Tear Down the Cobwebs

"Rubber Duckie, you're the one, You make bathtime lots of fun, Rubber Duckie, I'm awfully fond of you!" Aaron and I sang, arms linked as we skipped around the buses and RVs parked in the lot. Zach trailed a fee feet behind us, either embarressed to be seen with us or just there to make sure we didn't wreak too much havoc.

"What's up shorty?" I heard a familiar voice call out. Spinning around mid-skip, Aaron and I tripped, almost killing ourselves in the process. Maybe it was a good thing Zach was following us. This way, someone would be left to explain why two members of our band were now zombies craving human brains.

I finally spotted Chris and Angelo making their way toward us, along with Zach who decided to be brave and join us as well. "What's up giant?" I asked in response.

"If we covered you in green paint, we could have our very own Jolly Green Giant," Aaron announced, a michievious grin on his face. I nodded in agreement as Angelo laughed at the stunned look on Chris's face.

"I'm not sure which is worse," he said thoughtfully, "being compared to someone on a can of vegetables or the thought of the two of you owning me like a pet."

I watched curiously while awaiting his final decision. "I can say that you definitely don't want to be kept as their pet," Zach said.

"And I've never seen the Jolly Green Giant wear anything other than leaves," Angelo observed. "You'd never get to wear your suits again."

A tough decision indeed. Ricky would look damn good in a suit. Maybe there's some way I could get him into one. But then again, if I got his regular clothes off him, I'd probably stop there for a while...

"Hailey Rose!" someone shouted angrily behind me. I turned around slowly, body tensing instinctively. "What the hell is this?" Hunter asked. I half expected steam to start coming out of his ears.

"A piece of paper?" I asked innocently, looking down at the ground. I knew exactly what it was though. The ticket I'd gotten the other night while driving us between venues. It's not my fault Aaron fell asleep and didn't wake up in when the cop pulled us over. He was supposed to be the liscensed adult making sure I followed the rules of the road.

Unfortunately, Hunter wasn't amused, and I now waited for flames to shoot out of his eyes and burn me until I was nothing more than a pile of ash. "You were driving 80 in a 65 zone! This is why we're always paying tickets and why you don't have your liscense! You can't even pay attention to a simple sign," he ranted. I took a step back, my brain trying to protect me from the blows I knew would never feel again.

I remained silent as Hunter turned his anger on Aaron. I could feel Angelo softly rubbibg circles on my back. I hadn't realized I'd moved so far back. And why were he and Chris still here? This wasn't going to help the friendship I was developing with MIW.

"Hunter, why are you doing this here? Why couldn't you wait until we were somewhere not surrounded by people?" Aaron burst out.

"Aaron's right, " Zach agreed. "Let's do this later, without an audience." I watched as he and Aaron pulled Hunter away, leaving me behind.

"I should probably go and get this over with," I said softly, taking a deep breath. This wasn't going to be fun.

I watched Chris's shadow shake it's head. "No, let hime cool off and deal with it later. For now, you're coming with us."

"First order of business is to get you to relax," Angelo announced. "You're muscles are rock hard." I nodded in agreement, glad he either hadn't noticed or just didn't mention my pounding heart and visibly shaking hands.

I jumped on Chris's back, surprising him. Fortunately, he caught me and took off running, leaving Angelo to try and keep up. I had no idea where we were going, and really couldn't care less at the moment, so long as it wasn't my band's van.