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Matchbox Nine When I boarded the tour bus the next morning, I didn't see Kyle. "Kyle?" I called through the bus, looking in every corner into which he could possible squeeze himself. He was gone. I rubbed the bridge of my nose beneath my glasses. I had woken up with a headache; an hour of being awake and a cup of coffee hadn't kicked it. Maybe I was coming down with the same thing Kyle had. I pushed that thought out of my mind. "Great, now what do I do?" I muttered to myself. I considered going back into the hotel to tell Paul and Adam. But Kyle couldn't really be gone! Could he? Sighing, I flung myself into the seat where Kyle had been sitting yesterday. Why are we having so much stinking bad luck? Rob goes missing, then I smack poor Paul into a wall and sprain his wrist. Then Kyle gets sick, and now I can't find him. When it rains, it pours! "Hey!" Was that a Kyle hey? I swirled around, only to find Adam looking at me. I sighed. "Pookie's up!" he smiled, stretching his arms wide open. "Hey, we were looking for you! Thought you'd gone missing!" Grimacing, I said, "Kyle's not here." "I know," Adam replied. "He smartened up last night and got his butt inside. He's in his room with Paul. We've been waiting for you! Come on, boy, let's get some chowage!" I felt my face burning as I followed Adam into the hotel. We passed through the lobby, to the elevators. "Hey, I had another dream last night," Adam announced as we entered the elevator. The metal doors closed behind us. Smirking, I replied, "It was about the Real World video again, right?" "No, not last night!" he exclaimed, like I should have known. "No, this one had to do with the Bent video." I nodded, waiting for Adam to continue. "See, I was walking down that street where we shot the video. And Rob comes barreling around the corner," Adam swooped his hand in front of him, "in that car, you know, the one I drove? And I'm running like hell, but he's just gaining on me. He comes crashing into me, and I go sprawling. Then Kyle comes along and..." "Takes your wallet." "No," Adam shook his head. "My baby doll heads!" I burst out laughing, and Adam furrowed his eyebrows. "It wasn't funny!" he exclaimed in horror. "He tossed the original baby doll head into the gutter and had this maniacal laughter going on." The elevator doors opened. "The rest was like the video." Adam led me down the hallway to Kyle's room. I could smell Paul before we even got inside. When we entered the room, we found him sitting at the desk, puffing away at a cigarette and drinking coffee. "Hey, does either one of you mind turning the page for me?" he asked, raising the hand that held his coffee cup and cigarette to a newspaper that was strewn across the desk in front of him. Adam turned the page. "Thanks." "We ate all the Honey Combs," Kyle said in a hoarse voice from where he laid on the bed. "What?!? No!" Adam raced for the room service cart and frantically searched its contents. Wide-eyed, he looked at Paul. "Is he serious?" Paul nodded, not glancing up from his newspaper. "But Kyle stuck a box of Lucky Charms under the bed," he said in monotone. Adam dove to the floor. "Frosted Lucky Charms!" he sang from underneath the bed. "They're magically delicious!" He crawled out with his prize. As he got to his feet, he asked, "We still have milk left, right?" "How should I know?" Paul snapped, furrowing his eyebrows. "Check the cart!" Lowering his head, Adam wandered toward the service cart. Poor guy looked like a whipped dog. I dragged a chair to the desk and sat down next to Paul. "Hey," was all I was brave enough to say to him. "Hey, Pookie," he sighed and took a drag of his cigarette. I don't know how he could hold a cigarette and a cup of coffee with the same hand, but he managed. It was a wonder he didn't burn himself with one while he was occupied with the other. He put down his coffee cup and looked me in the eye. "While you were out this morning, I called the police and filed a missing persons report." A knot was forming in my throat. "So, so he's officially missing now?" I managed to choke out. Paul nodded and puffed on his cigarette. "I didn't know what else we should do but call the police. Adam and Kyle agreed." "So what are we doing now?" I asked, pulling a cigarette out of the carton that lay on the desk. Shrugging, he said, "I guess we just wait." "Here?" "I don't know. I mean, we can't go on tour without him. It's not like we had plans to be anywhere else, so we can afford to stick around here for a few days. Just hope he turns up." I swallowed hard, but the knot in my throat wouldn't clear. I grabbed my lighter out of my back pocket and lit the cigarette. "We just sit around the hotel?" "That's what I'm going to do," Paul replied. "I don't know. I don't know what to do." "I was going to go to the university library today," Adam announced through a mouthful of cereal. I turned around and found him sitting on the floor behind me. "I want to get on-line and write a postcard from the road. We should explain some of this to the fans." Paul faced Adam. "What are you going to tell them?" he asked. "The truth!" Adam exclaimed, slamming his cereal bowl onto the floor. A few drops of milk splashed down the side of the bowl, which he blotted with a napkin. "But we're telling them..." "No, you're telling them a lie! I never agreed to lying!" "Adam, think about this," Paul leaned forward, closer to Adam. "What's going to happen if we tell them that Rob's missing? Most fans will be genuinely upset, but some of them, a small handful mind you, might try to hurt him. They'll know he's out here, just wandering around North..." "You're paranoid." "We don't want a media circus!" Adam leapt to his feet and approached Paul. "So that's what this is about." He shook his head. "You just don't want bad publicity for the band." "What?!?" Paul jumped out of his chair, knocking it over. "Look, I care about Rob, no matter what he's doing! He's my friend!" Taking a step back, Adam nodded. "Okay, I get it," he breathed and headed for the door. He glanced at Kyle, then at me. "I'll be in my room, if anybody wants me," he announced and stepped out. Paul sighed. With his working hand, he set his chair upright and sat back down. "I knew that was coming," he said. Looking at Kyle, he added, "Looks like Kyle slept through it too." "How's he doing today?" I asked, gazing over at him. "Better than last night. He was coughing so loud, I could hear him in my room. I thought he was keeping the whole floor awake. You didn't hear him?" I shook my head. As if Paul had cued him, Kyle coughed. He muttered something to himself, rolled over, and settled again. Paul watched Kyle as he took a drag from his cigarette. "Seems like he's always completely wiped. I was going to stick around with him today." He turned to me. "Can you hang around with Adam? Just see what he's going to write on the web page?" "I can't stop him from writing anything." I really did not want to become caught up in Paul and Adam's argument. "I know," Paul sighed, exhaling a puff of smoke. "Just use your best judgement. I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we should be telling the fans the truth. I don't know." His eyes were red and brimming with tears. "I should go..." Paul nodded, closing his eyes. "Yeah." I left the room. |