CHAPTER SIX

Sometime Later That Night

The guys sit at the booth of a local country bar, hair messy, faces bruised, clothing viciously ripped, and sloppily shoving whatever food they could cram into their mouths at a time. Ultimately, the conflict from earlier has fallen by the wayside. Turns out that all they really needed was a good brawl to get out the pent up tension amongst all of them.

"Gud call on haphy houfr, Woolfy. Theef tacos kick aphss!" Iggy says, flashing his mouth full of food between bites. Nick cringes at how gross this looks.

"Yeah, I always come here when I get out of jail." Wolfy shares nonchalantly as the guys quickly exchange a 'huh' look.

"Hey -- how'd you start my car? I'm pretty sure I had my keys on me the entire time." Nick asks, genuinely curious.

"Oh, my daddy taught me how to hotwire almost anything!"

"Please tell me you didn't break the window to get into the car…" Nick could already visualize his bank account draining closer and closer to the red.

"Well, yes…but I can just pay you some cash for the repairs!" She reaches underneath her toga into her g-string and pulls out a bunch of crumbled dollar bills. How she was able to sit comfortably in her seat, let alone drive all the way here with all those (and probably many more) stuck in her privates was a mystery. She sets it in front of his food, which makes him lose his appetite.

"Thanks, I guess." Nick gags, feeling a little sick at the sight of those grubby dollar bills. It would be one thing if they belonged to his beloved, but coming from some random stripper who hasn't even showered once today, they were nothing short of repulsive. Iggy chuckles at the comically disgusted look on his face, finishing his food just fine.

"You know, if you don't want the cash, I'd be more than willing to take it off your hands."

"Thanks but no thanks, I'd love to actually have some cash left before returning home." Nick says as he wipes off some of the food at the corner of his mouth with a napkin.

"Tell me about it." Ari adds, before his phone begins to ring on the table. Weirdly enough, the caller ID was set to 'number blocked.'

"Don't answer it."

"Answer it."

"What if it's Dylan?" Nick says, although with their luck, he wasn't so hopeful.

"What if it's Maya?"

"Who's Maya?" Wolfy asks, but nobody seems to hear her.

Ari answers the call and sure enough, there was Maya on the other end of it.

"Why'd it take you so long to answer?" Maya grills Ari in a stereotypical sibling manor, perhaps this is why the number was blocked.

"Uhm…stuff. Anyway, why are you calling me?"

"Can't I check on my little brother without there being some sort of ulterior motive involved???" She asks, but he doesn't buy it. "Okay fine, I'm calling to know where Dylan is. He said he'd be home by 5 for a before wedding dinner with his family, and now it's almost 9:00. I tried his cell, but he didn't answer…"

"She's asking about Dylan!" Ari hisses, covering his phone as if that would even remotely impact the audio quality. Fortunately, his sister's hearing left a lot to be desired so she didn't hear him.

"We have to tell her we lost Dylan." Nick says, but once again Iggy shoots this idea down.

"No we don't! Tell her nothing, Ari!" Ari turns back towards the phone, nervous. Maya repeats his name a few times until he finally replies with something.

"Um, what'd you say?" He says lamely, not really sure what else he could say aside from this and the shameful truth.

"I asked you where Dylan is." Maya says, audibly frowning. Ari turns towards the others to whisper to them.

"She still wants to know."

"Okay, tell her this," Iggy says, somehow already done formulating a well thought out lie. "Nick got really drunk last night and fell down, and the doctor said not to move him for a few hours, but that we'll be back in time for the wedding."

"Hey! Why do I have to be the one that fell over drunk?!"

"It's a fictitious canard, Nick, get over yourself! Ari, tell her!"

"Listen, Maya, Nick fell on a doctor-"

"Fell over drunk."

"H-He was drunk. And the doctor -- a different doctor, not the one he fell on -- he said we couldn't move him until the wedding–"

"For a few hours! We'll be home before the wedding!"

"But we're going to have the wedding at your home–" Iggy facepalms himself and rips the phone from Ari's hand.

"Maya! Is that you?!"

"Um, yes. Who is this?" She sounds like her patience is beginning to wear thin which is understandable since what she originally intended to just be a minute long call was now stretching out closer to ten minutes.

"Iggy."

"Oh yes, Iggy, right." She starts recognizing his voice. "Can you please tell me what's going on???"

"Nothing! Ari is a moron. Listen, Nick hurt his back last night, so we're gonna be laid up here for a bit, but I promise we'll have Dylan home in time for the wedding, okay?"

"Oh God, is Nick alright?"

"Yes, luckily he had a steel rod surgically implanted up his ass at birth, so the doctors anticipate a complete and swift recovery." Nick silently flips him the bird.

"Can I talk to Dylan?"

"What? No! No, you can't actually, Dylan...Dylan is out."

"Where is he?"

"Where is he? He's aaaat...the pharmacy. Yeah, picking up Nick's medications. Listen, Maya, I'm

losing you, but we'll see you tomorrow, okay? Bye, sweetie–!" Iggy hangs up, and nods confidently.

"She totally bought it."

Maya hangs up the phone, frowning.

"They've done something stupid." Dylan's mom comes over to comfort her.

"Boys will be boys, but I know my Dylan always comes through in the end." She tips Maya onto her shoulder, allowing her to weep into it if she so pleases. "That being said, I give you all the permission in the world to kick his tight little ass into next Tuesday the moment he comes back."

Maya smiles a little, wiping away the few tears rolling down her cheeks. He is so dead once he comes back.