over at Mia, whose eyes were fixed on the guys further down the beach.
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you, Mia?" she asked her.
Mia glanced back to meet the expectant and eager gaze of the other girls, before dropping her eyes to the sand with a smug smile.
"I suppose I might have... had something to do with it," she replied, almost teasingly.
"Okay, if you're gonna tell us, quit drip-feeding us," said Lara, leaning forward.
Of everyone, her patience with Mia was wearing the thinnest, and she wasn't about to beg her for information.

Mia frowned a little, disappointed that Lara was preventing her from milking the situation as long as she'd have liked, but then covered it with a smile again as she lowered her voice conspiratorially, even though the guys were much too far away to hear her.
"Well," she said, "Last night, me and Tre... we slept together."
"Are you serious?" Maggie asked, excitedly.
Mia nodded.
"And?" Maggie prompted.
Lara raised an eyebrow at her girlishness, and wished she wasn't so intent on giving Mia an audience.
"It was fun," said Mia lightly.
"I'll bet," smirked Amber, "So... what does this mean then?"
Mia shrugged, smiling slightly.
"It means nothing," she replied, matter-of-factly, "It was just sex... you know?"

"Fuck this thing is chewed up," said Jack, as he picked the ball up from the floor, "It looks like the same ball we won the World Cup with."
"Yeah," said Rick, with a smirk, "And that was a long time ago."
Jack grinned.
"At least we can still qualify," he smirked, kicking the ball towards Tre. "Okay then, who wants a game of soccer?"
"Definitely," smiled Billie Joe, "Hey, y'know, I was going to coach soccer... If I hadn't gotten into the band and stuff."
Jack grinned.
"Sure," he said, teasingly, taking the ball back from Tre with his foot, "Americans can't play football."
"Heh, want a fucking bet?"
"Easy. What are we betting?"
"Yanks against... non-Yanks," Billie Joe decided, "Losers go back to the rice plantation to finish Rick and Tre's job."
"Awesome," said Mike, eagerly.
"Hey, woah... " frowned Rick, holding up his hands, "There's four of you guys. One of you is going to have to be an honorary non-Yank."
"Me!" volunteered Jason.

When his bandmates turned to him, he offered them a sheepish grin.
"Well," he explained, "Jack seems pretty good and I don't want to do the rice hunting again."
Billie's mouth fell open in outrage.
"You fucking bastard!" he exclaimed, "Okay, fine. Cross over. You're gonna be sorry, Mister White."

"You know," said Maggie, distractedly, as the girls watched the guys charging around on the beach, kicking up sand and screaming at each other every few minutes, "I kind of feel like I'm back in High School watching the boys' soccer team practice at lunch."
Lara laughed.
"We used to do that too," she grinned, "Only with us, the hockey team was where it was at."
"Well," smiled Amber, her eyes also fixed on the group of shirtless men running about on the sand, "You have to do something to brighten your day."

Maggie laughed as Billie Joe was knocked to the ground, getting a face full of sand before standing up and desperately screaming "Foul!" at Rick, who didn't seem to be taking the game as seriously as the others would have liked him to.

She sighed, leaning back on the sand.
"I'm getting thirsty," she said.
"Want some of this?" Lara offered, reaching over and grabbing a nearby bottle of water, which they had been keeping in the shade. Maggie shook her head.
"I've already had my share today."
"Hey, if you need it, take it," said Amber, looking concerned, "Cause I'm doing okay, and I've hardly had a drop today."
Maggie smiled, gratefully.
"I think I'll be okay," she said, "But thanks Amber, I'll see how I'm doing later."

Amber nodded, sympathetically, before they were distracted by a victorious yell from Mike, who had apparently just scored a goal. Tre, Mike and Billie were jumping around and intermittently hugging each other, while a put-out Jack trudged after the escaping ball.

Amber shook her head.
"They are going to regret this later when they're all sweaty and need more water than we have."
Mia grinned.
"Yes," she said, "But it will be fun for us to watch."
Lara smiled. She couldn't argue with the girl on that score.

In the blistering heat of the afternoon, the game didn't last long, and as the guys collapsed onto the sand, sweating and exhausted as they drained the small amount of water that was on offer, they did regret getting so carried away. Of course, it was Rick, Jack and Jason who regretted it the most because, after being beaten by a very triumphant team of Americans, they were now faced with the trek down to the rice field and back, which Rick had already done once that day.

Billie Joe grinned as Jack groaned, shielding his eyes with his hand as he rolled onto his back, still breathing heavily.
"Hey, no complaining, man," said Billie Joe, failing to hide his glee, "You shoulda had more faith in my skills. Guess it's not just the English that can play football."
Jack sighed.
"Okay," he groaned, sitting up, "I admit it, Billie. You can play football pretty fucking well."

Billie Joe grinned, triumphantly, before turning to Amber.
"Am I allowed more water?" he asked.
"Nope."
He groaned.
"Fuck," he said, "The water situation's getting difficult. Are you sure we have enough to last us through?"
"We will if we stick to the way we rationed it out," said Amber, "But tearing around like crazy and working up a sweat isn't going to help... "
"Point taken, Mom," teased Tre, and Amber smiled and nudged him with her foot.

Later that afternoon, when they had recovered from their game, Jason, Jack and Rick set off for the rice plantation, leaving the others on the beach. Jack had left them with the task of breaking into the coconuts he had found earlier, but they weren't having much luck, and Tre had simply bashed his with a heavy rock a few times before giving up completely.

"Hey, look at this," he smiled, leaning over to examine one of the bushes that edged the beach, "It's a caterpillar."
"We have caterpillars at home, Tre," Mike pointed out, without looking up from his coconut, which had worked him into a sweat all over again.
"Yeah, but this one's really pretty. And it's all soft and fluffy."
Billie Joe laughed.
"Whatever, Tre. Just don't touch it."
"Why not? It looks really cuddly and stuff," said Tre, reaching out.
"Tre-" Billie Joe warned, before he was cut off by a loud yelp of pain.
"Motherfucker!"

Tre's cry was drowned out by laughter, before Amber, a little concerned, went over to where Tre was examining his finger with a scowl.
"It bit me!" he exclaimed, in disbelief, "The fucker bit me!"
"Let's see," said Amber, trying not to smile as she took his hand.
A small red mark was forming on Tre's forefinger.

"It probably stung you with some of that cute fluff you were admiring," she smiled, teasingly, "I don't think caterpillars have teeth."
"Either way, it's a fucking bastard!" Tre complained, before looking back at the plant, "And now it's gone! Can't even stick around and fight like a fucking man..."
Mike laughed.
"Tre, you've been outsmarted by a caterpillar," he said, "And it was probably only defending itself. I don't suppose it liked some idiot fifty times its size poking it in the face."

Tre grumbled as Amber took a tube of antiseptic from her backpack.
"I don't want it getting infected," she explained, "So put some of this on it... and be careful."
"Okay," said Tre, before glancing behind him, to where most of the sniggers seemed to be coming from. "Eat shit, Billie."

Billie Joe laughed.
"Sorry," he grinned, picking up his rock and his coconut again, just as Mike finally cracked his open, showering himself with coconut milk. They cheered.
"See," said Mike, triumphantly, "This survival shit... piece of piss."

By evening, the group was back around the fire, finishing off the last of their rice and coconut, satisfied that they had gotten through another day on the island.

"I suppose, really," Mike began, thoughtfully, "This is no different to the way we isolated ourselves when we made our last album."
Rick smirked.
"Where did you plug in your guitars?"
Mike grinned.
"Not the island dumbass. We were in a studio. We just never left it."
"Except," said Tre, looking up from where he was still examining his sore finger, "We could go out and get beer and coffee and donuts and stuff if we wanted."
"When Mike allowed us," Billie Joe added, with a smile, "He got a little military toward the end."
"Hey, someone's gotta keep you two in check," Mike smiled, as he took hold of the joint Lara had passed at his left.
"Well," smiled Jack, leaning back on his arms, "I bet that went down well with the Mrs."
"Heh," Billie Joe muttered, with a slight smile, "You aren't kidding. We broke up."
"Really?" Maggie asked, in surprise.
"Yeah... everyone goes through their rough patches... right?"
"Definitely," agreed Amber, "The number of times I've felt like choking Jack... Well, he's lucky to be on this damn island at all."
"You're so sweet," Jack smirked.

"I guess Adrienne didn't like my music being prioritised over her," Billie Joe shrugged.
"Of course," said Mia, incredulously, "Nothing should be prioritised over her, Billie."
Billie Joe nodded, his eyebrows raised.
"You're right," he said, "And I realised that eventually. So we got back together again."
"Phew," Amber smiled.
"Yeah... mainly I just wanted to stop Tre from trying to cheer me up by turning up at my house drunk at four in the morning and singing 'I Will Survive' underneath my bedroom window."
"Hey, that happened one time," Tre smiled, as the others laughed, "And anyway, I did you a favour. Cause everything with you and Adie is all loved-up and perfect now, right?"
Billie Joe looked down, before nodding a little wistfully as his eyes returned to the dancing flames.
"... Yeah," he said, quietly.