Learn to Spell, God!

Layla’s POV.

“Jenn, you’re smart ...” Danni stated. “Where does the Easter bunny come from?”

What the actual fuck?

“I thought he was English.” Sophie said, her eyebrows knitting together in thought.

“Easter Bunny comes from Africa.” I said quite plainly. Why I said it though, I don’t know.

“No! I thought he came from where ever the cocoa beans come from.” Pippa protested.

“Cadbury’s ...” Sophie muttered.

This is the most intellectual debate we have ever had. Hard to believe isn’t it? No wait, Danni’s involved… Not that hard then.

“Nope. Guiana is where you get cocoa beans.” I told them. Yes, I research the source of chocolate in my spare time. Because I’m cool.

“There aren’t any bunnies there though you retard.” Jenn slapped me upside the head.

“How do you know?” Hah! I had her there.

“Santa comes from Lapland and he gets his elves from Mars.” Sophie’s latest contribution to the discussion.

“Elves are not from Mars! They’re from Pluto.” Danni countered.

“You’re from Pluto.” Sophie stuck her tongue out at Danni this time.

“So are you.”

“No, I’m from Uranus! Silly ...”

“I’d rather be from Pluto.” Pippa muttered, stifling giggles.

Sophie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, putting on her crazy ‘I’m trying really hard to not seem amused’ face.

“Easter Bunny is from England. Let’s just agree on that one.” Pippa said, trying to end what had to be the weirdest topic of discussion ever.

“Did I not say that originally?!” Sophie said, throwing her arms wildly into the air, almost knocking Pippa out in the process.

“Fine. But you’re all still from Pluto.” Jenn giggled.

“Who’s from Pluto?” A deep voice from somewhere behind my left shoulder made us all look up. A tall scruffy looking dude with messy brown hair and a smirk on his face was slouching up against the wall and staring straight at me.

“None of your business, dirtbag. Now get your eyes from her cleavage.” Although Jenn had drunk a fair amount already that night, she still knew how to cut a guy down to size.

“Woah, cool it. I’m leaving. It’s just, my friend over there thought she recognised you. She’s kinda shy and didn’t want to come over herself.” He eyeballed us all, “I guess I’ll just have to tell her she was mistaken.” He turned slowly and walked towards the brunette that was sat at the bar smiling shyly at us.

Damn him - making us feel guilty.

“Wait, who does she think we are?” Pippa couldn’t help herself. That girl is just too nice.

“The members of some chick rock band she likes.” He gave a non-committal shrug. “Something about ‘poison’. I mean, she might be mistaken. She’s pretty out of it.”

The ripple of indignation that went round our group when he called Pure Poison ‘chick rock’ was audible. Very audible.

“For your information, we are the members…” Sophie started.

“And friends.” Allanah interrupted. Sophie shot her an evil glare.

“And friends, of the band Pure Poison. Your friend was right. And now I think we are going to invite her to join our female only drinking party. Have you got a problem with that?” The last remark was prompted by the admittedly very attractive, but a total dickwad dude, raising his eyebrows.

“Considering I promised her very scary best friend I would look after her, yes I do. Who knows what you might do. She’s very innocent you know.” His dark eyes flashed.

Oh dear. This was getting very close top flirting. Bri would not be happy if he was here now.

“Right, whatever. Should have known you’d be one of them.” Danni bit back at him. “And I think we’ve already told you to stop looking at her boobs, twat.”

“One of what? Go on, say it. I dare you.” Danni was opening her mouth to reply when a high voice interjected.

“Oh my God. You’re Pure Poison. I love you guys!”

Everyone moved their gaze from Mr Idiot and looked at the petite brunette. It was obvious that she would have come over sooner, had she not needed some liquid encouragement. She pushed past her ‘friend’ and gave me a massive hug.

“I think you are all so beautiful. Sign my stuff please?” She timidly placed her bum on the edge of the seat that lined our alcove. We all looked at each other.

Sophie moved up and pulled the girl with her.

“Sure honey, what’s your name?”

All he could do was watch helplessly as we accepted her into our group.

*

More hysterical laughter broke out around our table and everyone swayed ... or at least it looked as if they were. Someone came and emptied our table of glasses again. The nine of us – yes nine, we decided that Joey could sit and get drunk with us – were getting through an unhealthy amount of beer. Our drunken festivities seemed to have attracted the attention of a group of guys. This will be interesting to say the least.

“Hey, do you mind if we sit with you?” Okay, it could be the alcohol talking, but these guys weren’t bad looking. Though, the sleazy look the guy who spoke gave Sophie wasn’t reassuring.

“Sure.” Danni beamed, scooting across and letting one of them into our booth immediately.

The others filed round, climbed over laps and settled themselves in between us. It was blatantly obvious, even when this intoxicated, that they each had their eye on an individual. I almost felt sorry for Joey because he was the third wheel now. I wish I hadn’t worn such a short skirt out now; the guy’s hand kept caressing my leg, despite my attempts to move away from him.

“So,” the ‘leader’ of their group said, leering at Sophie more with each word, “how about we, err, go to the beach across the road? We have some booze in my car ...”

“Yes!” Sophie exclaimed. The beach and more booze sounded like a great idea to be honest.

The guy – Pete I think his name was – laced his warm hand with mine and pulled me gently behind him. I liked these guys; they were giving us alcohol and attention. You got one or the other with Avenged.

We stumbled out of the bar into the cool May air. My hand was still firmly clasped in my new ‘friends’ hand and we made our way across the empty road towards the sound of the ocean lapping against the sand.

It looked like everyone else had found a spot for us whilst Sophie and her man got whatever booze was being supplied. I sat myself down next to Pete, with no other option really, he would not let physical contact between us drop. Alichay – the newest female addition to our drinking party – had one of the guy’s tongues down her throat, for lack of a better phrase, and he was currently trying to maneuver himself on top of her.

“Keep it R rated, thank you very much!” Sophie hiccuped, returning with the alcohol, the guy, and a set of lips attached to her neck as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

She proceeded to throw the bottles at people then dropping the rest in the centre of our circle which now resembled an orgy. She was pulled into a sitting position between the guy’s legs – i should really have paid attention to names – still allowing him to ‘explore’.

If I weren’t so drunk, I’d probably care a bit more that these guys were all making moves and that Pete’s hands were tracing patterns on my legs, slowly slipping underneath the material of my skirt. A sickly feeling appeared in the pit of my stomach. I took a swig from the bottle in my hand, hoping to drown the sensation.

“I’m gonna be sick!” I gasped, and not a second too late; Pete’s hands had made their way to my underwear.

I staggered to my feet and headed for a group of rocks behind me.

*

Brian’s POV.

I cracked my knuckles nervously, shattering the deathly silence that consumed the bus lounge area. Johnny was pacing up and down the limited floor space; Matt was on his phone, still, trying to contact Pippa. As for Zacky and Jimmy ... well they’d been out for the past hour looking for the girls.

It was midday and we’d heard nothing from them. We hadn’t seen them since they mysteriously disappeared from the bar we were in last night. I know the girls aren’t too bad when it comes to alcohol and they’re normally looking after us, but it’s not like them to just go off, especially without telling us where to. And none of us know what those five are like when they’re truly wasted either...

Matt groaned in frustration, again, and threw his phone straight into the little bin on the opposite side of the bus, narrowly missing Johnny and his pacing. He muttered something about how women always seem to carry their phones with them but never bother to answer them.

I was about ready to go and look for them myself when my phone started ringing from my pocket. Thinking it was Zacky or Jimmy saying they were giving up and coming back – not that they would really – I pulled it out with a sigh to answer.

“Bri?” A small, hoarse voice spoke from the other end.

“Where the fuck are you? You’ve been gone all night without telling us where you were and Zacky and Jimmy have been searching everywhere for you!”

“I could really do without the lecture right now. For one, I have finally discovered what a hangover truly feels like, and second, I don’t need your shit because you guys have pulled way worse stunts.” She bit out.

“Whatever,” I muttered. “Where are you lot anyway?”

“I don’t have a clue. A beach ... there’s a cafe opposite us and a pier about five minutes down. Listen, I’m sorry, okay? We all are. We’ve woken up on a beach, with fuck off hangovers and the tide came in at half five this morning so we’re also soaked and tired. Can you just pick us up?”

“Well now, a beach with a pier and cafe. That narrows it down ... the west coast is a big place, Sophie.”

“Fuck you asshole!” I heard Layla shout from behind her before the line went dead.

Before I even had a chance to replace my phone in my pocket, it started ringing again. I couldn’t be doing with the hung-over attitude from five eighteen year olds so answered in a bit of a huff;

“What now?” I growled.

“Easy tiger! We’ve found them, dude. Their in one hell of a bad way.”

“Jim? Where are they, specifically?”

“Only about ten minutes walk from the bus. All you need to do is follow the signs to the beach and we’re literally opposite this place called ‘Shirley’s.’ Bring Shads and Christ too – hell, even bring the Berry’s. We’re gonna need all the muscle we can get.”

Neglecting to relay anything to Matt or Johnny, I heaved myself from the coach and headed straight out the door the tech bus. Throwing the door open, much to the displeasure of the people on the bus, I caught Matt and Jason by their wrists and dragged them off the bus. Jason seemed to understand my haste, and Shads and Johnny obviously understood too.

After sprinting our way down a few side streets, we found the main road and the beach just across it. Jimmy and Zackly stuck out against the emptiness of the sand. The girls looked like they were all passed out. The gathering had drawn the attention of some rather shifty looking people. There were five of the six drunken bodies slumped in the sand.

“Where’s Danni?” Johnny asked immediately, noticing the blonde had disappeared.

Zacky proceeded to point at a hunched up figure by some rocks. It sounded as if they were retching and spluttering. No doubt she was in the process of emptying her stomach. Johnny scrunched up his nose and jogged over to her.

I followed the others and crouched next to my semi conscious other half. The bags under their eyes, the messy hair and lack of certain pieces of clothing told us that it had been a rough night.

“Bri ...” Sophie whispered, “I feel like I’m going to die.”

“This is what you get when you drink too much and then disappear to drink more.” I told her, trying to add some amusement to my tone.

“Go screw some whore. I don’t need your help then.” She growled before rolling onto her side to face away from me.

It looked like the others had had similar reactions. It’s hard to keep a cool head and light out look when people get pissed off at you for the slightest things. Matt had already left a passed out Pippa, cussing loudly. It looked like Jason and Allanah who were actually getting on in this situation. Johnny was walking back over to us with Danni slumped in his arms.

“I say we get our little piss heads back to the bus and into bed.” Best thing I’ve heard all morning.

*

Gross. This is full on not what I want right now. Sophie retched into the basin of the loo and I, rather reluctantly, held her hair out of her face. It’d be hypocritical of me to tell her this is what she gets for drinking so much; I – and the other guys – have been worse, and on more than one occasion.

Flushing the loo, Sophie returned from the white depths and flop against my side. They’re lucky we have a day off really. Forgetting about being mad that her and her band mates went on a wild, drunken adventure last night, I hugged her close to my side.

“I’m never drinking again.” She managed to whisper.

“We’ll see how long that lasts. You know you won’t be able to say no next time Jimmy challenges you to a shots contest.” Not seeing the humor, Sophie just stared up at me with tired eyes. “Let’s get you to bed.”