"You ever going to tell me what went on back there, on the plane?" JC asked me.

I shook my head no. "I’d rather not."

"Okay." He looked down at the stuffed blue dog with yellow spots on it in his hands. "Look at this."

I grinned, and took it from his hands. "Do you get these things often?" He nodded his head. "Pretty scary," I commented, chucking it at his face.

"Yea, I know. You want it?"

"That ugly thing?" I asked. "No way in hell. you should just save me, the pretty ones. You know, the cute fluffy ones, that don’t have faces that remind me of . . . yours. Ugh." I wrinkled my nose.

He dropped his mouth. "If that’s how you want it," he told me. "What do you think Mr. Bass and Ms. Toledo are doing?"

I laughed. "They’re in their room. But it’s not like that, you perv. Suze is in there, too. And Joey and Justin. They’re playing poker."

"Poker, huh?" he asked. "We should go join them." He raised his eyebrows.

"Oh gawd. I know your mind, and I don’t like that face." I sighed. "But I’m bored, and I want some fun." I held up my camera. "And I can take some bad-ass pictures."

I stood, up, and offered to help him up. "What room are they in, anyway?" I asked.

"Uhhh . . . it’s on the floor below us. Number 2-6-3. I remember that, because this room number is 3-6-2. Yeah. Anyway, you ready to go?" he wondered.

I nodded. "Ready like always. Oh wait. I gotta shit first."

"Thanks, Mere. That was, uh, graphic." I smiled, and headed into the bathroom.

***

"Knock, knock," I said, after the door opened, to reveal Suze. "We’ve come to join the party."

"Yea, sure. Why not." Suze left the door open, for us, and we went inside. In the living room, we saw Chris on top of the table, and dancing around.

"Well," I said. "I didn’t know that Chris was here." I walked up to him. "Are you drunk?"

He shook his head slightly. "No. I’m not drunk."

"No, he’s not," interjected Joey. "I’ve been with him all night. He’s just extremely hyper."

"Yeah," JC said, wrapping his arms around my stomach. "Once you see him drunk, you’ll be able to tell the difference."

I leaned my head back, and kissed him. "Okay. I’ll take your word for it." I glanced back at Chris. "Then I guess that means I’m never going to want to see you drunk, am I?"

He laughed. "No!"

"Are we going to play poker, or not?" Laura asked. She gave Chris a pointed look, and he got down.

JC and I sat down, and he cleared his throat. "I have a suggestion," he started. I rolled my eyes. "We should play strip poker. It’ll make it more interesting."

Laura’s eyes widened. "But I’m losing already! I don’t want to have to lose my clothes, too!"

I grinned evilly. "I’m so glad that I can play."

"Oh, yeah?" Joey asked.

I gave him a look. "Yeah. You’re going down, bitch-boy. Now," I said, as I settled into JC’s lap. "We should have teams. You know?"

I counted how many people there were. Lance, Laura, Justin, Joey, JC, Suze, Chris and me. "Eight. Hmmm . . . we could either have four teams of two, or two teams of four. What do you guys think?"

Justin raised his hand. "I think that we should go with pairs. Much more fun that way."

"Ok. Everyone get into pairs," Lance spoke up. He looked at Laura. They sat closer together. He smiled.

"Wanna be my partner, Suze?" Joey asked. She looked up, startled.

"Yeah. Sure. Just as long as you don’t make us lose," she told him.

"Why do I have to get stuck with Chris?" Justin whined. "I’m always stuck with Chris."

"Just lucky, I guess," Chris said, cheerfully.