Into the Wild...Boyz

Darcie was exhausted as she settled into her seat on the plane. Finally, they were going back home. She had endured two weeks’ worth of filming, fun and a lot of drinking and lived to tell about it. She wasn’t used to drinking so much. Sure she liked to have a good time as much as the next person but this crew seemed to have a good time twenty-four-seven and rather than be a wet blanket, she did her best to try to hang with them which seemed to finally catch up with her once they boarded the plane bound for Los Angeles. Good thing it was a straight through flight.
Once they were in the air, Darcie took out her little travel pillow from her carry on and settled in for a nice, long nap. It was just like the first flight they took to Argentina. Jeff, Johnny, Steve-O and Pontius were up front in First Class and the rest of the crew was in Coach. It’s just that everyone was scattered this time. Somehow Darcie got lucky because the two seats in her row were abandoned so she took advantage of that and stretched out to get more comfortable. Soon her eyes drooped as her iPod sang her to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Darcie?” a male voice called to her and she heard herself let out a little murmur in response. “Darcie?” the male voice beckoned to her sweetly. She opened her eyes and Dimitry was standing in front of her aisle of the plane. She let out a groan as she moved her legs so he could sit down. He chuckled as she took out her earbuds. “We’re home. The guys wanted me to leave you but I thought that’d be kind of cruel.”

“Thanks for looking out for me”, she yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Slowly she got her stuff together and joined him in the aisle.

“Ladies, first of course”, he gestured for her to get in front of him and they got off the plane. The gate was a virtual ghost town for as late as it was and Jeff was waiting for them.

“Why’d you wake her up, man?” asked Jeff with a smile.

“Because it would’ve been a horrible joke”, replied Dimitry. “Would you want to be left behind?”

“Should we tell Darcie it was your idea then?”

“It wasn’t my idea.” Dimitry turned to Darcie. “It wasn’t my idea.”

“The fact that you guys even thought about doing that to me….you all suck”, said Darcie and she started to walk away ahead of them. Both Jeff and Dimitry looked at each other and tried not to laugh as they followed her.

“So we learned something tonight for the sake of science”, said Jeff. “Long flights make Darcie grumpy.” Darcie gave them an unlady-like one fingered hand gesture and led them to baggage claim while she turned on her cell phone. Hopefully Savannah would be awake at this hour and more than happy to pick her best friend up from the airport. There was much to tell her since they weren’t able to talk in the two weeks that Darcie had been away.

“Darcie, are you mad at us?” asked Jeff as him and Dimitry got on the escalator with Darcie.

“No”, snapped Darcie.

“Then why’d you flip us off?”

“We’ve just endured a fourteen hour flight and it’s”, Darcie looked at the clock on her phone, “three o’clock in the morning?” She groaned then stepped off the escalator and joined the rest of them at the empty baggage claim belt.

“Okay, okay. We’re sorry. We won’t let it happen again”, said Jeff.

“That’s a lie”, said Dimitry.

“Shhh! She doesn’t need to know that. At least you’ve got the weekend to recover before we got back to work. We’re staying home for the next week or so then we’re off to Thailand.”
Darcie really wasn’t listening. She was more concerned with the fact that she didn’t see her bags. She whipped around to confront her boss. “All right, what’d you do with my luggage, Tremaine?”

Jeff smiled, “I didn’t do anything with it, Miller. I swear I didn’t.”

“I have it”, said Steve-O. “I noticed you didn’t come down with the rest of us so I grabbed it off the belt for you.”

Darcie relaxed. “Oh thanks, Steve.”

“What are friends for right?” His smile was genuine which disarmed her grumpiness, a little.

“Yeah. What are friends for?” Darcie sighed but gave him a small smile. “Thanks for rescuing my stuff.”

“Oh, dude, don’t mention it. So, uh, how are you getting home? Do you need a ride?”

“Well”, Darcie looked past Steve-O and saw a familiar face headed their way. It was Savannah and she was smiling. Darcie gasped, “Bestie!” Darcie dropped her carry on and ran to her best friend, locking her into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

“Hey, Darcie. Good to see you too.” Savannah looked over Darcie’s shoulder and gave a sympathetic look toward Johnny whose own smile fell from his face and turned into a frown. Savannah was supposed to be his ride but he had a feeling that their plans were about to change.

“This is crazy”, said Darcie as she let go of Savannah. “I was just about to call you and here you are. How’d you know I’d need a ride?”

“Oh you know, great minds think alike I guess.”

“Yeah really”, replied Darcie then she just so happened to turn around and look where Savannah’s eyes went past her. Quickly Johnny busied himself with inspecting the tag on his luggage. “Uh oh. I’m not interrupting anything am I?” Savannah quietly shushed her and pleaded with her eyes to keep quiet. “Uh okay then. Perhaps you have something to tell me just as much as I have something to tell you?”

“Not now, Darcie”, said Savannah, quietly then she cleared her throat. “So where’s your stuff? I just want to get on the road before the early morning rush starts.”

“Oh, it’s over here.” Savannah followed Darcie to where Steve-O was.

“Taking off?” asked Steve-O.

“Yeah. I guess I’ll see you sometime this week at the office.”

“Oh yeah sure, that is if I don’t call you first or something.” Steve-O pulled her into an unexpected hug. “Be safe and all.”

“Always”, replied Darcie as he released her. She picked up one of her suitcases while Savannah took the other and they left for the parking garage somewhat unnoticed.

“Uh, looks like my ride left without me”, said Johnny. “Can I get one from you, Jeff?”

“Yeah sure, PJ.” Jeff saw Darcie and Savannah leave. “So your new best friend ditched you huh?”
Johnny just gave him a warning look as to not say another word. “Geez, everyone’s in such a great mood this morning.”

“Yeah well I’d be in a better one if I would’ve napped like you did on the plane but someone had to stay awake to keep an eye on Steve-O and Pontius.”

“No one said you had to babysit”, replied Jeff as they started making their way toward the parking garage.

“I’ll remember that next time.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Steve-O got into his apartment with his bags and let out a heavy sigh as he shut the door behind him. He didn’t expect there to be people hanging out in his living room and he wasn’t in the mood, really. He surveyed the little living space and there were empty liquor bottles and beer cans everywhere. The place was trashed and he was mad as he tossed down his bags which made his friend, Ryan, who was supposed to be taking care of the place while he was gone, jump from his seat on the couch.

“Hey, man. I didn’t know you were home.”

“I called you, dude. Left a shit ton of messages for you to come get me too.”

“I’m sorry. We started early”, Ryan laughed a bit but cut it short when Steve-O glared at him. “You
want a beer or something? We’re about to smoke.”

“Nah, I’m good. I just wanna sleep.”

“Sure, sure. How was Argentina?”

“Fine”, replied Steve-O as he searched the drawers in the kitchen for something.

“Cool. You’ll have to tell me all about it.”

“Later. Uh, what happened to that box of tacks I had?”

“Box of tacks? Um, I don’t know. Thought we used them all up last time we were messing around.”

Steve-O shut the drawer he’d been digging in and found the box of tacks on the cluttered counter before him. “This place is a mess, man. Sure wasn’t like this when I left.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll have it cleaned up by the time you wake up tomorrow. I promise.” Steve-O just nodded and headed to his room after he picked up his bags.

Once inside his room, he put the box of tacks on his bedside table and collapsed on the bed. At least the sheets still smelled clean. He let out a sigh of relief and just laid there for a couple minutes, enjoying the fact that he was home. Nothing beat coming home after being on the road for a couple weeks, even if there were people partying in his living room. Soon he sat up and emptied the contents of his pockets which weren’t much; just his phone, his cigarettes, a lighter and a very special piece of paper that was neatly folded. He grabbed a tack from the box on the bedside table, meticulously unfolded the picture that Darcie had drawn and tacked it to the wall near his bed. He’d find a proper frame for it later. He quickly fell asleep after, still in his clothes and had a series of dreams about a faceless, red headed woman.