CHAPTER TEN

"I think we need to call my sister again." Ari suddenly says, breaking the traumatized silence permeating throughout the vehicle. Iggy opens his mouth for protest but immediately gets shots down by one of Nick's trademark 'no nonsense' glares.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever." He begrudgingly agrees as Nick pulls up to a conveniently placed, lone payphone since both their cells and power banks were all beyond dead.

"Who wants to make the call?" Nick asks, only to turn around to both Iggy and Ari with their index fingers on the tips of their noses. He sighs.

"Real mature guys, real mature." He unbuckles his seatbelt and trudges out the car with a busted pair of aviator sunglasses just barely protecting his eyes from the gleaming Nevada sun.

"Can you even blame us though? You were always the best at being straightforward when it comes to that kind of stuff."

"Yeah! What he said!!!" Ari weakly cheers Nick on, thankful that he won't have to engage in another awkward phone call with his sister.

"..."

"You got this man!"

"Yeah!!!"

"Okay, okay, I get it. Now can you please shut the fuck up?" Nick stops halfway and briefly turns to glare at the other two bozos. They quickly back off without protest.

"Yeah."

"Will do."

Meanwhile…

Maya's friend Nudge is getting her all dolled up for her big day (hair extensions and all) when out of the blue, her dad flings open the bathroom door.

"Any word from Dylan?" He spits out, seriously pissed. Maya lightly tilts her head up at him so as to not mess up one of Nudge's meticulous French braid.

"No, but I'm sure he's–" She starts, cut off by the dull ringing of her phone. It pops up as an unknown caller so she's a little weary of it at first, but then she picks it up just in case it was her lovely Dyl Pickle finally on the other end of the line after the odd few days of absolute radio silence. "Hey-"

"Listen, man…The bachelor party got a little out of control and, well…we lost Dylan." Maya diverts her gaze to the floor as she once again hears a voice and an answer other than the one she so dearly wants to hear. Her dad's mouth creases into a deep frown upon seeing her do this.

"What!? But we're getting married in like four hours!" She says, followed by an uncomfortably long silence.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen."

As this conversation goes on, Iggy takes another swig of Patron -when he freezes, finally remembering the last piece of the puzzle! He takes off towards Nick with a wide-ass grin.

"What the-?!" Iggy snatches the phone from Nick, heart racing.

"Maya, it's Iggy! Hey, Nick is just joking around! We've got Dylan right here!" Nick just stares at him like he's crazy. Mouthing the words 'You idiot, what the fuck are you on about?'

"What kind of joke is that???" Maya says, justifiably horrified. Just then, Ari flies into the picture. Curious on what was going on.

"Hey, guys, what are you doing?!" He calls out, but gets no response. The guys signal for him to quiet down as they think of how to end this conversation.

"Whose voice is tha-"

"Listen, Maya, Nick was just being a prick about that other stuff. We'll see you all at the wedding, with Dylan, and on time. Buh bye!" Iggy hangs up and races back to the car. The others follow, thoroughly puzzled.

"What are you doing?"

"I know where Dylan is!"

Since Nick's car was far from the speak black beauty she was when they first arrived, he allowed Iggy to take her for a spin on the trip back to the hotel.

"Remember when we saw Dylan's bed on the roof???"

"Yeah, we threw it out the window." Ari says, as if it was a no-brainer, but Iggy just shakes his head.

"No. The windows don't open, remember?!"

"So how did-?" Nick's eyes grow to saucers as he connects the dots. "Oh my God."

"I don't get it." Ari says, but nobody hears him.

"And that's why we saw Dylan's hat that one time!" Iggy does that thing where you hit your hand with the bottom your fist. "He was trying to signal someone!"

"I don't believe it…"

"I-I still don't get it–"

"And it totally jives with the timeline, right?! We brought Dylan back to the hotel at 5:00, he was passed out…"

"It's so obvious!"

"Not...to me...so much?"

"How'd you figure it out?!" Nick asks Iggy, ignoring Ari.

"The Patron, man! It reminded me of our first drink of the night!" Iggy exclaims while swerving in and out of traffic.

"Honestly, dude, you're a genius."

"CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHERE

DYLAN IS?!!!"

"He's on the roof!" Nick and Iggy both exclaim in tandem. Ari still looks hella confused.

"the roof…?"

"After Dylan passed out, we must've taken him up there in his bed as a prank, so he'd wake up on the roof or whatever? Then we forgot him."

"And all day, he's probably been throwing his crap off the roof, trying to signal someone to get him down!"

"You guys think he's still up there?!" Ari's eyes light up, finally understanding.

"Only one way to find out…" Iggy pulls up to the valet and the guys sprint out of the car, forgetting to toss back the keys. He shouts at them but they don't listen, too overjoyed to care! They gang rush through the lobby and onto an elevator at top speed, not caring one bit about the weird looks or the scrunched up noses the posh patrons of Mandalay Bay gave them.

"DYLAN?! DYLAN?! The guys scream as they burst out of the elevator and through the steel door to the massive black tar roof. It's empty.

"WHERE ARE YOU, MAN?"

But Dylan is nowhere to be seen. The guys start to despair...Then...stepping out from behind an air-conditioning vent, naked except for tighty-whities, his entire body Patrick Star pink from sunburn…

IS DYLAN!!!

"DYLAN!" The guys all run up to him with their hands wide open. "Oh my God, we're so glad that you're okay!"

However, Dylan did not share this same excitement. Curtly throwing up an outstretched

hand before any of the guys could engulf him in a hug.

"Don't...even...talk to me." He hoarsely whisper-shouts, clearly dehydrated. The guys all sheepishly step a few feet backwards.

"Okay, no, that's cool!"

"Yeah, you have every right to be upset! We validate your anger!"

"Let's chat later, yeah?"

SUNDAY, 7:05AM

Iggy and Ari carefully rush Dylan (now in a Mandalay Bay bathrobe and clutching an arm-full of bottled water) through the hotel lobby while Nick argues into his now just barely charged cellphone.

"Why'd you do it, dear Norbolenan?! Why'd you betray us?" They shout as they pass Nolan(?) Norbit(?) Norman (?) at the reception desk. Had he just told them Dylan was on the roof, things might've not been as catastrophic as they were.

"Because those weird guys paid me, and also,

they at least remembered my name the first time I told them." Norman monotonously drawls out, attention focused on the wildly inappropriate PlayBoy magazine he was flipping through during work.

"Fair enough! See you next time, you beautiful Judas!" He yells as they blow out of the hotel towards Nick and his beat up Caddy. Nick hangs up the phone, frowning.

"No flights to LA with empty seats!" He barks out, breaking their joyous stride. Once again, another set back.

"Well, we can't drive! It's 350 miles to LA and the wedding starts at 10, which is in–" Dylan checks Iggy's phone clock. "--three hours!"

Just then, Nick, Ari, as well as Iggy exchange a mischievous look. A smile creeping across their faces.