I'm With The Band

Kev text Taylor her flight details 20 minutes late, but she was driving so she didn't check her phone until she pulled in to the long-stay car park at Gatwick airport. She hoped Kevin would pay for her parking too.
He had booked her for a 5:45 flight to Las Vegas, Nevada via Virgin Atlantic. He'd gotten her priority boarding and had paid extra for her luggage if she so needed it. As it turned out she did. She was allowed 25 kilos, but Kev had paid for 35. She was grateful for the extra weight. After shoving nearly everything she owned into her suitcase, she wasn't thinking rationally about weight restrictions for a flight she had no idea she was going to get.

She had to check in two hours before her flight and wheeled her case to the line of people waiting to check in at zone J. It took about an hour alone to get to the front. Her suitcase was weighed (33.4 kilos), tagged and she was sent off to the departures lounge where she would wait anxiously for another hour for her flight.

Taylor had never had the pleasure of experiencing Vegas. She was a little excited by the prospect. But that excitement died at the very thought of traipsing the streets Looking for Johnny. Who knows what kind of state he would be in when she finally caught up to him.

Taylor took a seat and waited, watching the departure board to see what gate she had to go to. She looked at the time. It was ten to five. She had just under an hour to kill but didn't want to go anywhere, didn't want to look away from the departure board. The more she thought about it, the more she just wanted to get on the plane and get to Vegas. She just wanted to find Johnny. She wanted to apologise. She'd been stupid to pretend all this time that she didn't love him. She'd never stopped loving him. He was always on her mind, despite how she'd convinced herself she'd moved on.

Taylor realised then that she'd need dollars for America. She was going to have to take a cab to her hotel. She was sure the cab driver would love getting foreign money thrown at him. She spotted a currency exchange machine and went to it. She fed it a couple of twenties and figured she could get more once she was on the other side. When she got her dollars, she glanced at the time again. Eight minutes to five. She wondered into the WH Smiths opposite to buy a bottle of water for the flight. Kevin had told her that food and drink were complimentary on the flight, but she wanted one nonetheless.

While in Smiths and queuing to pay for her water, she eyed the magazine rack beside her, strategically placed in order to tempt customers while they queued. Taylor saw a small picture of Johnny on the front, walking through a casino, a showgirl under either arm and a bottle in either hand. She pulled the magazine off the rack and refused to look at the picture in the corner. She wasn't fuelling her obsession, it was research. If the magazine had any idea where abouts Johnny was or where he liked to go, it was more than Taylor currently knew.

Taylor just wasn't looking forward to the idea of having to walk in to strip clubs on the off chance he was in one. She knew she'd have to do that at least a few times. With the water and magazine paid for, Taylor went back out to the lounge and claimed her seat again. She looked up at the board.

Time--|--Destination--|--Flight--|--Gate
17:45--|--Las Vegas----|--FY642--|--Scheduled

Taylor checked the time again. Six minutes passed five. Taylor unscrewed the cap from her water and took a swig. She resealed the bottle and stuffed it in her handbag. She opened the magazine and flicked through from the beginning. She may as well look at the whole thing. She didn't have anywhere to be.
After scanning through the first four pages with glazed eyes, Taylor skipped ahead, looking for that article on Johnny. She found it on page 10.



Taylor looked up from the magazine and thought for a moment. Johnny was meant to return but never did. That was why Kevin got on to her. Johnny's gone off the rails and he believed her to be the only one who could control him.
She looked back down at the article. Planet Hollywood was where she had a room booked, (assuming that's also where Johnny had a room booked) but where were the Ceaser's Palace and Excalibur hotels. They couldn't have been too far, surely?

Taylor stared at the picture. Johnny looked totally out of it and the showgirls under his arms didn't look too sober either. Johnny had his sunglasses on, his hair a dishevelled mess, but still black. His blonde roots were coming through. Was he growing it out cause it reminded him of her?

The beautiful showgirls, still dressed in their silver scantily costumes, large pink feathers protruding from their heads, looked like they would topple over in their killer heels. One girl wore a white feather bower loosely around her shoulders and Johnny wore the other girls pink one. In one of his hands was a bottle of vodka, in the other, whiskey.

Taylor got horrible twisted flashes of what, most likely, followed after that photo was taken. Johnny would take them both back up to his suite. He'd pour vodka down their throats from the bottle. He'd kiss them and touch them and pull their clothes off. He'd have them both in his bed and he'd passed out in the middle of them when he was done.

Taylor shook her head and shut the magazine, hating her imagination for conjuring up such vivid images. She folded the magazine, put it in her handbag and checked the time again. 5:34.
Ten minutes to go. Taylor stared at the departures board, waiting for any sign of movement. People rushed around her, clearly late for their flight. She saw that flight GH836 to Thailand was boarding and flight JK193 to Paris was delayed. Gates to New York, Rome, Hong Kong and Las Vegas had just opened up. Taylor blinked with a start. Vegas.

Time--|--Destination--|--Flight--|--Gate
17:45--|--Las Vegas----|--FY642--|--Go To Gate

She saw that her designated gate was 46. She sighed and stood, ready for the long walk to Gate 46. People around her continued to rush, wheeling their hand-luggage behind them. Taylor wasn't in any rush. She had priority boarding. She knew she'd get a good seat and hoped whoever sat beside her was antisocial. She didn't fancy making small talk with a stranger for ten hours.

From there Taylor walked ten minutes to Gate 46 and waited another twenty minutes in the priority queue. When it was finally time to board the Plane, Taylor was surprised by how big it was. When she last went aboard to travel Europe, she'd flown Ryan Air, which was more like a cattle bus with wigs. This was much more civilised.
Taylor claimed her seat by the window and stared out it. She shut her eyes and tried to block out the movement around her. Still ten hours to go.

***

Taylor tried to sleep but found it difficult. She hadn't slept for ten hours straight since her college days. She'd gotten out of that habit long ago. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but sand and orange coloured mountains stretching out in every direction. Then the city came into view. It was amazing. The tallest and strangest hotels she'd ever seen whizzed past the window as they came in to land. Taylor braced herself and the plane rumbled onto the ground. Up ahead she could see the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. It was surprisingly a lot smaller than she'd been expecting.

The plane stopped and everyone stood, including Taylor. She just wanted to get out. She was in the same state as Johnny now. All she had to do was find him.
The captain announced that the time was 8:44 in the morning, the previous day. Taylor felt like she'd gone back in time. The captain also mention the temperature outside. A whopping 39 degrees. She looked down at her jeans and already felt uncomfortable at the mere thought. She felt daft. What did she expect the weather to be like in the middle of the desert in the middle of summer?

Taylor picked up her handbag and found a gap in the line of people, shuffling towards the door. A walkway was at the door of the plane leading straight into the airport. She'd feel the heat later. Once out the tunnel and into the air conditioned airport, Taylor pulled out her passport and queued up at Passport control. The room was fairly small and the line bent back and forth on itself. It was going to take forever to get through this, she realised, and she just wanted to get to her hotel. She felt groggy from the flight and stiff from sitting down for ten hours.

Taylor turned on her phone and checked the time. It was twenty to two back in England and she'd hardly slept at all on the plane. No wonder she was so tired. The day was just beginning in Las Vegas and yet normally Taylor would have been asleep already for three hours. She didn't know how she would pull herself around to the new time zone. It would surely take her two days to fully get over her jet lag. How did Johnny manage?
Maybe he didn't pull round, she wondered. Maybe he just slept during the day and partied at night. After all, Vegas was famous for it's night life.

Once out of passport control, Taylor went to Baggage Claim and waited for her floral suitcase to roll round. When it finally did, there was one more passport check and then she was walking through into the lobby. A row of taxis waited outside and she walked to the exit. The automatic doors slid open and she was hit with a heat like she'd never felt before. The wind was hot on her face. It felt like someone was holding a hair drier straight at her.

Taylor hurried towards a cab and the driver got out to put her suitcase in the boot. He got back in the front and she jumped in the back.

'Where ya headin'?' he asked.

'Planet Hollywood, please,' she said, sweeping the hair from her face, feeling flustered already.

'After meetin' some celebs, huh?' the driver smiled. Taylor frowned.

'Excuse me?'

'That's where the celebrities like to go. After all, the Planet Hollywood franchise is part owned by Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Demi Moore, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.'
Taylor raise her eyebrows. 'No shit?' The cabby chuckled.

'No shit, Missy. In fact, rumour has it that Johnny Carolina is stayin' there right now.' Taylor felt herself come plummeting back to Earth. 'Maybe you'll meet him. Heck, you're British, right? Maybe you already know him.'

Taylor smiled. 'You'd be surprised.'

'Have you met the Queen?' he asked.

'Nah,' Taylor humoured. 'She doesn't come out much. She's a bit antisocial.'

'Well, who'da thunk it.'
They pulled on to the famous strip and Taylor took in the sights around her, breath-taken. Everywhere was so big. The roads were doubled in size, four lanes on either side. Opposite the McCarran Airport was a tall golden hotel claiming to be called Mandalay Bay. It looked beautiful and tropical and very inviting. Next to that was a pyramid with a sphinx in front of it. Apparently that was the Luxor. Beside the Egyptian themed hotel was a castle. It looked like a low-budget Disneyland, but still very impressive. It was Excalibur. This was one of the ones Johnny had supposedly been spending some time in. At least now she knew where to find it. Opposite Excalibur was a hotel called Tropicana. It looked a little smaller than the ones so far. Next came New York New York and the MGM Grand sitting opposite each other. New York New York had a roller coaster running around the outside of the hotel, high above, while the hotel itself was shaped like various New York skyscrapers. MGM was green and a magnificent, massive lion statue sat out the front. Vegas really was like a giant theme park.
Sat beside the MGM Grand was Planet Hollywood. It was tall and white and covered in windows.

'Planet Hollywood,' announced the driver as he pulled to a stop. Taylor looked out at the main entrance. The driver got out and removed Taylor's suitcase from the boot and she got out the cab. She stared up at the hotel in wonderment. It was huge.

'You've never come to Vegas before, have you?' asked the driver.

'That obvious?' Taylor asked, still gazing at the hotel that just went up and up.

'Your face says it all.'

Taylor smiled at the driver. 'No. Never come before.'

'You're in for a treat then,' he winked. Taylor dug out twenty dollars and told him to keep the change. As the cab drove away, Taylor stepped into the lobby. It was sleek with black flooring and gold pillars. The back wall was covered in neon lights that changed colour.

After Taylor checked in and navigated her way to the lifts, she released a breath. This was all so surreal. She was in Las Vegas. She never thought she'd ever go to Vegas. She wondered a moment what she was do if the lift doors opened and Johnny stepped in. She hoped he wouldn't. Not only did she want more time to prepare something to say to him, but she wanted to actually enjoy a little bit of Vegas before she had to leave. Wouldn't be a bit of a bummer to find him before she even makes it to her room?

The doors pinged open on the 22nd floor and she walked down the corridor looking for the right room. When she found it, she slipped in her card key and it unlocked with a beep. She pushed her way into her room and looked around. The carpet was tacky and the furniture was seriously retro, but there was something flash about it. The wallpaper was of large gold stripes and the bed spread was white with a black outline. Taylor dumped her suitcase and walked to the window. From her angle she got a full on view of the Eiffel Tower. This place just got weirder and weirder.

Taylor walked back to her bed and pulled her phone out her handbag. She called Kev's number. It was only when he answered, Taylor remembered the time difference.

'Sorry, Kevin,' apologised Taylor. 'Did I wake you?'

'It's fine,' he grunted. 'You found him?'

'No, I've only just gotten in my hotel room. I'm seriously jet lagged though so I think I'll sleep now and look for him at night. I figured Johnny would do the same thing so he can experience the night life more.'

'Good thinking,' muttered Kev, stifling a yawn. 'Get some sleep. Search for him in the night and gimme a call when you find him.'

'Will do.' They ended the call and Taylor shut the blinds. She then opened her suitcase. She didn't unpack, she just pulled out her pyjamas and got into bed. She fell asleep knowing that Johnny was somewhere in the same building as her.