Chapter 8

"Where are you?" Lana exclaimed into the phone. "I've been worried for hours!"

Kim had looked up in concern toward the sound of Lana's voice. She began to ask what was going on, but Lana stopped her.

"Me and Brian are, uh, down at the county jail," Paul replied.

"So help me God, this better not be one of your pranks you're trying to play on me," she warned, "or there will be hell to pay once you two get back here."

"Lana, if I was going to pull a prank, it sure as hell wouldn't be from the county jail. Jesus Christ!"

She motioned for Kim to pick up an extension. "What happened?" Lana asked.

"A prank gone bad," Paul replied.

"I should have known," Lana replied with a low groan. "Care to elaborate?"

"Well, we were goofing off at the park, and there was this flag pole. Dipshit Brian decided to place a bet that he could climb all the way to the top of it. Of course, I had to be an asshole and call him on it, especially since I had no idea he was going to do it naked and hang his pants once he got to the top! I was trying to get his crazy ass down from there when the cops came by. And as they say, the rest is history."

Lana gave a sigh. "What's the bail? We need to get you two back here before the sites—or even worse, management—get hold of all this. The last thing either of you need is a one line 'we wish them luck in future endeavors' placed on the official site. Do you know exactly how many times I have had to cover your ass to Shane? And don't even give me that 'that's what I am paying you for' line."

"Five hundred for each of us," Paul replied. "I should be lucky for not facing murder charges for killing fucking Brian."

"Well, you two need to restrict your pranks to your homes. You have a flight tonight to that house show and I wasn't about to cover up for you if you missed that. Honestly, Paul, this is getting old."

"Save the sermon for Brian. All I was doing was trying to get him down and cover his bare ass. He was batshit crazy! So you bailing us or not?"

"I guess five hundred each isn't that bad. Kim and I should be down there in about twenty minutes."

Lana then hung up the phone. "Jesus H. Christ. What did I do to deserve all of this?"

Kim began to laugh.

"It's not funny!" Lana cried.

"Maybe not," Kim replied between giggles, "but the thought of Brian being someone's butt buddy is."

"God, you are pathetic." Lana shook her head before picking up her sweater. "Come on, we have to go round up a thousand in order to free those two idiots. Otherwise, if they didn't have that house show and it were up to me, both of them could sit down there and rot."

--------------------------

After it had taken an hour for the paperwork to go through when Lana and Kim posted the boys' bail; Paul and Brian were released.

Brian came up first, giving Kim a bear hug upon seeing her. "My hero!" he cried.

"Gee, this is a change. Just yesterday, you called me a bitch."

"Yeah, because you put mini firecrackers in my cigarettes, but all is forgiven."

"Well, at least you have some clothes on now," Kim giggled. "We wouldn't want to traumatize anyone else. The poor cops that busted you are probably going to have nightmares for the rest of their lives."

"Very fucking funny."

"The cops aren't the only ones traumatized," Paul said, finally coming in. "I think I still need eye bleach."

He then landed a kiss on Lana, shocking her. "Thank you, my dear. I owe you."

"In more ways than one," she replied. "You're lucky you have a house show tomorrow or you'd still be in the lock up."

"I don't recall paying you to be a nag," he whined.

"I'm not nagging; I was worried about you! I thought you were in an accident or something. Do you know how long I spent calling hospitals and police stations before you finally got in contact with me?"

"Wait…you were worried about me?"

"Of course, or don't you pay me for that either?"

Paul cleared his throat. "I guess I could," he said before he took the keys Lana handed over to him and went to get the car.

Brian gave a mischievous grin. "I have to be the first to tell you, Red, that I think good old PL has it for you. Bad."

Lana gave him a quizzical look.

"He's right, you know," Kim agreed. We've both seen how Paulie looks at you, and honestly, I doubt he'd put up with any other woman talking to him the way you did. Yeah, I think someone likes you very much."

Lana shook her head. "Go get in the car."

She then turned to Brian. "As for you, scratch climbing flag poles naked off your list from now on, or at least do it alone and when it isn't broad daylight outside."