Never Regret

It’s now October 11th, and we’re in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a 10 hour trip. But everyone was excited and in a party mood. Why? Because it’s Gabe’s 30th birthday, and today we’re filming an episode of CobraCam.TV to celebrate before hitting the casinos tonight. It’s going to be so much fun! Michael and I are still going great too. He’s being the perfect gentleman, and I don’t regret saying yes to being in a relationship with him. Surprising, maybe. But I couldn’t care less. I haven’t felt this happy in years.

“WE’RE IN VEGAS, BABY!!!” Taylor screamed, leaping off the bus.

Me, Logan, JC and Reece laughed at our crazy merch girl, stepping off the bus in a slightly more subdued fashion. Fuck, it’s hot here. I’m glad the theme Gabe set for us doesn’t require heavy clothing. I’m wearing a black tank top tucked into green and brown camo shorts, bare legs with black Doc Martens, two streaks of black face paint in war stripes under my eyes, and my hair in two plaits under green and brown army cap. Dog tags hung around my neck too.

If you haven’t guessed, our theme is camouflage/army. Not really sure why, but hey, this is Gabe we’re talking about!

“Damn, it’s good to be back here,” Michael smiled, wrapping his arms around me from behind.

I smiled and turned around, pulling his face down to mine by the sand-coloured camouflage scarf around his neck to peck his lips in greeting.

“I never thought I’d get to come to Vegas. This place is legendary,” I grinned, resting my hands on his chest.

“Then I’ll make it the best four days of your life,” Michael murmured into my ear.

I giggled as he sucked on my earlobe, my bandmates rolling their eyes playfully. Like Michael had said – they’re just glad that I’m happy.

“Alrighty, we’re all ready to go!” Gabe cheered.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR GABANTI...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!”

Gabe danced around to our singing, waving his arms in the air. Bless him.

“Aww you guys are too much! Ready to find out what the episode is about then?” Gabe chuckled.

“Go for it,” Pete smiled.

“The setting is we’re split off in different groups, scattered and lost among the desert. Me and Bill are going to be the main focus, because we’re just awesome, but the camera is going to flick between groups. Obviously we won’t be lost and scattered, but you get the point. The basic plot is that something is chasing us and killing us off, and me and Bill have to figure it out before it’s too late. It turns out to be a giant cobra wearing a birthday hat,” Gabe grinned.

0.o

“Sounds like fun!” Victoria said happily.

“Who’s with who?” Adam asked cheerfully.

*

“Risky Sisky to Kangaroo and Mackey Mouse...what’s happening? Where are T-Bird and T-Bear?” the radio in my hand crackled.

“They were right behind us but...but...” I fake-sobbed.

“It got them,” Michael whispered dramatically.

“Oh no! What about Gabanti and Billy the Kid?” Adam asked fake-worriedly.

“We don’t know. We haven’t seen them in hours,” I replied.

“They could be anywhere,” Michael added.

“Stay together. We’ll try to find you, but there’s only 4 in my survival group now. I hope Gabanti can find this thing and kills it before it...it kills again,” Adam said sadly.

“We hope so too, Risky. Over and out,” Michael said softly.

The camera turned away from us, and Michael rolled his eyes playfully, guiding the two of us back under the shade of the palm trees to stand with William and Gabe, as Jack the Camera Guy filmed Pete, Alex, Adam and JC. We were just outside of Las Vegas by a patch of thick palm trees, allowing us shade to stand under and wide vacant sand to film on. So far, Victoria, Taylor, Reece, Andy, Ryland, Mike, Nate and Logan had ‘died’. I’d been in a group with Michael, Andy, Taylor and Victoria, and we were having a blast. Of course, Andy, Victoria and Taylor were now ‘dead’ but you get the point.

“Why did we let Gabe choose the codenames?” Michael sighed,

Kangaroo was Michael and I was Mackey Mouse. Obviously Risky Sisky was Adam. But the rest of the names were pretty random:

Gabe was Gabanti.
William was Billy the Kid.
Andy was Butcher (pretty obvious).
Mike was Spike.
Victoria was T-Bird.
Ryland was Rye bread.
Alex was Sexy Suarez.
Nate was Nasty.
Logan was Berry (yes, after the loganberry).
JC was Snail (we laughed hard at this one).
Reece was Incredible Hulk.
Taylor was T-Bear.
Pete was Panda.

Gabe clearly has too much time on his hands.

“Because it’s his birthday. Now suck it up,” I grinned.

“I know something you can suck,” Michael growled teasingly.

I giggled, hitting him in the chest, but Michael just grinned and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.

“Is that all you’ve got?” I teased.

Michael laughed and lowered his lips to mine, but we were interrupted by Gabe running over.

“You two are next and this is the bit where you die. Just run around looking scared and then when I give the signal, drop to the ground. Mack, you drop first and then Chizzy you drop a few seconds after. We’ll edit the graphics and effects in later, obviously,” Gabe grinned

“Sure,” Michael chuckled.

“We just did the bit where Sisky, Pete, Suarez and JC got killed, so when you two get killed, me and Bill will run on, speak for a bit and when Bill shouts let’s get wasted, you two jump up and start dancing with everyone else that’ll run on,” Gabe instructed.

“Right. I think I got that,” I laughed.

“Good! Now, go!” Gabe said excitedly.

I pecked another kiss to Michael’s lips before running back into the sand. When Jack the Camera Guy nodded, Michael and I started running back and forth, arms in the air, screams and shouts spilling from our mouths. I looked over at Gabe, who stuck his hands in the air in the Cobras’ fangs sign, so I dropped to the ground, motionless.

“Mackey Mouse! No!” Michael cried dramatically.

It took all my concentration not to laugh. Then Michael dropped to the ground too, right next to me, our hands touching lightly. I heard footsteps running. That must be William and Gabe.

“No! We were too late!” William exasperated.

“We’re the only two left, Billy the Kid. Everyone else is dead,” Gabe said gravely.

“We can’t give up. We can’t!” William said desperately.

“I know! But...wait a minute...I can hear it! It’s coming!” Gabe cried out.

Then there was a pause. I’m assuming that’s where the giant cobra in a birthday hat will be edited in.

“No way, bro!” Gabe laughed.

I heard what sounded like jumping up and down. He’s probably pretending to be excited.

“Let’s get wasted!” William shouted.

Michael grabbed my hand as we jumped up from the floor, starting to dance as one of the technical crew blasted ‘Hot Mess’ by Cobra Starship, everyone else from the bands and the roadies joining us too. When the song ended we cheered and clapped, and Jack the Camera Guy put his thumbs up.

“Cut!” Jack shouted.

“Yeah!” Gabe grinned, punching his fist in the air.

“Right, if we all go freshen up and get changed, we can go see the sights then go to the casinos,” Pete announced.

Everyone cheered and started heading towards the buses. I just turned around and smiled at Michael.

“What’s got you so happy?” he mused.

“I heard from a certain panda that we’re staying in a hotel tonight,” I said innocently.

“Oh really?” Michael smirked.

“Mmhmm. Wouldn’t it be so much fun to share a room?” I grinned.

Michael just grinned and pressed his lips firmly to mine. I groaned softly and kissed him back, arms around his neck to bring him closer. I just want to get things straight – Michael and I aren’t sleeping together, and we won’t be any time soon. I’m nowhere near ready to get that close to someone again and Michael knows it. He said he’s fine with it. We’re taking things slowly, stage by stage. I mean, we’ve only got as far as heated making out and Michael putting his hands under my bra. But I think I prefer taking our relationship this way. Going into heavy stuff too fast would scare me away and Michael knows it. It’s like the closer we get emotionally, the closer we get physically.

But who says we can’t have a little fun in the hotel tonight, right?