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It was a cold, rainy, December night, and Davey laid in his bunk listening to Hunter’s muffled snores, the soft music that escaped Jade’s headphones, the occasional creaking of Adam’s bunk as he rolled over in his sleep, and various other sounds which signified that he was the only one on the bus who was still awake.
He sighed and rolled over onto his back.
“This is pointless . . .” He whispered to his stuffed chicken, Pecky. “How come I’m always the first one to lay down, yet the last one to fall asleep?”
Davey waited a few seconds to give Pecky time to respond to the question, but the chicken remained silent.
“If only I hadn’t gotten mad at Jade’s girlfriend and made that whole ‘no sharing bunks’ rule so he would stop inviting her to come on tour with us . . .”—Davey bounced Pecky in his hands so he appeared to nod in agreement.—“At least then I would be able to sleep in Adam’s bunk, instead of laying here wishing I was.”
The bus suddenly slowed down and turned off of the interstate.
‘I wonder why we’re stopping . . .’ Davey thought as he climbed out of his bunk and quietly made his way towards the front.
His question was soon answered as the bus turned into a Pilot Travel Center and pulled up next to one of the many diesel fuel pumps.
“Oh! A truck stop!” Davey whispered excitedly as he sat Pecky on the counter of the small kitchen and hurried back towards his bunk to get dressed.
If he could not sleep, at least he could get off of the bus for a little while and stretch his legs.
A gust of icy wind greeted Davey as soon as he stepped off the bus. He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself.
The bus driver was busy fueling the bus, so Davey decided not to bother him. He did not plan on being gone very long and he knew from past experiences that it normally took anywhere from twenty to thirty minutes for the driver to complete a stop. He had plenty of time to look around and maybe even find something to snack on.
The inside of the truck stop smelled like dirty mop water and cigarette smoke.
‘Lovely, at least I didn’t bring Pecky with me . . . It would take dozens of baths to get this smell out of him . . .’ Davey thought as he looked around the room for something to purchase.
After inspecting what seemed like millions of food labels and receiving just as many strange looks from various obese truck drivers, Davey decided that he would just stick with a couple bottles of water and a bag of pretzels.
The cashier looked up from her tabloid magazine when he sat his items on the counter and began hitting various buttons on the register.
“Anything else?” She asked as she popped her gum in her mouth and tapped her fake, red fingernails against the counter.
“That’s all,” Davey replied, digging through his handbag for his money.
“Six dollars and sixty-six cents.”
“What?”—Davey looked up at her in disbelief.—“Seriously?”
The cashier just stared back at him, her out stretched hand demanding his money.
“Uhm... hold on...”—Davey quickly grabbed the first item he could find off of a shelf next to the register and handed it to her.—“Add that.”
She rolled her eyes and impatiently sighed as she cleared the total and added the other item.
“Eight dollars and fifty-nine cents.”
“That’s better,” Davey laughed nervously as he counted out the correct amount of money and laid it on the counter.
She shoved the bag across the counter and went back to reading her magazine.
“Have a nice night!” Davey called, overly cheerful as he grabbed the bag off the counter and headed back outside to the bus.
But when Davey walked back to the place the bus had been parked the bus was gone.
At first Davey just thought the bus driver had moved the bus after he had fueled, but after searching the vast parking lot for a few minutes Davey gave up hope and pulled his cell phone out of his bag.
“Th . . . They left me . . .” he cried as he dialed Adam’s number. “They actually left me!”
He phone rang several times and then switched over to Adam’s voice-mail.
“Damn it!” Davey cursed as he dialed the next number in his phone.
“Hello?”
“Jade! Help! The bus le . . .”
“You dialed Jade’s super fly cell phone, too bad the phone’s hella rad owner is unable to answer . . .”
Davey hung the phone up before he could hear the rest of Jade’s answering message.
“No!” Davey screamed. “Come on! Somebody! Anybody! Wake up and answer your phone!”
After several more failed attempts, Davey finally got a hold of someone.
“What the hell do you . . .”
“Smith! Oh god, Smith! It’s ME! DAVEY! The fucking bus left ME at a fucking TRUCK STOP!”
“What?!”
“The bus! It left me!”
“Damn... you’re serious aren’t you... Where are you? Are you okay? Our bus hasn’t stopped in hours! I’m going to call the other bus.” Smith quickly responded.
The call was ended before Davey could thank him.
By that time, Davey’s clothes were completely soaked and he had no choice but to go back inside and wait on the bus to come back for him.
In one corner of the truck stop was a Wendy’s. Davey took a seat at one of the small booths and pulled one of his bottles of water out of the plastic shopping bag.
The receipt was stuck to the condensation on the outside of the bottle.
“Pilot Travel Center #149,” Davey read to himself after he pulled the paper from the side of his drink. “Two bottles of water, one bag of pretzels, and . . .”—His eyes went wide.—“What?! Black Ice Extreme Sexual Enhancement Tablets!”
A quick inspection of the shopping bag proved the receipt to be correct and Davey felt sick. He had grabbed a sample package of sexual enhancement pills to avoid paying $6.66 for his food.
Before Davey could get up to throw the pills and receipt in the trash can, he noticed a pair of girls walking towards him.
Embarrassed by his purchase, Davey shoved the pills into the side pocket of his handbag hoping no one had seen them.
“You’re Davey Havok, aren’t you?” One of the girls asked.
“Yes, that’s me.” He smiled at them and motioned for them to have a seat across from him.
“Why are you all wet?”
“Where’s the rest of the band?” The girls asked at the same time.
“I’m all wet because the rest of the band left without me,” Davey said as he looked out the window for a sign of the bus’s return.
“That’s awful.” The first girl said as she reached into her purse and retrieved a black silk handkerchief. “Here, take this. I promise it’s clean. I wish I had a towel or something to give you . . . but at least you can get some of the water out of your hair with it.”
“Thank you, but I’m all right. They should be back for me before too long.”
“No, I insist . . .”—A lady at the door called for the girls to hurry.—“That’s my mother. We’ve got to go, but it was nice meeting you. I hope they hurry up and come back.”
Davey smiled and gave both of the girls a hug before they left.
When he looked back down at the table he noticed that the girl had left her handkerchief. He sighed and slipped it into the side pocket of his bag.
About ten minutes later the bus stopped in front of the truck stop. Adam met him at the bus door.
“Are you all right?!” Adam exclaimed as he pulled Davey onto the bus. “I . . . I left my phone in the front of the bus, and I woke up when the bus turned around . . . You weren’t in your bunk and then the driver said we were turning around to go find you! Why didn’t you wake me up before you left? I would have gone with you?”
Davey smiled as Adam wrapped his arms around him.
“I just went inside for a second. It usually takes a while for the bus to fuel. I thought I would be back before the driver left.”
“Hey, Sorry I didn’t answer my phone,” Jade said as he walked into the front of the bus. “I forgot to set it to vibrate, and I didn’t hear it ring over my headphones. Are you all right?”
Davey looked up at Jade from Adam’s embrace.
“That’s okay, Jadey. I’m all right now. Just cold and soaked.”
“Then go change and get to sleep before you get sick,” Jade said as he picked Pecky up off the counter and tossed it to Davey.
“Thanks, Jade,” Davey said before he kissed Adam goodnight and went to change into some dry clothes.
The next morning, Davey woke up with Adam sitting on the edge of his bunk smiling at him.
“Good morning.” He said as he pushed Davey’s hair out of his face.
Davey smiled and reached his arms up for a hug.
“Lay here with me until I wake up,” Davey whispered in Adam’s ear.
“You know Jade will pitch a fit if he catches us ‘bunk sharing,’” Adam laughed.
“Nah, it’s not called ‘bunk sharing’ if both members of the party are awake and dressed.”
“Oh really?” Adam asked as he climbed into the bunk next to Davey and wrapped his arms around him. “Then what is it called?”
Davey pressed his lips to Adam’s and kissed him before he answered.
“It’s called cuddling.”
“Or making out,” Jade said suddenly as he pulled at the back of Adam’s shirt. “And that breaks band rule number 12, ‘No making out on the tour bus.’”
“I hate band rules . . .” Davey pouted.
Adam sat up and Davey moved his feet so Jade could have enough room to sit down as well.
“Are we almost there already?” Davey asked when he noticed that Jade was dressed up and had his bag with him.
“Not quite . . . We’ll be at the hotel before tonight though.”
“Oh yes! I’ll get to sleep in a real bed tonight!” Davey exclaimed.
Jade laughed.
“In the meantime . . . I convinced Smith to let us stop at a strip mall type thing for an hour. Give us time to get some exercise, grab a bite to eat, go to Wal-mart.”
“Oh! Shopping!” Davey said happily. “Just make sure I’m on the bus before you guys take off this time.”
“No problem,” Adam and Jade replied at the same time.
Their shopping hour was pretty uneventful.
Hunter joined Adam and Davey for lunch at a restaurant that none of them had ever heard of before; while Jade and Smith searched Wal-Mart for a somewhat last minute Christmas present for their mother.
On the way back to the bus, Davey pulled Adam into Walgreens with the excuse of needing shaving cream and lip balm. In the end, the two of them ended up looking at everything but shaving cream and lip balm.
When they got in line to check out, Davey had picked up a humorous Christmas card he planned on sending his friend Nils and a pink glittery scrunchy he thought would make the perfect collar for Pecky.
After waiting in line for about fifteen minutes, one of the Walgreens employees opened another register. Davey ran for the counter to be the first in line and left Adam in the other line.
“Ha! I get checked out faster than you!” Davey teased as he set his items on the counter and stuck his tongue out at Adam.
“Well, when all of you impatient people ran to that line, I became next in my line!” Adam laughed.
The cashier quickly scanned the Christmas card and the hair scrunchy that Davey had set on the counter.
“Will this be everything for you?” He asked.
“Yes. That’s everything.”
“You’re total will be six dollars and sixty-six cents.”
Davey’s mouth hit the floor.
“No fucking way!” He exclaimed loud enough to receive several disapproving looks from various people.
“Is something wrong?” The cashier asked.
“Oh . . . no . . . I’m sorry”—He grabbed a travel sized bottle of hand lotion off of the nearest shelf and tossed it onto the counter.—“Add that to the total if you don’t mind.”
“No problem, Sir. You’re new total is seven dollars and fifteen cents.”
Davey sighed in relief and paid for his items. Adam was already waiting for him at the door.
“What was that about, Dave?” He asked as soon as they were out of the store.
“Nothing . . . Just something stupid and me and my big mouth,” Davey replied as he slipped the scrunchy on his wrist like a bracelet.
“Man, I’m glad we’re going to be in a hotel tonight.”—Adam put his arm around Davey’s waist and pulled him closer for a moment.—“I’ve missed being able to hold you at night.”
Davey giggled.
“Hell, I’ll be honest . . . I miss not being able to pin you up against the nearest wall and snog you silly whenever I feel like it,” Davey purred in Adam’s ear.
The drummer blushed, but before he could think of something to say in response, Hunter screamed at them from across the parking lot.
“YOU TWO BETTER HURRY UP! THE DRIVER IS THREATENING TO LEAVE YOU BOTH THIS TIME!”
The two of them ran the rest of the way to the bus.
Once on board, Adam collapsed on the couch and pulled Davey into his lap.
“We weren’t even late!” he stated as his arms went around Davey’s waist from behind.
“I think we’re all just eager to sleep in a real bed for a change,” Hunter said after he shut the door to the bus and signaled to the driver that everyone was there.
“How much longer before we get to the hotel?” Davey asked.
“Probably about three more hours.”
“Oh! Just three more hours!” Davey sang as he bounced up and down in Adams lap.
“Rule # 23,” Jade stated without looking up from the crossword puzzle he was working on.
Three sets of eyes instantly looked up at the list of bus rules posted on the inside of the door.
“No lap dancing?” Hunter questioned.
Davey looked up Jade and scoffed.
“I was not giving anyone a lap dance!”
“You were dancing in Adam’s lap. That counts as lap dancing.”—Jade grinned and shook his pencil at Davey.—“You know what? That’s two rules you have broken today. One more and you have to spend your night at the hotel sharing a room with Fritch.”
Davey’s eyes widened.
“But . . . but . . . JADE! You’re not seriously going to hold me to that, are you?! Both of those calls against me were taken WAY out of context!” he exclaimed.
“Oh come on! You would have called them against me if Marissa was here!” Jade laughed.
Reluctantly, Davey slid out of Adams lap and dumped out the contents of his Walgreens bag.
“Jade?” he whispered.
“What?” Jade whispered back.
“Can I borrow your pencil?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m using it.”
“Why are you whispering?” Davey asked, his voice once again at normal volume.
“You started it!” Jade exclaimed a little louder than he intended.
Davey grinned evilly.
“Rule # 6, ‘No raising your voice at another band member on the bus over petty matters.’” He stated proudly.
Jade cursed under his breath and threw his pencil at Davey, hitting the singer in the head.
“Ouch!” Davey cried, rubbing the spot on his head where the pencil had hit him.
“Jade,” Adam said as he smirked at the guitarist. “Rule # 2, ‘No throwing items on the bus.’”
Jade threw his arms up in defeat.
“Fine, Fine! You win! I’m going to finish this in my bunk.”
“Oh, and Jade?” Davey called before Jade could leave the front of the bus. “Thanks for the pencil!”
Adam and Hunter laughed.
Davey took Jade’s former seat at the bus table and began personalizing Nils’ Christmas card. When he had finished, he laid the card on the counter to be mailed and went to throw his shopping bag away.
“Hey, Davey, you dropped this.” Hunter said, handing him the hand lotion Davey had forgotten he had bought.
“Oh! Thanks, Hunt!” Davey said and absentmindedly shoved the lotion into the side pocket of his handbag.
The rest of the ride to the hotel was relatively uneventful and most of it involved Davey and Adam sitting on the couch in the front of the bus. The two of them passed dirty notes to one another via Davey’s notebook for while, until Hunter reminded them that rule # 21 objected to keeping secrets from other band members.
After what seemed like an eternity, the bus finally arrived at the hotel.
“Where’re here!” Davey screamed as he grabbed his bag and ran off the bus.
Once inside the hotel, Davey quickly located Smith arguing with the people at the front desk.
“What do you mean we’ll have to wait for a while before you can check us in?!” Davey heard Smith scream at the receptionist.
Davey sighed and sat down on one of the couches in the lobby.
“What’s wrong?” Adam asked sitting down next to Davey.
“We have to wait on the rooms.”
“Lovely . . . More waiting . . .”
“Will you wake me up when Smith has our keys ready?” Davey asked as he laid his head on Adam’s shoulder and closed his eyes.
“I wish I could, hun, but Jade will more than likely call us on breaking rule # 71, ‘no public displays cuddling on hotel lobby couches.’” Adam muttered.
“Why the hell is that even a rule?”
“Because you created it after you caught Jade and Marissa cuddled up on a lobby couch when we were in Vancouver.”
“Oh . . . right . . .”
“We could always go for a walk. I thought I saw a bookstore next door to the hotel.” Adam suggested after a few minutes of silence passed between the two of them.
“Oh! A bookstore!”—Davey’s eyes lit up.—“Maybe I can find that Anne Rice book I haven’t read yet!”
“There’s an Anne Rice book you haven’t read?”—Adam gave Davey a skeptical look.—“I thought you read all of them ages ago.”
“Oh no! Not even close. I’ve read her vampire series, and her witches series, but I haven’t read any of her mummy books or any of her erotica books.”—Davey counted off the books on his fingers.—“I think I still have about a dozen of her books that I haven’t read, and that’s not counting the ones she wrote about Jesus.”
“Jesus?”
“Yeah, as in the main character in that Bible book?” Davey laughed. “She wrote a series on him.”
“Weird . . .”
“Tell me about it.”
When Davey and Adam entered the bookstore they were mildly astonished at how crowded the place was. A table had been set up near the center of the store, and there were several people passing out flyers near the doors and check out lanes.
“Wow,” Davey said as he looked around the store. “I wonder what’s going on . . .”
Adam laughed and pointed to a large banner hanging from the ceiling.
“National AIDS Awareness Month . . .” Davey read out loud before he turned to look at Adam, a confused look on his face. “There’s an AIDS awareness month? I thought that was just a one day thing that happened on the first of December . . .”
“Well apparently it’s a month long event now,” Adam shrugged, but Davey’s mind had already drifted to another topic.
“Look! The fiction section!” Davey shrieked as he grabbed Adam’s hand and dragged him towards the farthest corner of the bookstore.
After several minutes of thumbing through the book shelves, Davey turned to Adam sighed.
“I think I’ve read everything worth reading,” He stated monotonously.
“What about the Anne Rice books?”
“They don’t have any of the ones I want . . .” Davey replied. “But I guess I could pick up a new journal while we’re here. Jade spilt something on mine and the pages are all ugly and warped.”
Before Davey could find the section of the bookstore where the journals were located, he was distracted by a shinny shelf of multi-colored bookmarks.
“Adam, look at this one.”—He handed a pink one with a fluffy rabbit on it to Adam. It read ‘Kiss Me, I’m fluffy!’—“We have to get that for Jade! Since his hair is always sticking up. Oh! And look at this one!”
Davey picked up a braided, leather bookmark that closely resembled a miniature bull whip.
“It’s almost naughty!”—He giggled.—“I should get this for Ryan for Christmas, since his head seems to be permanently in the gutter.”
Adam laughed and glanced at his watch.
“It’s been about twenty minutes, we should more than likely check in with the guys and see if Smith has sorted things out yet.”
Davey nodded, a wide grin fixed across his face.
To be so many people in the store, the check out lines were surprisingly short, and within a matter of moments it was their turn at the register.
“These are cute,” the cashier said as she scanned Davey’s bookmarks. “That will be a total of six dollars and . . .”—She squinted at the screen.—“ . . . sixty-six cents.”
Davey felt the color completely drain out of his face.
“Six dollars and sixty-six cents . . .” he repeated, his hands shaking as he picked the bookmarks up off he counter. “I . . . I think I changed my mind . . .”
“Nonsense, Dave,” Adam said as pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and handed the lady a twenty dollar bill. “Since when did you become superstitious?”
“I . . .”—Davey swallowed.—“I’m not . . .”
After the cashier had counted Adam’s change back to him, he slipped his arm around Davey’s waist.
“What’s wrong?” He whispered as the two of them headed for the exit.
“I’m not sure. It’s almost like there is some sort of underground operation trying to sca . . .”
“Thank you for making a purchase!” A lady near the door said, interrupting Davey before he could finish his sentence. “Just so you know, 10% of your purchase today will be donated to The AIDS Awareness Foundation, which works hand in hand with Interact Worldwide to educate today’s youth about AIDS and how it is spread.”—She handed Davey a brochure and a small plastic package.—“They were stapled inside, but for some reason they won’t stay. Once again, thank you for your donation!”
Davey gave her a strange look as Adam ushered him out of he store.
“What were you saying, Dave?”
“I think there is some sort of underground operation trying to scare me into believing in the devil.”
“Are you talking about the price of your bookmarks?” Adam asked. “It’s just a freak thing. It happens to everyone on occasion.”
“But that’s just it, Ad!”—Davey screamed, waving the brochure and the plastic package in the air for emphasis.—“For the past twenty-four hours, EVERY purchase I’ve made has totaled six fucking dollars and sixty-six cents! I’m serious. I think there is an underground organization trying to tell me something!”
“Whoa, calm down.”—Adam grabbed Davey’s shoulders.—“And for fuck’s sake, stop waving those damn condoms that lady gave you in the air for the world to see! You’re drawing attention to yourself.”
Davey blushed when he realized what he had in his hand and quickly shoved the condoms into the side pocket of his handbag.
“Sorry . . .”—He looked at his feet.—“I’m just shook up over this . . . What are the chances, Adam? One in a million? One in a billion? It just doesn’t seem possible that anyone can have the same total at several different stores, let alone the same total of six dollars and sixty-six cents.”
“Even if it isn’t just a freak thing,” Adam said as he held the door to the hotel lobby open for Davey. “What’s the big deal? All it could mean is that you are either an embodiment of absolute evil, or that you’re going to have bad luck for the rest of your life.”
Davey shrugged.
“Personally, I think it would be cool to be the antichrist.” Adam teased in an attempt to cheer Davey up. “You get these really cool super-human powers, and you get to bring a whole lot of people with you to hell.”
“I guess you’re right . . .”—Davey could not help but smile.—“And if there really is a God, I can always just toss my hair over my shoulder, smile, and respond, ‘The devil made me do it.’”
Adam grinned.
“That sounds like a plan to me.”
Davey tossed his handbag onto the couch next to where Jade was sitting and leaned against one of the fancy pillars that adorned the hotel lobby.
“Any word on when we’re getting our rooms?”
Jade looked up from sending a text message and nodded.
“Smith sorted everything out. He just has to fill out some paper work and then we’re ready to go,” he said.
“Yeah, it shouldn’t be too much longer now,” Hunter added.
Not too much longer turned out to be pretty close to another hour, and when Smith finally placed the room keys into their hands, the four of them all but ran towards the elevators.
“Finally . . .” Adam said as he slipped the key card into the door of their room and opened it. “I have you all to myself, without having to worry about breaking one of those stupid rules every time I touch you.”
Davey smiled as Adam wrapped his arms around his waist from behind.
“I agree, Jade is starting to get out of hand with his enforcement of those stupid rules.”
Adam placed a soft kiss behind Davey’s ear.
“I love you,” he whispered..
“I love you, too, Addy,” Davey said as he turned in Adam’s arms and wrapped his arms around his neck.
Adam closed his eyes and leaned down to kiss Davey, but before their lips could meet the sudden ringing of a cell phone caused them to both jump.
“Damn it!” Davey cursed as he unzipped his bag. “Who changed my ring tone to, ‘In Between Days’?”
As soon as he had opened the bag, Davey began to pout.
“What’s wrong?”
“No one changed my ring tone . . . It’s Jade’s phone . . .”—Davey held the pink razor phone up for Adam to see, the name ‘Marissa Festa’ proudly displayed on its screen.—“Which means that Jade and I grabbed each other’s bags . . .”
“Oh, lovely,” Adam said as he took the phone from Davey’s hand and pressed the ‘reject call’ button. “Well . . . That’s what you get for going out and buying the same exact bag as Jade’s. Now go return it to him before he finds out he has your bag and comes in here . . .”
“Yeah . . .”—Davey sighed.—“ . . .cause then he’ll stay in our room just to piss us off . . .”
“Go ahead and get it over with. I’ll be waiting on you when you get back,” Adam said as he pulled Davey closer and kissed him before dropping the phone back into Jade’s bag.
Davey reluctantly left the room and headed towards Jade’s hotel room.
Meanwhile, the first thing Jade did when he got to his hotel room was unzip the side pocket with the hopes of charging his cell phone up and calling his girlfriend, Marissa.
But when he opened the bag, his phone charger was not there. Instead, the side pocket contained the many items Davey had randomly acquired over the last twenty-four hours.
“Damn . . .” Jade whispered as he pulled out the silk handkerchief, followed by the condoms. “This is so not my bag . . .”
He dumped the entire contents of the Davey’s bag’s side pocket out onto the bed.
About that time, Davey knocked on Jade’s door.
“Jade?” he called. “Can I come in? We got our bags mixed up again!”
“That we did . . .” Jade muttered to himself as he walked across the room to open the door, the leather bookmark in one hand, and the handkerchief in the other.
“Hey, Jade. I have your bag . . .”—Davey paused when he noticed what Jade was holding.—“Oh, so you noticed too! You’re phone rang, and I realized it wasn’t mine when it started singing The Cure.”
He saw his own bag laying on Jade’s bed and pushed his way into the room to retrieve it, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the items spread across the bedspread, all of which appeared to be of a sexual nature.
“Oh! No . . . It’s not what you think!” He exclaimed when he realized what Jade must have thought.
“Uhm . . . don’t worry, Davey.”—Jade gave a nervous laugh and then slowly handed the handkerchief back to Davey.—“I wont tell anyone about your . . . uh . . . strange sexual habits . . .”
“But! No! I mean . . . They’re not mine . . . well, they are . . . sort of . . .” Davey sputtered, trying to figure out how to explain the situation to Jade without making matters worse.
“You don’t have to explain . . . I mean, I knew you and Adam had sex . . . I just didn’t think you guys were so . . . avid about it. It’s your business, not mine, and don’t worry, I’m not going to go and tell everyone that my best friend is a nympho or anyth . . .”—Jade stopped mid-sentence when he noticed the sexual enhancement pills for the first time.—“Davey, what are those?”
Jade suddenly snatched the pills off the bed before Davey had a chance to protest.
“Proprietary Blend, Tribulus, L - Aginine HCI, Protodioscin, Horny Goat Weed, and . . .”—Jade paused, his eyes widening.—“ . . . caffeine.”
Davey felt like Jade had just magically placed him in the middle of the German Autobahn and let a truck hit him at one hundred miles per hour.
“Jade . . .” he whispered, unable to look him in the eye. “It’s not what you think . . . I swear . . .”
“Davey . . . how could you?”—Jade crumbled the package in his fist.—“You broke the first rule!”
“But, I didn’t take them! You saw for yourself that those pills were unopened!” Davey said, desperately trying to save himself from what he knew to be inevitable.
“Rule #1 clearly states that, ‘Under no circumstances should any member of A Fire Inside break edge, tempt another person with straightedge values to break edge, assist a non-straightedge person in a behavior that violates straightedge beliefs, or possess any item that, if indulged in, would result in said member breaking edge,’” Jade recited, his eyes never once leaving Davey’s. “That’s your third broken rule . . .”
“Jade! Please!”—Davey fell to his knees in front of Jade and begged.—“Don’t take me away from Adam tonight! I’ll do anything . . . Just don’t make me stay with Fritch . . .”
“Davey . . . It’s not up to me . . . You broke three band rules in one twenty-four hour period.”—Jade grinned almost evilly.—“I have no choice but to sentence you to spending the night in Fritch’s room.”
Davey felt horrible as he lay on the extra bed in Fritch’s hotel room an hour later. The contents of his bag that had gotten him into so much trouble were still scattered all over he floor where he had thrown them. He had been looking forward to spending this night at the hotel with Adam more than anything and he had blown it over a stupid rule. Now all he had to look forward to was listening to Fritch snore all night long while he tossed and turned.
A few minutes later Davey heard the door click as it was unlocked and opened. He rolled onto his side and feigned sleep. At least that way he would not have to listen to Fritch complain about having Smith being too tight with his money or have to answer a million and one questions about which rules he broke to end up where he was.
He heard footsteps make their way across the room and then felt the bed dip as if someone had sat down on the edge of it.
‘What is Fritch doing?’ Davey thought to himself as he closed his eyes tighter.
A hand on his shoulder startled him and his eyes widened when he saw, not Fritch, but Adam sitting on the bed.
“Adam!”—He jumped up and threw his arms around his boyfriends neck, hugging him tightly.—“What are you doing in here!”
“I couldn’t let you stay in here all night by yourself,” he said as he smiled at Davey. “I had to come see you.”
Davey pressed is lips to Adam’s and kissed him passionately, his hands slide up the back of Adam’s shirt.
“How did you get the key to the room?” Davey asked after he broke the kiss.
“I stole the spare key out of Smith’s bag.”—Adam grinned.—“I’ve been waiting all week to get to this hotel so I could make love to you all night long. There is no way in hell I’m going to let Officer Jade and those fucking bus rules stop me from doing just that.”
Davey gasped as Adam suddenly picked the black silk handkerchief up off the floor and blindfolded him with it.
“Adam . . .” he whispered as he reached out for Adam.
“Ssshhh . . . Be a good little boy. I’ll be right back,” Adam said as he quickly pressed his lips to Davey’s.
The mattress shifted again as Adam stood up and walked away.
Davey heard the deadbolt on the hotel room door click as the door was locked from the inside.
“Adam . . . rule # 59 . . . At no time should one band member lock another band member, or an AFI crew member, out of a hotel room in order to secure a place to have sexual intercou . . .”
Adam silenced Davey with a needy kiss, his hands already working on removing Davey’s pants.
“I would love to see them try and stop us. . .” he whispered into Davey’s ear. “And if they do confront you about it, you can always just toss your hair over your shoulder, smile, and respond, ‘The devil made me do it.’”