We stayed in a hotel that night. All except Nick and Brian. Kevin couldn’t get them to get up to go inside.
“Hey, Trace, how’s life?” I went down to the lobby. She was drinking some pink lemonade.
“Me and Kevin are getting even worse. Yesterday he barely spoke two words to me,” she looked troubled.
I thought back to the bathroom. He and Jennifer had both seemed a little weird. But Kevin had been acting weird since before that, so it didn’t make sense.
“Have you asked him what’s wrong?” I wondered.
“Yeah. And he always says ‘nothing.’” Tracy told me.
“Well all of them have been working really hard lately. They are all stressed. I mean, Brian and I were supposed to go out last night, and he fell asleep.”
“Man, I’d be pissed at him.”
“It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on,” I remembered my Geography teachers' wise words to the class. “But I’m not mad at him, its not his fault he hasn’t been getting a lot of sleep. But just wait til we all go to AJ’s. I’m sure Kevin will come around.” I really didn’t think Kevin was just stressed. But I wasn’t gonna make her worry about her boyfriend on a hunch. I’d get to the bottom of everything. Hopefully.
“I hope so. Well, I’m going to go get my stuff for whatever we’re doing today. Chao,” she bed farewell.
“Erin! I’m so sorry about last night!” Brian ran up a few moments later.
I laughed. “Wow, your awake!”
“I’m so sorry!” he apologized again. “I was just gonna lay down for two seconds and then…well, it was this morning. About 5 minutes ago.”
“It’s alright. We can go out once we spend some time at AJ’s,” I promised. “Cuz from what he says, you guys are going to have an even more hectic week before then.”
And hectic it was. I hadn’t realized how demanding their job was. I mean, sure, I knew it was tough, but not This tough!
Finally, we were pulling up into AJ’s driveway. He had a huge house, only a few blocks from the beach. Wow. I could see part of a swimming pool in the backyard through a crack in the fence that surrounded it. We walked through the front door. What a huge house (its worth repeating)! There was an entrance area and to the left a dining room. To the right there was a living room. And straight ahead steps led upstairs.
“Who’s sleeping where?” Nick wondered, lugging a huge suitcase.
“Umm…there’s two guest rooms upstairs.”
“We got bunks!” Brian and Nick shouted at the same instant.
“I guess the room with bunk beds with go to Frick and Frack,” AJ rolled his eyes. “The little kids. Umm… lets see, the other room has a king size for two people.”
“I’m there,” Tracy said.
“Not if I’m there first,” Heather challenged, and they both raced up the stairs.
“Kevin or Howie, there’s a trundle in the ‘kids’ room, one of you can take that and one of you gets the couch.”
“Trundle,” Howie said quickly. Kevin was looking at the ground. So was Jennifer. Huh.
“Do you have a hammock?” I asked AJ.
“Yeah…why?”
“I’ve got that sleep on!” I said, happily.
“It’s in the backyard.”
“So?” I asked for his point.
“Alright, whatever… Jen, I’m sure I’ve got an extra mattress, and you can sleep in Heather and Tracy’s room.”
“Sure,” she wasn’t really paying attention.
I put my stuff near the backdoor. Was I the only one feeling all the tension in this house?
Chapter 43
Chapter 45
As Time Goes
Frick's Fairytales