What We Left Unsaid

“No! Come on! I don’t want to go to space!”

“Too fucking bad, loser; you drew the card. That’s minus one hundred grand, right there!”

“But--”

“Jason, for fuck’s sake, it’s plus three thousand life points; that’s a good thing!”

“I don’t care about the fucking life points! I want the money! Some of us aren’t fucking millionaires, Rinaldi!”

The woman huffed out a sigh, eyes narrowing into an unamused glare. “It’s a game, Berry. And the money isn’t even what determines the winner -- the life points are.”

“Dear God, give me the fucking thing and I’ll pay the hundred grand for him!” Everyone laughed as the shortest member of the circle leaned forward and snatched the electronic spinner from the complaining man, quickly swiping his own card into the slot and subtracting the funds without another word. “Fucking there! Now he’s got nothing to throw a goddamn tantrum over. Your turn, Brian.”

Catching the device as it was tossed to him, he pressed to spin, moved his little car, and picked up a card all within a fraction of the time it had taken Jason to get through his turn. The second he read the card, though, a scowl erupted on his lips. “’You give a friend a recommendation for a new job. Plus five hundred life; choose another player to get plus one promotion.’ Damn it! Congrats, Ava. Now you’re, what, an International Model?”

There was a wide smirk on the woman’s face as she accepted the passed electronic. “Supermodel, actually. That’s two million a turn, bitches!”

“And Matt’s still a Hostess? That’s fucking hilarious!”

“Fuck you, Bro!”

The blonde just rolled her eyes, pressing the spin button and moving her car the designated number of spaces. ”You want to adopt twins from Russia. If married, plus two children. If you are not married, make a donation to the orphanage,” she read aloud, before lifting her head and looking around the circle with an incredulous expression. “That’s fucking prejudicial! Why do I need to be married to adopt? I want my fucking Russian twins! This is bullshit!”

“Ha! Too fucking bad, Ava! You drew the card, remember?”

“Just let her adopt the fucking twins! Her car looks lonely over there, anyways.”

“Fuck, you’re a goddamn pushover today, Johnny!”

“I’m trying to help you! Holy fuck!”

“Okay, we’re officially done with this shit. We obviously can’t even handle playing the fucking game of LIFE. Give me that!” And, before anyone could do anything about it, Matt Berry had snatched up the game board and the spinner, shoved them back into the box, and was already reaching for the rest of the smaller pieces. His brother looked like he was about to object for a minute, but decided on shrugging and flopping backwards to lay on the floor instead.

“Well, that’s a particularly sad statement,” the blonde noted with a pout on her lips, though she didn’t try and argue with the decision. Clearly, they really couldn’t handle the game, even though kids everywhere managed to play it without issue on a daily basis. Sighing once again, she looked around at the others, dropping her chin down onto her hands. “Well... what are we going to do now?”

It was silent for a moment as everyone tried to think of something they could all do to pass time, until the sound of a ringing phone in the background broke them out of their thoughts.

“On it!” Brian declared as he hopped to his feet, disappearing down the hallway.

A minute later, and everyone was still staring at each other blankly.

“Damn it, I want to run!” the blonde finally grumbled, before sending a pointed look in the shortest man’s direction. “This would be so much better if you hadn’t been a complete fucktard and blew all of the fuses, you know.”

“Look, I already said that I was-- is the phone still ringing? Brian! What the hell, man?”

“Uh...” His voice was muffled a bit by the simple fact that he was in the other room, but the worry in the his tone was still obvious, and had all of the others jumping into a defensive position. “I think it’s for you, Ava.”

“What?” She didn’t wait for him to clarify before she was on her way into the room, curiosity and concern blended in her expression. As soon as she rounded the corner, though, she slowed a bit, taking in her old friend’s nervous glances between her and the still-unanswered phone. It took one quick glance at the Caller ID to have her stiffening. Tuscany. Last she’d heard, Toni was in Tuscany, and she did not want to open that floodgate.

“See what I mean?”

The phone rang again and the blonde blinked, shaking her head and gesturing right back at the man. “Nah, I’m sure it’s for you. You get it.”

“Ava. It’s from fucking Tuscany. It’s for you.”

She only shook her head again. “Hey, Johnny! You got any friends in Italy?”

“No? Why?”

“Mmm... no reason!” she responded easily, exchanging another look with the man still standing beside her before blowing out a very large sigh of relief when the phone suddenly stopped ringing. “Oh, good; they hung up. Probably a wrong number.”

The guitarist nodded. “Probably.”

Still, neither of them moved, until a minute passed and the phone started ringing again, that same description flashing across the tiny little screen. The man silently jabbed a finger in her direction, but she only repeated the same motion back at him, before lighting up with a sudden idea. “Wait! Baker’s Italian. It’s obviously for him!”

Brian appeared completely unimpressed by her suggestion. “Really, Ava? Zacky? He’s not even that Italian! Plus, his entire family is dead; our fucking families helped make sure of that!”

“Damn!” The frown that graced her lips was clearly more a result of him dismissing her idea than it was about being reminded about their families’ actions. “Okay, then... umm... Noses!”

“What the fuck are you two doing?” Both of the friends spun around at the sound of the alpha’s unhappy voice, the woman still holding a finger to her nose and the man still scowling in irritation. “Is there a reason the phone’s been ringing non-stop for two minutes, now, or were you waiting for a third person to come and help you answer it?”

There was a long pause before the black-haired man finally gave in to the staring contest he had been having with the woman and bit the bullet. “It’s from Tuscany, Matt. We think it might be Anthony Rinaldi.”

That had the alpha darting across the room within seconds, snatching up the phone and asking rather harshly, “What do you want?” Both of the others watched carefully as his expression quickly morphed into one of amusement and exasperation. Sending a pointed look at his packmates, Matt waved his hand to shoo them as he laughed into the phone. “Sorry about that, Larry! What can we do for you?”

It was the blonde that reacted to the revelation first, lashing out and smacking the man beside her on the arm. “I told you it wasn’t for me,” she mouthed to him, before snorting and rolling her eyes. As the man reached out to retaliate, the two of them made their way back toward their circle of friends, still smacking each other as they went.

“So... what was that all about?” Matt Berry was the first to ask, but the look on the rest of the group’s faces made it clear they had all been wondering the same thing.

“It was nothing,” she stressed, “so don’t worry about it. More importantly, did you fuckers come up with something for us to do?”

When no one offered up an immediate suggestion, Brian snatched a pillow from the couch beside him and sent it hurdling in the bassist’s direction. “You better fucking hope that the electricians fix your mess within the next hour or so, or we’re going to start wasting time by brainstorming how we’re going to beat you for getting us in this mess in the first place!”

“I didn’t fucking mean to, okay? Jesus! It’s only been two hours without power, and you’re acting like it’s the end of the world.”

“It’s not the electricity that’s the big deal; it’s the whole not-being-able-to-shift-because-there-are-humans-all-around-outside thing that’s killing us. Honestly, Johnny, how are you all calm and relaxed when the rest of us just want to run?” When the man in question only shrugged his shoulders, the blonde sighed, but didn’t push the point. Instead, she made her way over to the couch and plopped right down on in, staring up at the ceiling. “We could always get drunk and play never have I ever or truth or dare or some other lame drinking game.” Even she didn’t sound excited about her own idea.

“Or... we could just skip all of those games and make Johnny drink an entire bottle of whiskey, since we all know that’s how it’s going to end anyways.”

“Hey! Fuck you, Jason!”

“Oh, come on, even you know it’s true! You’re the easiest to single out because you’re too nice of a guy. We could get you hammered just by listing off things like paying for other people’s board game debts.”

“Yeah, well... clearly I need to start being more of an asshole to all of you fuckers,” he grumbled, before sighing in boredom and dragging a palm over his face. “We could play... I Spy or something?”

“Oh dear god!” Brian interrupted with a loud scoff and a disapproving shake of his head. “We’re never going to think of something to do.”

“Actually, we don’t need to.” Once more, everyone’s attention snapped back in the direction of the alpha as he once again appeared in the doorway, this time his expression much more grim. “Go call Kat and Zacky, Jason. Tell them we need them back here as soon as possible, because there’s something important we’ve got to talk about.”

Ava was quick to sit up, brows furrowed together in worry as she looked up at the standing man. “Jacobson had bad news?”

“From Italy? Was it actually about Toni?”

“He wasn’t in Tuscany; he was at Little Tuscany-- that fucking resort in San Diego.”

“But he had bad news?” she tried again, not at all liking the way the large man was just standing in the corner, looking a little bit defeated. The fact that he wasn’t at all amused by Brian and Ava freaking out over nothing was not a good sign; it could only mean something serious was going on. “Was it about the Council?”

The alpha only shook his head in response.

“Matt, come on, Man. You’re freaking us out here! What’s going on?”

“Warner wants us to do a festival next week. They want us on stage again at least once before we release the album.”