"C'mon, Chance!" Geoff encouraged as he walked eagerly beside her partner. "It'll be a lot of fun. There'll be skiing, ice fishing, snowboarding..." he rambled.

"Geoff!" Chance suddenly snapped with a piercing voice that echoed throughout the halls. Geoff was suddenly silent. He was 99.99% sure that he'd never been shut up so fast before in his life. The vein popping out of Chance's neck led Geoff to believe he might have been taking it too far. "My life is already busy as it is and someone has to take care of the paperwork!"

A shockingly timid Geoff just said quietly, "Oh, sorry, man... didn't ah... mean to upset you or anything and I mean I totally get it and all..."

Geoff rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly before he heard Chance give a heavy sigh. "Look, I'm sorry. But I've got a lot on my plate right now and... I'm not too good with new people anyway. You'd be better off without me."

"You kidding? I bet you're a kick-ass snowboarder. This would be a pretty great way to get your mind off of the stress for a while, y'know, chill and take it easy." Geoff reasoned.

"My focus is my job, Geoff. That should be my priority." Chance told him lowly with a serious tone way too depressing for his partner's taste.

"Just one weekend?"

"No. It's too much time away."

"Just five days?"

"Geoffrey."

"120 hours?"

"No is no."

"Five sun rises?"

"That's final."

"One weekend out of your entire existence!"

"FINE. For Heaven's sake OKAY!" Chance suddenly blurred in exasperation.

"I mean, if you insist." Geoff smirked before handing him the document he was holding with a cheeky grin. "I already got you the weekend off by the way."

With that, Geoff turned around and marched back down the hall with a look of triumph about him.

Chance only looked over the approval form for his vacation before glancing up to see Geoff confidently strolling down the hall. He simply shook his head.

"Geoff Castellucci."

~•~

"GEOFF CASTELLUCCI!" barked a a very angry Tony from the rec room. Geoff, who had stuffed his moth full of Earl's delicious brownies, just froze in his place with wide eyes.

"Hmmmmm?" hummed a guilty-as-charged Geoff as he tried to muster up the most innocent look he'd ever pulled off.

"WHAT THE HELL? WHY?" demanded the raging baritone as he stormed into the kitchen. Geoff innocently chewed his food and averted his eyes. He gave a shrug of his broad shoulders.

Geoff mumbled a few timid words through his stuffed cheeks, which no one could understand anyway.

Eli came into the room with a mug of coffee in his hand and a book in the other. He peered at Tony briefly over the rim of his glasses. "I mean, Rachel seemed happy to come." Eli pointed out. "I thought this whole feud thing was over."

"She is the devil in disguise." Tony hissed, his nose scrunching and eyebrows furrowing.

"Relax, man." Geoff assured after swallowing the huge lump of chocolate. "I'm sure she forgot all about prom already. Just don't bring it up and all will be fine. Maybe you guys can be friends."

"You guys didn't try to hook me up with her?" Tony questioned skeptically.

Eli took a sip of his coffee, doing it with a sophisticated look like he always did. "If anyone would do that, I'd bet my money on Geoff."

Tony hastily turned his glare to his taller friend, who looked like a chipmunk stuffing his cheeks full of acorns. Was it hard to take him seriously? Yes.

Geoff awkwardly smiled with a stuffed face before grabbing one last brownie and fleeing the scene.

Tony just signed, hung his head, and trudged into the rec room where Earl was enjoying a movie after a long day at the kitchen.

Tony then spun around on his heels and headed back into the kitchen. He had a devilish look on his face as he snatched the plate of brownies for himself. He didn't know what made him happier, eating the mouthwatering squares of chocolate heaven or knowing that Geoff won't get any more.

Or both.

He'd settle for both.

Before Tony could even make it out of the kitchen, out of the blue, two pieces of heaven were stolen from him.

Tony narrowed his eyes as he saw a victorious-looking Eli munch on his stolen snack.

"I swear this apartment is like the jungle sometimes." Tony muttered before marching out of the kitchen and heading for his room. On his way to his room, he passed by Layne's to see a tall figure slumped in front of a computer desk in the dark of his room.

Tony flicked on the light switch to get a better look at his friend. Layne let out a surprised help before jumping from his seat and tumbling onto the floor. Tony raised his eyebrows as his friend hissed and covered his eyes, saying "it burns! Turn it off turn it off!"

"How was work, buddy?" asked Tony, realizing he hadn't spoken to Layne at all that day.

Layne sat himself against the wall beneath his window with his back pressed uncomfortably against the furnace. He pulled his knees in and frowned. "I fell asleep two times. I think." Layne didn't seem too enthusiastic to talk about it. "Emoni at the reception desk caught me sleeping and flicked a paperclip at me from across the room..."

Tony's eyebrows flickered in shock. "Are you serious?"

Layne pitifully nodded. "She has surprisingly good aim. Right on the forehead..." he absentmindedly rubbed the red mark still tattooed on his forehead.

"What's the matter with you?" Tony asked as he made himself welcome and sat on the end of Layne's bed.

Layne just let out a long and exasperated groan in response. Tony rolled his eyes. "I don't speak whale, Layne."

Layne rubbed his eyes vigorously, so much that they turned red and a little puffy. "That was the first time. The second time, my boss gave me a warning."

"Ouch." Tony commented as he began to munch on a brownie.

"That's not even the worst part..." Layne finally said as if the day couldn't have gotten any worse. "This morning I was so tired that I accidentally walked into our neighbour's door."

"Kirstie?" asked Tony.

"No, I think his name is uh... Andrew? Andy? I know it starts with an A..." Layne trialled off unsurely.

"You mean Austin? Layne, we met him last week." Tony reminded bluntly as he eyed the brownies once more to decided which to devour next.

Layne let out another exasperated sigh. "I can't even think straight anymore!" Layne grumbled with frustration in his voice.

"Don't stress, I'm bad with names, too. I forgot Kirstie's name at first. She didn't seem to mind." Tony pointed out in hopes to assure him that it wasn't the end of the world.

"Kirstie!" Layne mumbled into his knees as he wrapped his arms around his legs. "She was watching the entire time, Tony! I think she even laughed!"

Layne now seemed more panicked than before. Tony blinked before drawing in a deep breath and setting the brownies next to him before standing up. "Ouch..."

"Yeah..."

"Lemme guess, you stayed up all night trying to  become a pro at skiing overnight?" Tony assumed.

Layne glanced up at him with skeptical, yet exhausted eyes. "How did you know that?"

"I looked at your computer screen." Tony shrugged, referring to the computer Layne was curled over and most likely fast asleep. "... And I kinda figured."

Layne sighed. "I'm just gonna screw up like I always do and make myself look stupid..."

"Layne!" Tony interrupted. "You're way too tired, so I'll pretend I didn't hear the white-girl complaining, but, what are you so worried about anyway? I'm pretty sure Earl's the only one who's been skiing before from the guys."

Layne seemed surprised for a moment. "Seriously?"

Tony nodded. "Yep. You've got nothing to worry about, man."

Layne takes in a deep breath. "Okay, well that does kinda help... kinda."

The tall, black-haired man then stood and dragged his feet all the way to his bed, where he collapsed onto his stomach. "Who's all going anyway?" Layne asked before Tony left.

Tony was then bitterly reminded of that his rivalry would be there to sabotage his trip. "Ask Geoff." he said nonchalantly before standing up from the bed and heading to the door with his plate.

"It's Geoff's turn to make dinner, by the way. Oh, and it's your turn to do the dishes." Tony reminded as he looked down at his plate. He froze in his steps as he was greeted by an empty plate with only a few crumbs left.

Tony glanced back to see his friend munching on the last brownie. He frowned before trudging out of Layne's room.

~•~

Hey, so I still exist...

And I'm sorry.

Like really sorry.

I've been putting all my focus into books I haven't published and haven't made time for the ones on this account.

I know I've missed Earl's and Layne's birthdays but I do plan on making them. This trip was originally planned for Layne's birthday and that's how it's going to be. I need more time for the birthday chapters to make then really special so stay tuned for Earl's (I definitely have not forgotten about him!)

Now, about Tony.

So, as you all know, Tony left VoicePlay at the start of 2017.

I decided that I can't just take him out of the story so I'm going to keep him in. But, I will make it a point to have the new guy, whoever he is, be a pretty big role in the book!

I hope that cleared things up, and I hope you all have an awesome day!

ScarletMIX