Wednesday night, November 25 2009
"I guess we shouldn't drink too much tonight considering we gotta get up early tomorow," Shaun said, looking at our beers sitting opened in front of us on the table.
"Don't be stupid Shaun. Here, have another drink," Andy said, pushing Shaun's beer to him and taking a drink from his own. Alex chuckled and took a sip of his own drink. I rested my elbow on the table and my chin in my hand. I looked over the papers we had on the table. Some were for our hotel reservations, some were maps printed off the internet with lines drawn on them to mark out where we would drive.
"How are we gonna choose who drives?" I asked. We were driving from city to city. I didn't mind much, it was cheaper than flying. I just wasn't looking forward to all the driving I would have to do. I looked at the others, sitting lifelessy at the table. Bailey looked dead, Alex and Jade weren't doing much either though Shaun and Andy looked pretty happy.
"Don't worry Bradie, we're not gonna trust you with the driving," Andy said, smiling at me like I was a little kid. I grinned but inside I was devastated. He had gone the whole day without insulting me or making fun of me. And I was in a good mood. Now he'd ruined it. The grin dissapeared off my face, I couldn't pretend to be happy for long.
"I dunno, we'll just keep swapping over every few hours," Shaun said, sitting up straight in his chair and fixing up his hair. I nodded and had a mouthful of my drink. I was already tired and it was only ten o' clock. I thought Andy and I should probably leave soon anyway. We had to get up at 6am so we could leave by 8am tomorrow morning. We were driving to Melbourne first, then we'd come to Sydney and then to Brisbane and then back to Melbourne. I was excited about the tour and a little nervous too. I always got nervous before I played on stage. Could you blame me? Playing drums live to a huge crowd of people who actually probably wouldn't even notice if you messed up. But I would notice, and it would annoy me for ages.
"Well I gotta go to sleep early tonight or I'll never wake up in time," Bailey said, crossing his arms on the table and resting his head on them.
"We should go early too," I said to Andy. He shrugged and paused for a moment to think, taking yet another drink from his beer.
"Yeah, mum has to read you a bed time story and even she will be asleep soon," he said, looking for the time at the clock on the wall behind me. I scoffed and didn't say anything. Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I thought. Just shut up!
"That's right," I replied. I'll act like it's not annoying me, then he'll stop.
"Alright fine we'll leave now," he said, standing up and stretching. He picked up his beer, taking one last drink from it and set it back down on the table. Then he looked at me still sitting down, "You coming?" he asked. I nodded and slowly stood up.
"Well, we'll see you guys here tomorow," I said, "See ya," The guys replied with mumbles of 'bye' and 'yeah see ya'. I walked around the table and stood beside Andy. He pulled his car keys out of his pocket and gave them to me.
"See ya kids!" he said and I followed him down the hallway to the front door. He opened the door and we stepped outside into the cold night air. Andy had driven us to Shaun's house in his car. I had to drive home. Probably a good idea since he had drunk three beers in an hour. We quickly walked down to the bottom of the drive where the car was parked. I quickly unlocked the car, wanting to get out of the cold. We got in and put on our seatbelts. I turned the car on.
"Turn on the heater!" Andy yelled straight away. He fiddled with the knobs, turning the heater on as high as it would go. We drove home quickly and in silence. When we got home I parked at the bottom of the driveway and we went inside. Our parents were still awake, sitting on the couch watching TV in the lounge room. The house was silent but the TV, I liked it that way. I walked past them to the staircase without saying a word. Andy sat down in the recliner, watching me walk away.
"You're home early," Mum said.
"Yeah Bradie didn't want to miss out on a bedtime story," he laughed as I walked by.
"Shut up," I hissed and went upstairs to my room.