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Chapter Four

Howie woke up to sun pouring through the window of his hotel room. He squinted his eyes, not expecting to wake up to such a thing. Not after the raunchy weather they’d had the day before. He took a moment to come completely in to reality before sitting up and swinging his legs over the bed. He stood and stretched, walking over to the window. He pulled open the curtains, pleased by the sight that greeted him. The sunshine became more vibrant, already putting him in to a good mood for the day. Sure, it would still be cold out, he knew, and there was still several inches of snow covering the ground, however there was not a single cloud in sight.

“What the fuck are you doing, D?” A.J. grumbled as he pulled his pillow out from over his head, placing it over, “Some of us are trying to sleep at the hour of...” he paused to peek out from under the pillow, “eleven in the morning.” he finished, putting the pillow back over his head, holding it down with his arms.

Howie ignored his friends grumpiness. He wasn’t going to let A.J. ruin his mood, when after yesterday, it was much improved. He hoped that everyone else’s would be as well.

Going in to the bathroom, Howie started the shower. He could hear A.J. grumble some profanities loudly from the bedroom, throwing something against the wall opposite side of the shower. Howie laughed as he slid his boxer shorts off of his lean body, stepping in to the warm stream of water. His friend definitely was not a morning person. In fact, he and Kevin were really the only one’s who were. The others were grumpier than old men if they had to wake up at any hour before noon. This was no exception.

After finishing up, Howie stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist. He walked over to the mirror, wiping off the layer of condensation that had surfaced the entire rectangle of glass so he could see his reflection. As he rubbed his face with shaving cream, a pounding on the main door sounded. Less than a minute later, it came again.

“Aje, could you get that?” Howie yelled.

He heard a loud THUD. Likely A.J. getting out of bed, rather irate. Then there were the loud, thunderous footsteps echoing across the ground. Howie chuckled. He assumed his friend must have fallen back asleep, but only temporatily.

“God damnit stupid mother fucker,” A.J. yelled, ranting on as he walked to the door,“Who the hell comes knocking on the door waking me up. And why can’t YOU get your lazy ass out of the bathroom and open the door yourself. I swear, I am going to quit taking all you all shit and make you flippin do crap for yourselves for once. Spoiled pecker-heads. Just can’t sleep in on our only day o..”

Suddenly A.J’s voice stopped and the door opened. Howie could hear another male voice, wondering who it was. It wasn’t one he recognized, then again the bathroom fan was on, distorting things a little. Even A.J’s was slightly muffled through the obnoxiously loud built in fan. Curious as to who it was, Howie quickly finished up his bathroom business and got dressed, going out to join A.J. and whoever else was out there. He was surprised to find Nick, of all people. Nick, who usually was the last to be ready. And he looked to be high on energy, telling Howie that the young boy must’ve had his caffeine fix for the morning, or forgot to take his medicine.

“Hi D!,” Nick exclaimed, bouncing up and down, “The guys are heading down to Max and Erma’s for brunch. Wanna join us? We’re hitting the road soon as we’re done. J here is being a butt head and is yelling at me for waking him up, so I don’t think he’s gonna come. But everyone else is. Wanna join?”

Howie laughed at Nick’s talking as if he were auctioning off something. It was obvious that the show the previous night had left him in a good mood. Either that he’d gone straight to sleep and woken up on the right side of the bed. Either way, if his energy kept up, Howie knew that he’d be annoying the whole group.

“Sure, why not,” Howie stated after thinking a moment, “Nothing else to do until departure. Count me in.”

They both looked at A.J. who was still glaring off in to space, obviously still trying to wake up completely. Either that trying not to wake up completely so he could easily fall back into a deep slumber as soon as soon as everybody had left him alone. He blankly turned his head to stare at Nick, and then to Howie.

“Whatever,” he muttered, “I’ll be there too.”

“Awesome!,” Nick shouted, jumping up and pumping a fist in to the air, “Totally awesome. I’ll go let Kev and Bri know.”

He turned to leave when Howie noticed some severe scratches tracing up Nick’s arms and one on his face. His eyes widened at the fresh gashes that looked scarily serious. There were at least a dozen of them, red and not yet scabbed over.

“Nick,” Howie called, and the youngest Boy stopped and turned back around, “What happened to you?” he nodded towards the gashes.

Nick blushed, “Oh, ummm...yeah. Last night after the show I snuck out to grab something from Mickey D’s. I took a back way down some alley,” he paused, humiliated with the next part, “I was attacked by a dog. A stupid pit bull. Probably guarding his territory.”

“Ah,” Howie replied, raising an eyebrow, “At least it didn’t kill you. Those things can be vicious.”

Nick shrugged as if this thought hadn’t even phased him. He was alive and fine. There was nothing to worry about, right?

“We’ll all meet you in the hall in ten, kay?” Nick stated, waiting to get approval.

“Sounds good.” Howie replied, “See ya in ten. I’ll try to hurry Aje up the best I can since he’s moving in slow motion.”

Nick laughed and seconds later he disappeared.
Howie shook his head in amusement and shut the door. He turned and walked in to the bedroom part of the suite. A.J. had lay back down on the bed atop the rumpled up sheets and bedspread. He was flopped over, his eyes shut with a pillow over them.

“We’re leaving in ten minutes,” Howie forewarned his best friend getting a deep, muffled groan in response.

Howie walked into the TV room leaving A.J. to fend for himself when it came to getting out of bed and flipped on the television, turning it to the weather channel to see what the temperature and atmosphere would be like where they were heading to. He was pleased to see that it would be cold still, yet at least the sun would be out. That was an improvement at least. He couldn’t wait to leave Maine. In only a few hours that would be possible.


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