The bus screeched into the parking lot, coming to a shaky stop. Out the window I could just make out the neon glow of the twenty four hour corner store sign. Bon's driving got us here in record time, and thankfully one piece. Angus sighed in relief, happy to make it here alive. Only problem was, we had to get back home alive too. 

"Hold on," Bon said, turning a few gears. "I'm gonna try backin' up..." Angus' relief was short lived.

"Why?" he asked, gripping the cushion.

"I think I'm parked wrong," Bon said. The bus inched backwards along the asphalt. I peered out the curtain and watched the neon sign grow smaller. Backing up in a normal car was difficult enough. I know from experience. With a massive, clumsy tour bus....

"I'm sure you're parked fine," Angus said. Now I could see the concern on his face. I think sometime after Bon took a chance in the fast lane, Angus dropped his calm facade in favor of safety first. "Jus' pull forward an' stop."

"Can't see shit," Bon said, looking through the mirror. No matter how much he adjusted it, it was still too dark. "Can one of you be a mate an' check the back window for me? Make sure I don't run someone over?"

Angus and I exchanged very worried and slightly green looks. Angus sighed and stood up. "Guess I'll do it..." He left us at the front as he passed the beds and bathroom. The back room, similar to the one where Malcolm and I conducted our interview, had a little window smudged with dirt. I wasn't sure how much Angus could see out that window, let alone any better than Bon could see out the front. Either way, it was still too dark out. Angus' voice called out and I could barely understand him. But Bon seemed to and he started backing up again. 

Everything went smoothly. Until it didn't.

Angus' voice called out louder now, sounding more like panic. Finally I could make out the words "Bon, stop!" before Bon finally turned the gear to neutral. Something metal and dangerously large crashed to the ground outside. Even from up front it hurt to hear the scraping metal against the concrete as the tires pushed it around. Bon turned the ignition off, waiting for Angus to come back. When he did, he did not look happy. "You hit somethin'."

"What'd I hit?"

"I don't know, I can't see anythin'." Bon pulled the lever to open the doors and Angus stormed out. Bon, tossing the driver's hat to the floor followed him and I stood from my seat with shaky legs. Grabbing on to anything I could to steady myself, I followed the men off the bus and hurried around back, putting a hand to my mouth at the sight. Bon and Angus were standing beside a fallen pole. A sign had broken off from the top of the pole during the fall, warning drivers about potential towing after midnight. 

It was well past midnight by now. 

Bon stuck his hands in his pockets and surveyed the damage. "Hm," he said, checking the bus for any scrapes or dents he'd have to explain. "Well," he said, giving us a pitiful smile. "At least the bus looks fine."

"At least," Angus huffed, rolling his eyes. "You backed into it an' hit it, then pushed it out where it was standin'," Angus explained, using his hands to demonstrate. "I heard somethin' but didn't see it until it fell. Thought it would smash the window in."

"Are you okay?" I asked. 

"Bit shaken," Angus said. "Remind me never to go drivin' with this loon again." Bon picked the towing sign up from the ground and squinted trying to read it. 

"Heavy," he said, weighing it with his hands. "Heavier than it looks."

"Ya' know we can get arrested for this?" Angus asked, gesturing at the fallen pole.

"Yeah," Bon laughed without humor. "An' ya' know neither of us wants to go back to jail." My eyes widened and I looked back and forth between them. Before I could ask, Bon bent down to lift the pole, barely moving it an inch. "Weighs a fuckin' ton."

"What are ya' tryin' to do?" Angus asked.

"Was hopin' to move it out of the way," Bon said, setting the towing sign down. "We sure as hell can't stand it back up the way it was."

"Where do we move it to?" I asked, looking around us. We were in an empty lot near the back of the stores. There were some hedges a ways off but the pole was probably too heavy to carry that far, even with the three of us. There were some dumpsters that were closer but in no way could we lift this massive pole and throw it in. Too long anyway, it'd stick out and hurt someone. Asking for help might get us in trouble and even though it was the right thing to do, we were saving it as a last resort. 

Crickets chirped in the spring night which only made the men's silent response to my question even funnier. I held back a laugh lest they think I was happy about our predicament. Angus stooped to check for any damage to the tires. "Anyone have a torch?" he asked. Neither Bon nor I had a flashlight on hand but Bon raced back to the bus to search any of the other compartments. I stayed behind with Angus, poorly attempting to roll the pole away from the bus. Suddenly I was blinded by a golden light, shining right in my eyes. I hissed and turned my face away.

"You okay?" Angus asked.

"I'm blind, but I'm okay," I said, covering my eyes with my hand. Bon hurried back to us, his hands empty. 

"Nothin'," he said. "A fuckin' porno mag but no torch. Turned the lights on instead." My eyes adjusting to the taillights, I could see what had been done properly. Revealed by the soft glow, there was a nick in the bumper, the metal scratched. Along with a dent under a cracked window, the paint had started to chip. 

The bus was most certainly not fine.

"Fuck," Bon said, seeing what he had done. "They're not gonna like this..."

"I'm not a fan either," Angus said, standing up. "The tires look good but one of us will have to get under the bus to push one side of the pole out."

"I'll do it," I said. It felt like I hadn't done much and I wanted to help. Besides, I was small enough to fit. 

"Ya' sure?" Bon asked. I nodded and got on the ground, lying on my back. The underside of the bus was warm and a bit cramped. It smelled like a mechanic shop and I got to work so I could get out as quick as possible. "Can ya' kick it out?"

Turning my body, I stretched my feet out and used all my strength against the pole. Bon and Angus grabbed the other side and pulled it. Sweat was already starting to form on my back and I was out of breath in seconds. After successfully removing the pole from under the bus, I climbed out, the fresh air giving me relief. "Good job, love," Angus said and I gave him a weary thumbs up, too tired to blush. "Now what?"

Bon looked around the lot. There were no other cars here and I worried a car would pull up and catch us in our crime. But they all kept driving down the road, ignoring our plight. "Let's try rollin' it out of the way," he said. "So no cars hit it." All three of us started pushing the giant pole across the lot, the metal scraping against loose pebbles. "Here, try turnin' it this way."

Turning it slightly, making sure to keep its direction steady, we continued rolling. Dirt built up on it, only to be washed away by a spare puddle. My legs were already weak and now my hands were burning and slightly dirty. We got the pole pushed up against a curb and carefully let it go, making sure it didn't roll toward the lot. "What about the sign?" Angus asked. Bon hurried back to the bus and grabbed the sign from the ground. 

"At least we can't get towed," I said. "Since there's no warning sign." Bon returned, holding the heavy sign with both hands. 

"Let's leave it here," he said, tossing it onto a patch of grass. "Surprised no one from the shop heard us out here."

"Maybe they're too tired to care," Angus yawned. "I sure wouldn't wanna deal with this, an' I jus' did."

"We should hold a funeral for it," Bon joked. "What do ya' think?" He grinned down at me. 

"Rest in pieces to the poor pole Bon accidentally killed," I said, thinking fast on the spot. "You'll be missed."

"Well done," Bon nodded. "Now let's get somethin' to eat."

"What about the bus?" Angus asked. "We jus' gonna leave it like that, all scraped up?"

"Do ya' see an auto shop anywhere, Ang?" Bon asked, on his way to the corner store. "One that's open at the Witching Hour?"

Angus mumbled to himself and followed Bon toward the neon sign, lighting a cigarette and grumpily blowing out smoke. I hurried to keep up, Bon only stopping to turn the bus' taillights off. Like a gentleman, he held the door open for us, his smile almost as bright as the overhead lights in the store. The place was small but held anything you could ever need. Drinks, food, Christmas decorations, cheap t shirts, plastic sleds that looked like garbage bin lids, and a whole aisle dedicated to summer. Picnic blankets, grill cleaning sets, and boxes upon boxes of fireworks. 

Of course Bon noticed these right away. 

"Hey, these look fun," he said, showing us a box of fire crackers. Angus exhaled a cloud of smoke and looked it over. 

"Haven't we done enough for the night?" he asked. "I mean, we set one of these off an' it lights a buildin' on fire. Then what?" Bon sighed and put it back.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," he said, but perked up when he saw sparklers. "What about these, then? These are safe." Besides the last Fourth of July when I burned myself on a stray spark from one of these, they were pretty safe. He didn't wait for us to agree and he took the box with him, along with a set of poppers. 

"Hope you weren't plannin' on sleepin'," Angus said to me, following Bon's pursuit. Bon set them on the counter where a pretty blonde girl was sitting, chewing gum. 

"Hello," Bon said, flashing her his charming smile. The girl didn't look a day older than eighteen and by the looks of the Tiger Beat magazine she was reading, Bon wasn't her type. 

"Hi," she said, setting her literature down and typing the code in on the register. I couldn't get over how old everything was. No scanners, no bar codes, everything was done by hand. Bon left the register and grabbed a couple bags of chips. 

"These too," he said, plopping them down. Angus looked through the fridges in the back and pulled out a case of Coke. "An' these," Bon said as Angus handed them over. "Anythin' else?"

Soda not being to my taste, I went looking for something else and all I could find that looked good was a pack of water bottles. I placed them next to the soda and Bon nodded at them. 

"An' these," he said.

"You don't say," the girl said, typing more numbers in. 

"Oh, we ought to get some dip," Angus said, heading out to look for some. 

"Bring us back some hot sauce, will ya'?" Bon called out. "I'm feelin' good tonight." Bon smiled at the cashier who hadn't been paying attention. He then smiled at me and I had no clue what he was talking about, even after he winked at me. 

"I'll find it," I said and scurried off to look for hot sauce. It was in the same aisle as the dip and Angus already had four different kinds in his hands. 

"Bon wants hot sauce, does he?" he asked, scanning the shelf.

"He's feeling good," I said and grabbed a tiny bottle of the stuff. "Is there a fridge on the bus?"

"In the back," Angus said. "Doesn't work great but it should hold the stuff for the night." We came back to the counter and spread all the stuff out, Bon looking over it with approval. "Wait." Angus left and returned a moment later with a couple boxes of smarties. "Can't forget the hard drugs," he said. 

Speakin' of drugs...." Bon left us at the counter, the girl looking up once before going back to typing. Angus stared at his shoes and I swayed from side to side. Bon came back holding a large bottle of Jack. He set it on the counter, scooting it closer to the girl.

"Let me guess, this too?" she asked. 

"Yep," Bon smiled. "Let me get my ID..."

"That's okay, I can tell."

Bon froze where he stood at the girl's brazen words. I put a hand to my mouth in shock. It wasn't the rudest thing she could have said but it wasn't the nicest either. My shock was interrupted with laughter as Angus doubled over in a scene that could have been included in all those YouTube compilations of this man laughing. 

Angus' laughter, being as contagious as it was, got me to start giggling as well. I kept my hand to my mouth, hoping to stifle them. The girl was smiling too, knowing good and well she just gave Angus a fabulous story to tell his friends later. Bon pulled his wallet out anyway and pulled out a bit of money. Angus struggled to do the same and I grabbed whatever I had left in my pockets, a giggling mess. 

"Ten twenty three," she said and all of us pooled some money in while the girl bagged everything. Angus grabbed the first bag so he could leave the store, his laughter getting fainter with each step. "Sorry," the girl said with a small smile.

"It's fine," Bon said. "I know I'm an old man. Stay safe out there." I helped him with the other bags and we left the store, the girl going back to her magazine. Angus was still giggling to himself by the bus where he dropped the bag on the steps. "Thanks a lot, Ang."

"She took me by surprise," he said, his face red. "I don't know what came over me."

"Ya' made Hannah laugh, that's for sure," Bon said and part of me felt bad and the other part started laughing again. 

"I'm sorry, Bon," I said, pinching myself to keep it together. "I shouldn't have laughed."

"It's not your fault," Bon said, looking at Angus. "I know you lot call me old an' special." He set the bags down on the ground and put his hands on his hips. "Don't think I don't hear ya'...laughin', yankin' knobs at the thought..."

Angus stopped laughing.

"Eh, not so funny now, eh?" Bon grinned in triumph and Angus stepped on his cigarette, pulled out a new one and rummaged around for the smarties. 

"It was till ya' got sick," he muttered. "You might be old an' special but that don't get anyone off." 

"Then what was all that noise I heard last night?" Bon said, thrilled now that the joke was on Angus. "Back in the hotel rooms?"

"I dunno, ask Mal," Angus said, tearing a box open. "Or Phil or someone, 'cause I slept through it."

"Hm...." Bon said, narrowing his eyes. He climbed the steps of the bus, stepping around Angus and the bag and held up a hand signal behind Ang's back that only I saw. It almost looked like he put a joke curse on Angus before he disappeared inside the bus with a laugh. 

"Now that we're alone," I said, sitting next to Angus on the steps. "You can tell me the truth." Angus smiled again and shook his head.

"Bon's full of shit an' he knows it," he said. "Maybe we get off on older women once in a while..."

"Is that what Bon heard then?" I asked, a large smile on my face. "Were you entertaining someone's mother?"

I could hear Bon laughing from inside the bus. Angus shifted in his seat and focused on his candy. "Not even close."

"Someone's grandmother?"

Bon laughed again and Angus pointed a finger at me. "That's strike two," he said. Dumping the rest of the candy in his palm, he held it out to me. "Want one?"

I looked over the candy and stared at one in particular. I took it and held it up to my hand. It looked just like all the other smarties with one glaring difference. 

It was blue.

"A blue smartie," I said in awe, and Angus stared at me. "I can't believe I'm actually holding a blue smartie...."

"You gonna take it home an' frame it?" he asked, shoveling some into his mouth. I snapped out of my reverie and ate it.

"In the future they stop making blue smarties," I explained. Angus didn't like the thought of anyone discontinuing his favorite candy and sniffed in disgust. "Can't believe they're not allowed to sell these in America."

"Why not?"

"Because we already have a candy that goes by the same name," I mumbled. "You might know them as rockets?" 

Angus' eyes glowed and he nodded in understanding. "I've heard of 'em."

"They're ass," I said and Angus smiled. "I don't care what anybody says, they're ass with a capital A." I was a chocolate girl myself. "Fruit flavored candy pretending to be healthy, fuck off."

"Lucky you're here then," Angus said. "What color do you want?"

"The purple ones are my favorite," I said. Angus shifted the box around, the smarties sliding around, clacking together.

"Purple....purple..." he said. "Ah, here's one." He pulled it out and handed it to me, and I took it and relished it. Bon came out and climbed over us to exit the bus. He was shirtless now, as per usual and had opened one of the boxes of poppers. 

"We could use these to scare off any vagabonds," he said, throwing one to the ground. It crackled once and nothing but a white wrapper was left behind. "Set somethin' up so these fall on 'em an' scare 'em off."

"Like Kevin McCallister," I said without thinking.

"Who?" Bon asked.

"Never mind," I said. Bon set the poppers aside and looked for the sparklers.

"They're in there," Angus said, pointing to a bag, his mouth full.

"Ah," Bon said, pulling the box out. "Come to daddy...." I stifled more laughs as Bon struggled to get the box open. Pulling one out, he held a hand out to Angus. "Got a light?" Angus fished around in his pocket and handed Bon his lighter. Flicking it open, he held the flame to the wick and watched it spark to life. "Crack open the Jack, Ang, let's celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Angus asked, mouth still full. 

"Anythin'," Bon said, watching the red and blue sparks. He waved it around, holding it at arm's length. "Us. Takin' the bus for a spin, havin' a good time."

"Knockin' the pole down?" Angus asked. He pulled a Coke out of its case and cracked it open. "Scratchin' the bus? Gettin' called old by a sheila?" 

"Okay, Hannah, you pick somethin'," Bon said. "Ang's in a bad mood."

"Am not," he muttered. I could see Angus' remarks might have been due to being so tired. After the candy and Coke, he'd be wide awake in no time. 

"Uh...." What could we celebrate? "Not getting killed on the way here?" Angus laughed and reached into another bag, pulling out some chips. Bon's sparkler went out and he set it in a nearby puddle. 

"Here, everybody take one," he said, holding the box out. I took one and Angus took one before setting it down on his lap. Bon set the box down and grabbed a few chips from the bag Angus held. Angus offered the bag to me and I had a couple. Bon used Angus' lighter to light his new sparkler and I stood up away from the bus to have mine lit. Golden sparks flew from mine and I laughed when Bon waved his around in a circle. "Come on, Ang!"

"I'm eating," he said. 

"Fine. Come on, then," Bon said, taking my hand and leading me, running across the empty lot. Our sparkles were a glaring contrast to the dark night. I wondered if maybe someone would see them and think they were a signal for help. Angus watched with his chips as Bon and I raced around the lot, Bon thinking chasing me was a good idea. I laughed in spite of the instinctual fear of a man with a lit firework chasing you in the dark, making sure to stay close to the van. It felt less scary with Angus in view. But it wasn't as fun with only me and Bon goofing off. Angus set the chips aside and took up his sparkler, asking Bon for his lighter. Ours went out by the time Ang's lit so Bon went to get more. "Late to the party, Ang."

"Who's late?" Angus asked, waving the wand around. "I'm the only one partyin'."

"'Cause everyone else went home. Here you are," Bon said, handing me one. Angus lit it for me and green sparks shot out. "What color's mine gonna be?"

"Yellow," I said.

"Red," Angus guessed. Bon lit the wick and the sparks flew.

"Pink!" Bon yelled and Angus finally smiled.

"Red is close enough," he said and Bon looked at me while drawing figure eights. 

"What do you think, Hannah?" I had to be fair. After all, pink is just a tint of red.

"Angus wins," I said and Angus patted himself on the back. 

"Pink like flowers," he said. 

"Pink like sunset," I said.

"Pink like-"

A semi truck honked its horn when it drove by, but it wasn't enough to drown out Bon's words as he spoke with his playful smile. "Ronald Scott!" I exclaimed. I wasn't surprised. Angus laughed and sided with Bon.

"He's right, ya' know," he said with a shrug. I laughed and shook my head of the image before my sparkler went out, Angus' having gone out a second before. 

"I'm hungry," I said, taking a break. I sat on the steps of the bus and picked up the chips Angus had opened. Bon grabbed all the used sparklers and put them in the puddle before grabbing the poppers. Angus and Bon had fun throwing them at each other's feet, jumping around to avoid them. I watched with glee, grabbing one of the bottles of water and cracking it open. I was glad I had come out here, and I was glad Angus had come with us. Despite crashing into a towing sign and almost wrecking the back of the bus, this had been a great idea. And I'd be sad to see it end.

"Hold still!" Bon yelled.

"I'm not gonna hold still so you can hit me with 'em!" Angus yelled back. Angus came running back to the bus and sat next to me, grabbing his Coke. "Time out, Bon, can't hit me with Hannah sittin' here."

"Fine," Bon said and grabbed some Coke for himself. Angus and I looked at him in surprise. 

"What, no whiskey?"

"Not yet," Bon said. "Maybe if one of the others were here I'd take a drink....but since I have you two..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Angus asked. "We don't mind."

"Nah, but it's not as fun bein' drunk by yourself, ya' know what I mean?" Bon smiled. "Ya' need a friend with ya'."

"Hm," Angus said, taking a drink. "You also need someone holdin' your hair back."

"Always the cheerful one, right, Hannah?" I looked at Angus and he, although had a bit more energy in him, was back to his tired self. I was sure these men were used to long hours into the night but even so, it was possible to succumb to them once in a while. Angus proved my point by yawning again. "It's hardly one in the mornin'!" 

Angus pulled his sleeve aside and looked at his watch. "One fifty," he corrected. "Almost two."

"If I didn't love sleep so much I never would," Bon said. "I'd stay up doin' as much as I could every day."

"Don't you want a break?" I asked. "Wouldn't that get tiring every day?"

"Eventually," Bon said, thinking it over. "Yeah, I'd take a break eventually. But not at first. I'd get on my bike an' see how far I'd get."

"I'd sleep anyway," Angus said. "Even if I didn't need it, I'd sleep."

"We know you would," Bon grinned. "What about you?" he asked, tapping my knee. "What would you do if you didn't need sleep?"

"I'd write," I said. "Write as much as I could or listen to as many records as I could." Sleep was usually what hindered me from completing and updating a chapter on Wattpad back home. I hung my head, embarrassed. "Kind of silly."

"Not at all," Bon said. "I'd write too, pages an' pages of songs. An' Ang can play his guitar as long as he wants."

Angus flexed his fingers. "Kinda wish I had it now, to be honest," he said. "Meant to practice after the show."

After finishing up the bag of chips and the men polishing off a can of dip and the hot sauce, I collected the used fireworks and popper wrappers and walked over to a dumpster sitting beside an abandoned building. At first glance I thought it was just closed but the lights were completely out and the sign on top was broken in places. There were pieces of cardboard taped to some of the windows and a bright red For Sale sign was split in half from rain and ruin. 

As I opened the dumpster lid by the back door I noticed another sign that was covered in grime and gunk. It looked decades old and about to fall off. Looking closer at it, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach gnawed at me and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 

Whites Only.

"Ew," I said. No wonder the place shut down. Looking around for any security cameras that still worked and then realizing I didn't care, I ripped the nasty old sign off the building and threw it in the dumpster where it belonged. 

**********

"Can ya' guess what this is?" Bon asked, tapping the wood panel. We were inside the bus now, all the food and drinks cleaned up and stored in the smallest fridge in the world in the back room. Angus told me there was a shower back there too in case I wanted to use it. I let him have it first and sat with Bon in the seats. He was showing me a portion of the interior of the bus with another silver handle. 

"I give up," I said. Bon pushed the handle aside and the panel opened up revealing a tiny television." My eyes lit up. 

"TV too?" I asked. The only thing this bus needed now was a bookcase that spun into a different room. 

"Sure," he said. "We hardly ever use it but sometimes if there's traffic..." He flicked it on and a fuzzy picture came into focus. "It's all black an' white, every channel," he said. "What do you usually watch?"

"I don't really watch TV anymore," I said. Bon turned a dial and the picture got fuzzier and clearer. He turned another dial and the pictures changed. 

"That's good," Bon said. "Don't want mush for brains." I recognized a couple of the shows he flipped through though most were some sort of drama or soap. He finally settled on one. "You ever see Mork an' Mindy?"

I had. Occasionally the TV would air some old episodes but normally you had to find episodes on the internet. "A few times," I said. 

"I like the way he talks," Bon said. "He's a funny guy." I thought back to Night Prowler and my good mood lessened a little. The last song on Bon's last album....

"He's relatable," I said. "Trying to navigate through the world and he's trying his best....but he misunderstands everyone and messes up." Story of my life...."Bon? You ever feel like a Mork in a world full of Mindys?"

"You mean, do I feel like a man surrounded by women he loves?" Bon asked. "I'd sure like to."

"That's not what I meant," I said, rolling my eyes playfully. "I meant....you ever feel out of place? Like you don't belong?"

"Sure," Bon said, after a few quiet minutes. "Plenty of times." He looked me over from his seat, his legs stretched out in front of him. Then he looked back at the screen, then back at me. "You're not an alien, are ya'?" he asked.

"No, just a time traveler," I said. 

"'Cause....now that I think about it, ya' know," Bon said. "I can kinda see it." The shower water shut off. "Feelin' out of place in a new world....like you're from another planet."

"Just 2024," I said. "But you're right. I feel very out of place here."

"Where the fuck are all the towels?" Angus yelled from the back room. "No one fuckin' puts 'em back when they're done around here."

"They probably forget," Bon called back. "No one ever uses that shower, Ang." I heard some cupboards slam and some minor curse words. "One of us should probably help him."

"You want me to walk in on Angus naked?" I asked, trying not to smile. 

"Oh, don't act like you don't dream of it every night, sweet pea," Bon teased and I felt my face heat up. "You're chompin' at the bit to get back there."

"I am not!" Regardless, I stood from my seat and went to help Angus look for towels, more so to get away from Bon rather than sneak a peak. I held a hand up to my eyes and felt my way around, hoping I didn't grope Angus by accident. I scanned the floor for any sort of cabinet that could hold towels when Angus came out. 

"Oi! You're not Bon," he said going back to where he came from. I didn't see him, but I caught a glimpse of a bare leg. 

"Bon sent me to help," I explained and I could hear rustling around from the shower area. "I can leave."

"No, go ahead," Angus said. "It's your turn." He came out of the shower with his hair soaking wet and dripping all over the clothes he put on. "Don't count on dryin' off, jus' shake like a dog."

**********

The shower was small; only the men of AC/DC could comfortably use these on their tour buses. Since hotels were much nicer and wouldn't cause serious injury unlike these ones on a moving bus, everything was exceptionally clean and unused. There was no shampoo, but only a small tube of soap that was half empty. Lathering as best as I could, I rinsed off in the chilly water and shut it off. As Angus said, there were no towels and I stood there shivering for a few minutes, hoping to air dry. The bus was warm enough, and eventually I grabbed my clothes and put them back on, wringing my hair out. When I came back to the seats Bon and Angus were watching a different show I didn't recognize. Bon had his whiskey bottle and drank about a third of it. 

"This bus needs a hot tub," Bon said. "Should ask someone about that."

"That'd be nice," Angus said thoughtfully. "A couple cute waitresses in bikinis..."

"Ahem!" I cleared my throat and both men turned to look at me. Bon kept calm but Angus looked shy.

"I meant....I meant uniforms," Angus said. "In professional uniforms, completely covered up." I crossed my arms, not believing a word. 

"Sure you did," Bon said. He tapped his whiskey bottle. "An' this is iced tea."

"So you takin' a shower or what, Bon?" Angus asked, grabbing his pack of cigarettes. Bon stood up from his seat, surprisingly steady for the amount he drank, and headed for the back. I sat next to Angus and tried focusing on the TV in front of me but found it hard when Angus Young was sitting so close. His hair had started to dry a little but his shirt was still spotted with water. I wanted to make conversation with him like I had earlier but I couldn't think of a thing to say. 

What do I do? Confess my feelings? Ha! Especially not with Malcolm's confession playing over on repeat in my head. 

Romance was too confusing. Better to forget it. 

"Holy Christ!" Bon yelled from the back room. Angus and I looked at each other in concern before we heard a very loud thump. Several thumps, actually. We got out of the seat and raced to the other end of the bus where Bon was on his knees holding his shoe in his hand. He stood up when he saw us and wiped his forehead. "Spider," was all he said.

Angus and I looked at the floor and it was all I could do not to pass out. Here in this room where I had been minutes before, was the largest spider I'd ever seen in my life. Only Australia could birth a spider that big and get away with it. Its legs still twitched and writhed and my mouth hung open. "That's gross," Angus said. "Glad I wasn't the one to find it."

"Lucky me," Bon said. "Nearly killed me. Jus' barely got away with my life." Bon inspected the bottom of his shoe for any residue. "Poor ol' Boris, eh?"

"Bon?" I said. "That's not Boris..."

Bon looked at me in confusion. "That right?"

"That's Natasha." Angus burst out laughing and my heart fluttered. If I couldn't talk to the man, at least I made him laugh.

**********

"You really think no one will come lookin', Bon?" Angus asked as Bon pulled all the curtains shut. According to him it was three in the morning and high time to go to sleep. Not because he was tired, but because he was bored and there was nothing else to do. "We won't get kicked out?"

"I don't know for sure," Bon said, standing there in naught but his underwear and a whiskey bottle. "If someone comes knockin' I'll bash him over the head with this." He held the bottle up, the liquid splashing around.

"You're drunk," Angus laughed, shaking his head.

"So I am," Bon smiled. "I'll take the top bunk. An' I'll fall on the guy who dares to bother us." With a heave Bon lifted himself into one of the top beds and Angus swiftly pulled his shirt and jeans off as well, climbing into the bottom bed. This was getting to be too much for me and I blushed and looked away. Across from them was another set of beds. I figured I'd take the middle and climbed inside, flattening out so I wouldn't hurt myself. If I could do it once, I could do it again. "Goodnight, everyone."

"Night," Angus mumbled, already half asleep. 

"Goodnight," I said, trying to get comfortable. It had gotten a bit hot in the bus and since it was so warm outside, that made it even worse. Hard as it was to see since Bon turned the bus lights off, I managed to slip off my clothes and toss them to the side. Sinking underneath the blankets in just a bra and underwear, I sighed and let myself drift off to sleep after a very long day. 

Until someone's snoring woke me up.

I grumbled and groaned and tried peeking out of the bed to see who it was. Both men were facing away from me and I could only judge by sound. For all I knew, it could have been coming from both of them.

In fact, it was coming from both of them.

"Charming," I mumbled, and rolled over, covering myself in the blanket to drown out the noise. With the hum of light traffic outside and the soft blankets soothing my bare skin, and a long night of goofing off with these two, sleep finally came for me.