Where Do We Go Now? // Gracie Abrams

My feet are up, a cold beer in my hands while watching the scenery zip by. The perfect way to travel.

"You're up," Seth kicks my leg, pulling me out of my contemplative stupor, for once not about Char. She's been giving me the cold shoulder since night one of this tour. I can't figure out how to get back on her good side.

Does she have a good side? 'Cause now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've never been on it.

"I got nothing." I pull a card and add it to my hand. Alex is up. He drops a card onto the pile.

"One card left, bitches." Alex waves his last remaining card in my face. "Losing again, Jacob. At this rate we'll know all your secrets."

I shrug. Whatever.

Today is TMZ rules, according to Alex. The player who wins gets to ask the player with the worst game, aka the most points, an embarrassing question. So far, I've had to describe almost every cringe-worthy event in my life as the biggest loser of the game.

"Right. Because losing to a boy band is what's embarrassing. Not the fact that we're playing Crazy Eights." I laugh. It's a weak effort on my part to deflect. I started razzing the guys about any and everything after my first confession to save face. Spoiler alert; it's not working.

"Hey, you know the rules, man," Ryan says, a pointed look directed at me.

"Right, right, You're not a 'boy band.'" While speaking, I make the mistake of using actual air quotes when I say boy band. That was the first thing they told me when they let me on board. No calling them a boy band. My words bring Seth's glare aimed right between my eyes. Alex snorts. Ryan grunts, definitely not happy with me.

Is anyone?

"Okay, calm down. I love your sound. I'm just giving you a hard time, jeez! You're too easy." I take a long pull of my beer. The game resumes. I'm able to drop a couple of cards. Alex is forced to pick some up. Then miracle of miracles, I'm actually on the verge of winning.

"One card left," I say, pulling it close to my chest.

Before play gets back to me, the bus pulls off the road and into a rest stop. Once in a while we take a break on a longhaul day and stretch our legs if the conditions are right. Security checks it out ahead of us and radios back if we're a go.

"Pause in the game?" Alex suggests.

"Fine by me," Ryan answers.

"Nah, fuck that! I'm about to win. We finish this now." I don't want to blow my chance because knowing these guys they'll mix up the cards when I'm not looking, or someone (ahem, Seth) will knock the entire deck to the ground and we'll have to start all over again.

"Why don't you cry about it?" Alex smirks. I don't bite at the obvious Napoleon Dynamite reference. Instead, I pop a brow in challenge.

"Make it quick. If you don't win this round, we're pausing to get off this bus." Ryan tips his head to Seth who's next to play. I hold my breath. I've had a question to ask these guys on the tip of my tongue since we started playing and Ryan declared the TMZ rules.

I watch as Seth lays a six. Ryan drops a four onto the deck. And then it's back to me.

"Fuck, yeah." I drop my final card. "Winner, winner, chicken dinner." I thrust my fists in the air. Sweet victory.

"An eight? You had an eight this entire time." He's pissed because eights are wild. "You could have just said that instead of making us play another round." Ryan tosses his remaining cards on the table.

"No, No, you have to count your points. We need a loser who's got to answer my question."

"Damn, we created a monster." Alex looks through his cards, counting up the points. Ryan and Seth do the same.

Alex finishes first. "I have nine."

"Fifteen for me." Seth groans before looking at Ryan.

"Twenty-one." Ryan states his total.

"Dude, twenty-one did you dirty." I laugh.

"Rest stop before questions." Ryan doesn't hesitate to stand and exit the bus. I follow him out with Alex and Seth on my tail.

"Jace, wake the fuck up. We're here! You're late." Seth calls as he steps off the bus. I look back at him in confusion.

"Why'd you say that? We're here? It's a rest stop, not the venue."

"Wait for it." Seth slaps me on the shoulder as he eases past me.

Jace comes tearing off the bus a few seconds later.

"What'd I miss?" He's frantic, a little out of it, and wide eyed.

"That's why," Seth smirks. "Never fails." Alex laughs his ass off behind us. Jace starts cussing when he realizes he's been punked.

"Jacob," Zack calls to me as he approaches from his bus. "What are you doing?" His brow's furrowed with a narrowed gaze.

"Stretching our legs, like everyone else."

"Nah, what are you doing on C1's bus? Did you already forget what I told you?"

Tour etiquette 101, how could I forget. "But, they invited me. We were on the crew bus and they pulled me over to theirs. Was I supposed to say no?"

Zack shakes his head. "Good luck using that logic with the crew."

I shrug. It's been fine so far.

I turn to follow the guys when Rick and Randy walk by. Both of them give me the stink eye. One of them bumps my shoulder aggressively.

Yeah, I should have listened to Zack.

***

"What happened to your drummer?" I ask. I didn't wait ten seconds after climbing back on the bus before I dropped my demand on Ryan. He lost, after all. He has to tell me now.

"Jace has no stamina. The guy plays drums like a demon then sleeps for fifteen hours. Don't ask me why." He shrugs and laces his hands behind his head.

"Not Jace. The other guy, Curt." I clarify quietly. No one talks about the incident. Everyone knows what went down. It was all over social media then the news outlets got hold of the story and it went everywhere. They're still dealing with the aftereffects. But no one knows the details.

Ryan gives me a pointed look. He knew exactly what I meant when I first asked. He used Jace to distract me from it. I sense I'm digging for trouble by asking but I can't help myself. Never could. The guys have been closed mouthed about it this entire time. No interviews. No explanations. Just absolutely mute.

"You know, if you'd just tell the world what happened they'd leave you alone about it." I lean back calmly, hoping he'll take the bait. But it's Seth who starts talking first.

"It's not for lack of desire, man. Ever heard of a gag order?"

"No shit." My mouth gaps. "It's that serious?"

Ryan stands abruptly, walking to the hall where the bunks are and pulling the accordion door closed. Alex does the same in the opposite direction, closing off the front of the bus and the listening ears of their driver.

"You never heard this," Ryan says as he turns back to me. "We never had this conversation." His pointed look gives me a hint at what would happen if this leaves the bus. I'll be dead meat.

The world saw Ryan, Alex and Seth pull the crazed fan off of their last drummer, but the damage had already been done. It took a while for everyone to act. I've seen the footage from every possible angle and it's clear that the guys were caught completely off guard.

"My lips are sealed." I zip my lips with my fingers before crossing my heart. "Seriously. I'm a vault."

To be fair, discretion is not a trait I come by naturally. In this case, I know if I squeal I'll have Zack on my ass along with the entire band. This happened while Citizen One toured with Brianna and she's had repercussions as well. So, I'll keep this knowledge buried as deep as possible to avoid ruining my friendship with him. After all, I was able to keep his relationship with Brianna under wraps.

Ryan sits back down on the couch and leans in. Alex and Seth follow suit. I take their lead and lean in close so we can keep our voices low. The bus hasn't pulled away from the rest stop, so we don't have the hum of the road to drown us out.

"We'd been getting some vibes that Curt had something brewing the entire tour. He was off." Ryan looks at Alex. "We thought he was just road worn from months of shows and traveling. Tired. He'd sneak off the bus every chance he got."

Alex nods before taking over. "Our stop in Vegas tipped the scales. He was drunk half the time, gone the other half. I confronted him about it right before the show, about backing off the partying or gambling, whatever it was he'd been doing. He told me to fuck off. I thought we'd have to stage an intervention at the end of the tour."

"Turns out we couldn't wait that long." Seth mumbles before leaning back and closing his eyes. It obviously took a toll on all the guys.

"Was the intervention before or after the fan incident?"

"Dude wasn't a fan." Seth adds.

I nod. "Clearly." What 'fan' beats up the drummer? That's got stalker vibes.

Ryan gives me another pointed look.

"What?"

The guys all look at each other, a silent conversation between bandmates that I'm not privy to. Alex looks away from the group and takes a deep breath.

"Might as well," he says.

Ryan's the one who speaks next.

"Curt's got the upperhand on this and he's been fighting us in court for a solid year."

"He's fighting you?"

Ryan nods.

"That makes no sense. You guys didn't beat him up."

"No. We kicked him out of the band for being a dick. He didn't take it well so he's using the incident against us and Char."

The mention of her name triggers something deep in me.

"Against Char how?"

"Dude," Seth says sharply. Ryan pushes on regardless.

"It was Char's brother that attacked Curt."

I stand. "Whoa. What now?" This detail feels like a blow but I'm not sure why. "Why would Char's brother attack your drummer?"

As I'm speaking, the door to the bus swings open. I turn to see who's at the door only to find Char glaring at me. Her icy glare moves to the band.

"What the fuck?" Her words burn through the air. "I thought I could trust you." Then she looks back at me, daggers in her eyes. "Damn it."

I watch her turn and storm away.

"Shit. Bad timing, man." Seth says. "We should have waited until we hit the road."

"No. We should have waited until the shit blew over," Alex says.

"Isn't anyone going after her?" I ask. She's pissed. I really don't need another reason for her to be mad at me. I had no idea any of this had to do with her when I asked.

"Nah. She's been pissed at us for a year." Ryan sounds chill about the whole thing. "It was just a matter of time for her to lose it."

It's my turn to glare. Right at Ryan. "You didn't have to tell me shit you weren't supposed to."

"Hey. You're a vault, right? This isn't going anywhere so no harm done."

He's too casual about it. Now I'm the one who's pissed. I point to the door that Char just slammed.

"Harm's been done. And if none of you fuckers are doing anything about it, looks like I will."

The wisdom of my next actions are questionable, but I follow through anyway. Stepping off the bus I head the only place I think Char might go.

Right to the silver bullet and into the storm.

Things are about to get ugly. When I wrote Moonlight and started detailing the drama Citizen One had been going through, I started making connections to this story. The details have changed a bit, and will probably continue to be adjusted, but this is where the C1 story kicks off. Don't worry! These guys will be showing up a lot in this series! Jace will definitely have his own book and I think Ryan will get a story as well.

Where did we go wrong is the vibe for Char right now. It's her entire mood. Although I'm not writing her POV, the music will reflect it.

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Thanks for reading! If you haven't read Camping With Travis, here's your sign to go read it! Wattpad added it to their marathon reading list and it's being discovered daily. Short, funny and full of social media plots. Go meet Lacey and Travis and the crew!