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Matchbox Eleven My eyelids fluttered open, and through a haze, I saw Adam kneeling over me. "Man, I feel like such an idiot! Are you okay?" I tried to nod, but my head was reeling. Adam handed me an icepack, and I laid it across my forehead. My eyes darted about, and I realised that I was lying on the floor in the tour bus. "How did I get here?" The weakness in my voice scared me. Settling on the floor beside me, Adam said, "I carried you." "You did not!" "Okay, so I dragged you in here. You passed out like a few feet away from the door!" My face was heating up. Couldn't I have held on long enough to board the tour bus? "I'm sorry, Pookie." "Don't worry about it," I replied. The icepack was making my head hurt worse. "It was payback for spraining Paul's wrist. Guess now it's his turn to hurt you." Adam grimaced, and I wished I could have retracted that last comment. "We should go back to the hotel, let Kyle and Paul know what we heard. Do you want to move..." "No," I replied before he could finish his question. I dared not raise my head. By the time Adam pulled the tour bus into the hotel parking lot, I had managed to climb onto a chair. He shut off the motor and turned to me. "Hey, Pookie! You're up!" Pulling on the pole beside me, I got to my feet. I followed Adam through the hotel, to Kyle's room. Inside, Paul was standing at the window, cigarette in hand. He turned around as we entered the room. He glanced at me, then stared out the window again. "So did you write it?" he asked, raising the cigarette to his lips. "No, we found something out though," Adam replied, seating himself where Paul had been sitting before. "Somebody at the university saw Rob yesterday." Paul whirled around. "What?!?" Kyle furrowed his eyebrows and grunted. Coughing, he drew his knees closer to his chest. The muscles in his face relaxed as he fell deeper into sleep. "This guy said that he saw Rob walking around in a city called Faith," Adam said, glancing at Kyle. "Where the hell is Faith?" Paul took another drag on his cigarette. "Hey, I ain't an atlas!" Paul turned to me. "Pookie, can you go downstairs and..." "Let Brian rest! He..." "No, I can go!" I interrupted, shaking my head at Adam. Kyle sat up, coughed violently, and fell back into bed. Really, we had enough going on. If Paul heard any more bad news, he might have cracked. Clenching his cigarette between his lips, Paul reached into his back pocket. "Okay," he shrugged, handing me a handful of cash. "Can you go downstairs and buy a map of North Carolina?" A few minutes later, the three of us were hovering over the map. "I see it," Adam murmured. He pointed to dot beside Salisbury. "But that's about forty miles from here!" I exclaimed. Paul smirked. "Our Rob is a fast hitchhiker. Let's grab Kyle and get out of here." As Paul and Adam moved to Kyle's side, I stared at the word Faith. Forty miles away was good; it gave me a chance to sleep off this throbbing headache. |