Road to the night show

It’s well into the morning now, I don’t know what time it is exactly, I don’t really care, summer vacation just started yesterday after all, so it feels like I have forever to do what I want. I live in Culver City, Los Angeles, I lay on my bed playing my guitar as I say this, my name’s Neo by the way. My mom’s a doctor and Dad’s an architect, the guy loves Floyd Wright so much he designed our house to fit a contemporary household theme which “Channels his creativity”. I like our house though; the color schemes and palettes go well with my golden-brown acoustic. I’ve been playing guitar for so long, I can’t even remember a time I wasn’t, it’s as if I went from crawling to playing guitar and then walking, it’s just fun, time always passes me by when I play and as I glide my fingers against the strings to have melodies float out of the instrument, my phone rings. I stop what I am doing to check it out and answer the phone call. “Hey, Mark.” I greeted annoyingly. “I’m outside”, Mark replies whilst hooting his van. “Oh, it's 11:00 already?”, I question curiously and am shocked how time flew by since I woke up. “Yes, Did you get everything”, Mark asks. “Yea, yea, I’m coming.”, I reply as I pack my guitar away in its case and grab the rest of my bags as I step out of my room. On my way to the front door, I drop the call and as I pass the living room to find my Dad watching another design documentary, I briefly shout out “I’m out!” He replies with a thumbs up he throws up in the air, just then I realize mom beat me to the front door as she shouts outs “Neo, Marks here!” I guess she’s where I get shouting out from as I reply “Yeah, okay!” with the same volume. As I get to the front door with Mom and Mark, ready to go, mom asks “You sure you don’t want us or just me to go with you?”, anxiously. “Mom you don’t even like A$AP Rocky”, I reply bluntly. “Yes I do, I can try, I even know the other guy he's always with, Tyler…Perry?” she states defensively “Tyler, the creator, mom” I reply, annoyingly. “It’s just that four days on the road trip with your friends is a long time” She comments worryingly. “Summer just started mom, it's four days out of three months and besides I’m 17 now, got to grow up eventually.”, I reply. Mark begins to grab my bags except for my guitar case and takes them in the van as Mom states “It’s just that…” “Don’t worry, dear, the boy worked hard this semester, I think he deserves a little break”, Dad interrupts. “Thank you, Dad”, I reply in relief as a give him a fist bump. Mark then hurries me on as he says “We have to go now” whilst tapping on his wrist to give the impression of him having a watch. As I am about to start towards the van, mom pulls me in for one last hug, Dad joins in making it one last group hug. “Dude, I was still saying bye to my folks”, I reply to Mark as I step into the van. “My bad, I’m sorry…” Mark replies as he stares at me with anticipating eyes. “Yes?” I awkwardly reply. “So, did you bring it?” Mark asks anxiously. “Bring what?” I ask playing dumb. “Don’t do this to me Neo, where is it?” Mark asks seriously. “Where is what?” I jokingly reply. “The weed Neo, God, the weed, I just checked all your bags and…” Mark states annoyingly. “Wow, first off, rude, and it’s in my guitar, you addict” I reply as I tap my guitar case. “So, I take it your parents don’t know your secret to the success you had this semester?” Mark asks. “Hey, what they don’t know won’t hurt them plus, some of us need to get into Berkley without losing our sanity trying, we can’t all be legacy kids.”, I reply. “Whatever, we still need to pick up Lucas, he with Daniel at that Starbucks about 5 miles from here.”, Mark states. “Cool, let’s get some music going, where’s tape one?”, I reply. “Tape one?”, Mark asked confused. “Tape one of four for the road trip.” I state bluntly. “Oh, I told you to call it ‘The road to the night show’, I’m saving it for when we pick up Lucas and Daniel. Just play some of your music off your phone until then”, Mark replies. “Cool, just pass the aux cord”, I reply and as I reach forward to grab the aux cord, my phone screen goes on to show the picture of my ex-girlfriend as the lock screen. It was only for a brief moment, but I could tell Mark notice as he quickly turned away when I looked at him. “So, you and Vanessa are talking again?” Mark asks. “No, I-I need to take that away, I just miss her…sometimes.” I reply sadly. “You want to stop by her place really quick?” Mark asks gently. “No, hell no, girls are overrated anyway, you tell a girl you love her, and she runs for the hills, treat her like poo and she’s all over you, I just don’t get how she could go for a dude like him, to love him over me…anyways, let’s just go get Lucas and Daniel and get this road trip started, right?”, I replied irritably.

On our way to Starbucks, to get Lucas and Daniel, I felt like I needed a pick me up after talking about Vanessa, so I played some music to help out. The music blast in Mark’s stereo system. Mark then looks at me and scoffs “What?” I asked defensively “Don’t be kicking off this road trip all sad boy style, I offered to take you to your girl’s house, you refused and so you don’t have a right to be emo now.” Mark frankly replies. “I just…no, you’re right, you’re right, it’s our time, guy time, let me play something else,” I reply and play something to get me going. “Oh damn, how’d you know?”, Mark asks as the next song I choose plays. “Know what?”, I reply. “That this song is one of the first songs in tape three?”, Mark asks surprised. “I don’t know, I just took a wild guess by playing a song that gets me pumped but I take it that if this song is in a tape, then these tapes might just be the highlight of this trip.”, I remark. “Thank you, I hope so.”, Mark replies.

As we arrive at Starbucks, Mark stops the van in the parking lot and we step inside, a few seconds after, I hear someone calling out my name ”Neo!”, I look to my right to find Lucas waving over from the table booth both he and Daniel are seated at. I poke Mark’s shoulder to prompt him to follow me to Lucas and Daniel. As we sit down, Daniel gets off his phone as I greet everyone “Hi guys, ready to go?” I state enthusiastically to get this trip going. “Yes” Daniel replies “Yea, we just ordered some drinks quick for the road, they’ll be here any second.” Lucas comments “What kind of drinks?” I ask. “Smoothies”, Lucas replies. “Please tell me you got guava flavor?”, I ask pleadingly. “Yes”, Lucas remarks while rolling his eyes. “Neo, I still don’t get how that’s your favorite flavor.” Daniel states. “Vanessa had me try it out once and I’ve loved it since.” I state reminiscently. Mark replies by scoffing and rolling his eyes. “Sorry, there I go talking about her again…” I reply. “Breakups can be hard dude, allowing yourself to feel whatever you’re feeling can make it easier though.” Daniel replies. “What?” Mark comments confused “Just, don’t ever apologize for loving someone Neo, it’s okay, love can sometimes be a game of roulette, just keeping shooting your shot.” Daniel remarks. Just then a waitress stops by to lay a tray of smoothies at the table, her name tag read “Jennifer” Mark looks to Daniel and then me “Look Neo, if you want to be a girl all over you, this is how.”, he comments before turning to the waitress. “Jennifer, huh, thanks for the smoothies, you know if you want to sit and join us there’s an extra seat on my lap, you can even share my straw.”, Mark remarks as he whistles and blows her a kiss. Jennifer scoffs down at Mike as she walks away, “Dude, rude.” Daniel comments as Mark replies “Whatever” and Lucas and I can’t help but laugh at Mark’s sorry excuse for flirting. ”Anyways”, I reply as I reach for my guava smoothie “let’s get these smoothies and go… wait why are there five and not four smoothies?” I ask confused. “Oh yeah, about that…” Lucas replies as a boy around our age with a skinny physique, brown hair, green eyes, and denim Golf le fleur clothing steps out the restroom and sits next to Lucas. Mark and I are a bit caught off guard, but Daniel seems unfazed. “Hey, babe”, Lucas says as he kisses the boy’s cheek and continues “These are my friends, Neo and Mark, Neo and Mark this is Dylan, my new boyfriend.” Lucas says as Dylan reaches out his hand to greet us “Neo huh, nice to meet you.”, Dylan speaks. “Likewise, dude and Daniel, why didn’t you say anything?”, I reply as I shake Dylan’s hand. “Lucas wanted to surprise you guys and, I figured it would be cute to watch, Mark, you’re quiet.” Daniel commented. “I thought we said no dates or plus-ones?”, Mark replies. “Yea, about that, Dylan’s a senior and leaving for an internship at Google in a week for most of the summer so we figured we could use the road trip for some bonding time before he goes, so amendment?”, Lucas pleads. “Cool”, Daniel replies. “I don’t see why not, more the merrier right, Mark...Mark?”, I reply. “Just make sure your new, new boyfriend doesn’t try to hump my leg or something okay, Lucas?” Mark rudely replies. “Wow, okay, first off, rude and second, Jared didn’t even like your single, non-romantic ass.” Lucas says defensively as he holds Dylan’s hand which lies on the wooden table of the booth we’re seated in. “Whatever, I’m waiting in the van.” Mark replies as he gets up from the booth and exits the door. Daniel and I are already drinking our smoothies as Mark and Lucas argue. “Neo, Daniel, all good?”, Lucas irritably says, both Daniel and I nod in reply. “Yea, and don’t worry about Mark, Dylan, he’s only a part-time asshole”, I then say. “It’s okay, there’s always that special one in the group.”, Dylan replies. “Yea, ‘special’ one”, Daniel replies jokingly. “Alright then, ready to go?”, Lucas asks. “Yes, let’s go, operation: Road to the night show is a go, five people, four tapes, one trip of a lifetime coming right up!” I reply. “Layout the game plan for me again?” Daniel asks “For the four days we will be out on the road, for each day, there’s a tape which curates a plethora yet a carefully curated collection of music we have picked up since starting high school, from past to present, freshmen to junior year, all leading to the fourth and final tape when we will arrive at Camp Flog Gnaw. The tapes aren’t just music, Mark came up with the idea to have us do those voice-over recording sessions in the music room at school to create a skit story that progress within the tapes, remember when he gave us that script and everything?” Lucas replies to Daniel while Dylan’s arm is wrapped around his shoulder. “Oh yea…cool, now I’m excited to hear these tapes.” Daniel replies as he remembers. We then all get up from the booth we were seated at and as Lucas, Daniel, and Dylan grab their bags, I leave out the door early to get to the van to check on Mark and see how he’s doing. As I exit from the door, I find the van parked several feet away from it, that, and a grumpy Mark lying back on the seat with his eyes closed clearly in a hurry to get the trip started whilst listening to music on his Air Pods. Quietly, I approach the van to the window from where he is seated. “HEY MARK”, I yell out whilst banging on the window to scare him, it worked. He jolts off his seat before composing himself and grumpily replies “Hey”. I can tell from Mark’s eyes that for some reason he was crying, I don’t pay much attention to it though. “Dude, I know, you’re still pissed at whatever happened between you and Jared but…”I say and yet don’t get any response from Mark. “Mark…are you okay?” I ask. “I’m fine” Mark replies while looking away from me and placing his head down. “Mark, if something is wrong, you can tell me, okay?” I state gently. “He…” Mark replies. ”He who, Jared?” I ask worryingly “HE KISSED ME, NEO”, Mark outburst suddenly. A dead silence fell over before Mark continued “and… I liked it, why did I like it?!”, Mark continues before crying in frustration. “Mark, it's okay”, I replied, feeling like it was the only thing I could say as I place my hand on his shoulder. “M-my Dad, if he found out he would…”, Mark shutters out in terror. “What Mark is everything okay?”, I reply in a concerned tone. Just then Lucas, Dylan, and Daniel step out the door, as they approach the van, Mark wipes his tears and calms himself down. “Sorry we’re late, Daniel bumped into that waitress Mark was hitting on, Jennifer, and spilled an order she was carrying all over himself and her, they went to go clean up, and before I know it, they start talking and now he has her number.” Lucas says excitedly. “Crazy”, I say, pretending to care whilst preoccupied with Mark. “I know right…” Daniel replies in a dreamy ecstatic state. “In all honesty, it was kind of cute to watch, in any case…wow Mark, are you okay?” Dylan comments as he sees the red in Mark’s eyes and can tell from it that he was crying. Before Mark has a chance to say anything, another van driving on the road with blaring pop music and girls singing the words and squealing to the music, pull over near us after a few seconds of seeing us, I know why I know this van and the girls in it, it belongs to one of Vanessa’s friends. Moments later the roof of the van opens out and Vanessa along with another friend pops out. “Hey, Neo”, Vanessa says in a friendly giddy tone. “H-hey Vanessa”, I reply more enthusiastically than I would have liked to. I guess all it takes is a sweet and friendly hello from her angelic voice for me to be her Igor all over again. “Hey, Danny-boy.”, the other girl on the rooftop with Vanessa says to Daniel. “Hey, Sapphire.” Daniel bluntly replies. “How are you, do you want a ride? You can come to sit next to me.”, she says in a seductive tone whilst throwing a wink at him. “I’m good, where you guys off too anyway?”, Daniel replies. “Isn’t it obvious, we’re on our way to camp flog gnaw.” Vanessa replies as she flashes her Golf le fleur shirt. “Uh, no you’re not, because we are on our way there and don’t need no power puff pose ruining it or disturbing us.”, Mark replies, appearing to be back to normal. “Oh, don’t worry Mark, no girl would even want to be near you, so we could never distract you plus, we could never ruin it, we have backstage passes after all. “What, how?!”, I replied curiously. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”, Sapphire replies. “Danny-boy…last chance, you want to come with us.”, she says to Daniel again seductively. “No, thank you.” a polite and yet another blunt reply from Daniel. “He’s taken, Sapphire, get over it.” Lucas jokingly remarks. Another girl then pops out of the rooftop now next to Vanessa and Sapphire. “Vanessa, Sapphire, What’s taking you so long.”, the third girl asks. “We’re on our way, Lucy.” Vanessa replies. “And who’s the cutie? Over there” Lucy asks as she turns her attention to Dylan. “Taken, Lucy.”, Lucas replies flatly while placing his arm in front of Dylan as if to protect him from a predator. “Hmm, what a shame, girls, we got to go.”, Lucy states as she ducks down from the roof and back into the van. “Bye, Neo.” Vanessa says as she waves to everyone and blows me a kiss before she and Sapphire follow suit with Lucy, the pop song which was playing then resumes as they drive off. “Do you guys know them?” Dylan asks, “We just go to the same school together and it ends there, if anything, those girls, are trouble.” Lucas replies. “Facts, all girls are nothing but trouble, and Neo what’s up with you, one minute you’re over Vanessa and then you’re all whipped all over again” Mark comments. “I know, I feel silly, I’m sorry, I still miss her, did you see her blow that kiss at me, maybe she does love me, maybe she wants to work things out?”, I reply gleefully. “What happened?”, Dylan asks. “Neo’s hopelessly romantic excuse of a love life can wait we have a show to catch.” Daniel replies. “Yes, let’s get going”, Lucas comments. “Finally!” Mark states as he starts the van. “Yea, coming…”, I reply as everyone gets in.