Take One Last Breath

..::Austin’s POV::..

“Austin,” I heard somebody call out my name as I was cuddled up to Ville. Daylight had been pouring through the windows, making the inside of my eyelids a bright orange. It had now been a few days since the dumbasses of West Chester dumped my best friend and my not so attractive or smart cousin in hotel in god knows where. I was only drifting into consciousness when my name was called out again, and my shoulder was poked. I finally deciphered that the voice belonged to Knoxville. He poked me once again, and I was fully awake.

“You wanna lose that finger?” I asked, opening an eye to look at him as Hanna, Ryan, and Steve-O crowded behind him.

“We need to talk to you,” Knoxville said, bearing a look of ‘please don’t kill me’.

“What do you want,” I asked groggily, closing my eyes again and resting my head on Ville’s chest, who was passed out.

“Don’t get mad at us, okay?” Hanna said, and I opened my eyes again to look at them.

“What did you do?” I growled, pushing myself up and waking Ville up in the process.

“Huh?” He said, waking up.

“Well, remember how we dumped Bam and Kori in god knows where?” Ryan asked, and I squinted my eyes at them.

“I try to forget everything you guys do, but I remember,” I said, talking slowly.

“Well we called the hotel,” Knoxville said.

“Stop beating around the god damned bush,” I barked at them, and they jumped back.

“Well, the two didn’t check out, but they’re nowhere to be found, either,” He told me, and Ville stopped breathing as everything got really quiet.

“So you’re saying we’ve gotten rid of Bam?” I asked, and I could feel tears of happiness make their way to my eyes.

“But Kori-“

“Bam’s not coming back?” I asked, a happy smile finding its way to my face.

“So you’re not mad?” Ryan asked, still unsure of what was going on.

“Of course I’m fucking pissed, and I’m going to kill all four of you, but Bam’s gone!” I said, smiling wider.

“Why me, I wasn’t even here,” Steve-O whined.

“Just be default,” I clarified.

“She’s scaring me. Let’s go,” Hanna said, backing up quickly, the three others following his actions.

“RUN,” Knoxville commanded, and the four bolted out of my room. I looked over at Ville, who was laid back against the pillow, his eyebrows furrowed.

“What’s wrong,” I asked as I yawned and started to get up.

“I guess I just don’t get how they disappeared off the face of the Earth,” he admitted, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense, “The guys said they left Bam’s Hummer, and I mean, he’s not stupid, he could find his way back home if he needed to. If they were in deep shit, he knows his house number. I just can’t get over the thought that they’re up to something.

“Well, do you think we should figure out which town they got dumped in?” I asked, and Ville looked up at me.

“Maybe. Kori and Bam stopped at nothing to find you. If they are in trouble, perhaps it would be best if we found them as well,” he suggested, and I nodded.

“You’re right, I guess,” I said, and he sat up, taking me into his arms.

“Just don’t worry about it. Let’s take a shower, then we’ll interrogate them, alright?” he asked, and I nodded, kissing him on the forehead.

<<*^v^v^v^*>>

“Alright. So, are you going to tell us where the fuck you dropped Kori and Bam?” I asked Knoxville, Ryan, and Hanna as they were tied up to pool table, and Steve-O was knocked out and laying on top of it, trapped by layers and layers of plastic bubble wrap rolled over everything but his head. I had a paintball gun in one hand, and a taser in the other.

“Whether we tell you or not, you’re going to use those,” Ryan testified, and I grinned cynically.

“Damn straight I am. I trekked through much used condom’s on Bam’s floor to get these. They’re getting used,” I said, and Knoxville pursed his lips.

“So then there’s no point in telling you,” He said.

“I can make it more painful and longer if you don’t,” I threatened.

“No wonder you sent Ville out. I feel if he saw this he’d be just as scared as we are,” Hanna said, and I pointed the paintball gun in his direction.

“And you have a reason to be scared. Now. Where did you dump them?” I asked, on the verge of begging.

“Fine. In Maine,” Hanna finally gave in. I suddenly felt a little bit homesick.

“Maine? Which part of Maine?” I asked, and Knoxville shrugged.

“Some small town called Bath. Cause Bam smelled like he needed one,” Knoxville admitted, and I started laughing a little, “Why are you laughing? Why the fuck are you laughing?”

“Leave it to you guys to drop two people off in one of their hometowns,” I laughed, placing the paintball gun and the taser on the couch.

“Wait, what?” Ryan asked, and I sat down facing them.

“Where the fuck did you think Kori and I are from? We’re from fucking Bath. God you guys are retarded,” I laughed as I slipped my combat boots on, and started tying the laces.

“Why are you putting on shoes?” Knoxville asked, sounding terrified.

“Ville and I are going to Maine, and we’re going to find Kori and shit face,” I told them, and shot them a thumbs up.

“Are you going to untie us first?” Ryan asked as I got up.

“Nope,” I said shortly as I walked towards the door to outside, where Ville was, smoking a cigarette. I could hear the three calling after me, but I ignored them.

“How’d it go in there? I mean, I could hear them screaming in terror, but really, how did it go?” Ville asked as we walked towards his car.

“They’re in Bath, Maine. Or they were at least. There’s a total of two hotels in that city, not county bed and breakfasts. So we go and search for a purple Hummer. We ask both places if they have anybody with the name of Margera checked in, or if they checked out. Kori’s lived there a long time, so they could virtually be anywhere. Are the bags in the car?” I asked, and Ville nodded as we got into the car. We were going to camp out at my father’s house once we got there. It would be late by the time we did, so we would begin searching tomorrow. I quickly put my address into Ville’s GPS and we started leaving the house.

“So, how come you and Kori ended up staying so long with Bam and his family?” Ville asked, attempting to make a conversation.

“Well, the plan was to stay here all summer, which isn’t up, may I add. Not to mention, ever since my dad died, this has kind of felt like home to me. If I had gone back to Bath, my life…well, I wouldn’t really have one. That’s another one of the things that’s making it so much easier for me to go back to Helsinki with you,” I admitted sheepishly, and he flitted around for my hand, and entwined our fingers.

“And I’m glad that you’re coming. Ever since you left, it’s kind of been lonely there. My band members keep good company, but I’d much rather be around you,” he said, and goose bumps rose on my skin.

“I just want to talk with Kori about what she’s going to do. I’d rather her not live alone in her apartment by herself,” I said, searching my mind. I know that Bam wouldn’t let her, either. If they were in love, well, I assume she’d move into his house permanently.

“She has an apartment in Bath?” Ville asked, and I looked at him.

“I said that, right?” I asked, too deep in my thoughts to understand where he was trying to get at.

“Well. Maybe they decided to go there,” he suggested, and a light bulb went off.

“Maybe. Do you think if we find them, we can camp out at my house for a week or so after that? The longer those fuckers back at Bam’s house don’t know what’s going on, the absolute better,” I said, and a smirk crawled onto his face.

“Absolutely. I like the way you think,” He said, and I couldn’t help but lean over and kiss him on the cheek. The drive to Maine had been a long eight hours, filled with both conversations about life, and silenced voided by music. It had been getting dark as I pointed towards my father’s driveway, his old blue truck still sitting there, “This is a nice place,” he said as he scaled the two story white building with his eyes. He turned the car off, and got the two small suitcases from the back. I got my key ring out of my bag as I walked up to the front door, opening the door to what felt exactly like my childhood. I let Ville in, and closed the door behind him. I led him towards my old room, where he set the luggage down on the ground, and fell face first into the bed.

“Are you hungry?” I asked him as I slipped off my shoes.

“Not quite. I’m far more tired,” he admitted, and I shed off my pants as I crawled into bed next to him, pulling my blanket over us. It wasn’t night just yet, but the long car ride had tired both of us.

“You know, maybe we could hold off on looking for those two, and we can just have a few days to ourselves,” I suggested, thinking it would be great to get away from the chaos back in West Chester for a small while.

“Good idea,” Ville said quietly into my neck as his breathing slowed, and kept at a steady pace. It was obvious that he was already fast asleep, and I wasn’t far behind him. The only thing keeping me awake was me being deep in thought. Things were starting to go absolutely amazing for some reason, and I was suspicious as to why. Why was all the good shit starting to happen for some reason. Ever since the incident with Novak, the moment he left the house, everything was absolutely perfect. I knew it wasn’t going to last long, I knew that he would come back, or somebody would come back, and they would fuck everything up for me, and I was tired of things getting scrambled, “Stop thinking about everything and go to sleep,” Ville said, scaring me from my thoughts.

“I thought you were asleep,” I said quietly.

“You’re breathing was off, I knew you were thinking about something,” he clarified, smoothing over the skin on my arm with his arm, “You need some rest. Don’t worry about anything until tomorrow, and just sleep,” he urged. I knew he’d feel better if I just did, so I kissed him on the lips tenderly before I lay my head onto the pillow, attempting to have a peaceful sleep. All I thought of after that was how happy I was to be in his arms, and I let myself drift off.

..::Knoxville’s POV::..

“I can’t believe she just left us,” I said as Hanna, Ryan, and I were tied up together.

“I can,” Hanna interrupted, “I’m just happy she didn’t use that taser on us. I’ve been tased enough this summer, I’m good with not getting tased again.”

“Maybe we could attempt to flip the table over,” Ryan suggested.

“Steve-O’s on the top, Dunn,” I said, wanting to look at him like he was a genius.

“I know, know let’s do this,” He said, and we all pushed up so the table would flip over. Once it finally did, we could hear Steve-O under the table moaning.

“My spleen,” he called out.

©Shannon.