“Ugh! I feel so guilty!” I announce, throwing myself onto the bed as Brian shuts the room door.
We have just managed to escape from the others on the pretext of needing showers before we all hit the town and celebrate our ‘engagement’.
“I know,” he says sitting on the couch. He sighs and leans back. “I feel pretty bad too.”
“They were all so HAPPY… They’re gonna kill us when they find out we’re already married.”
“They won’t find out. When this tour is over, we’ll go back home and start planning a big church blessing.”
I lie on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. “Wedding number two. And I always said I’d only get married ONCE.”
“You ARE only getting married once. It’s gonna be a blessing in church.”
“It’s practically the same.”
“It’s not.” He sits up and looks at me. “Are you regretting it?”
“Last night?” I sit up and look at him. “No way! Are you?”
“Absolutely not!” he smiles and walks over to join me on the bed. “Last night was everything I ever dreamed of.”
“Me too,” I smile and cuddle up to him. “No regrets.”
“No regrets,” he repeats. “You became my wife. How could I EVER regret that?”
“I’ll remind you of that when we next have a big argument!” I giggle.
“We NEVER argue,” he says, rolling on top of me and pinning my hands above my head as he kisses along my neck and collarbone.
“We do too!”
“No, we don’t!”
“Oh boy! They have lazer quest!” Nick yells at us as he spots the sign.
We’re in a huge Vegas hotel called Circus Circus which has an indoor theme park and several casinos. AJ and I hate the place cos it’s based on the circus theme and is full of CLOWNS. Ugh. I’ve hated clowns ever since I was 6 and this clown tried to make me laugh. He only succeeded in terrifying me, making me cry and giving me a serious clown-phobia that I doubt thousands of hours of therapy would cure. AJ is the same and when we walked in the reception area and saw a big-ass clown greeting people we had both stopped and refused to go any further. Sheer bribery is the only reason either of us are here now. Luckily, the theme park is relatively clown-free but Nick finds it hysterical to yell “CLOWN!” every so often. He did stop after AJ threw a bottle of mineral water all over him. Anyways, back to lazer quest. We all follow Nick inside the ride and get suited up.
“Fuck, this is HEAVY,” Ali complains as the guy in charge of the amusement drops a vest on her.
“This is your sensor, everybody’s gonna aim at it. Running around with your hand over it won’t make any difference,” the guy intones and he helps everybody else with their stuff. “Lazer guns – aim and fire. But don’t shoot your own team.”
“Uh, who’s on which team?” asks Howie.
The guy sighs as if we are the biggest bunch of idiots he’s ever had the misfortune of dealing with. “Two colours – red and green. Guess.”
“Oh I’m green!” says Howie looking down at his vest. “And so are Jade and AJ!”
“Hey, team!” I high-five the two guys.
“We’ve got FOUR people and you only have THREE!” taunts Nick.
“Yeah well, you’re the dead-loss so I guess that makes it even,” says AJ.
“I’ll dead-loss ya!” Nick yells, brandishing his lazer gun.
“Go ahead punk,” AJ drawls. “Make mah day.”
“Guys, guys, guys,” I say. “Save the aggression for inside.”
“Ok, go in. You got five minutes when the klaxon goes,” the guy swings the door open and we all charge through yelling.
We separate and run off into dark corners and all over the activity course. The klaxon sounds and I run out of my hiding place behind a barrel. Nick is right in front of me. I giggle and aim my lazer at him. A noise tells us both it was a direct hit. Nick groans and spins round to shoot me back but misses.
“You’re SO dead!” he yells, following me into a dark tunnel. “I’m gonna GETCHA!”
“I’m scared. Not,” I laugh and run past AJ as Nick emerges from the tunnel. “All yours!”
“Hey punk!” AJ yells, shooting Nick.
“UGH!” Nick groans and runs after AJ.
I giggle and creep around a corner. I can see Howie up against the wall with Ali shooting at him.
“Don’t cover ya thing!” Ali yells as Howie starts dancing around.
“You can’t hit me!”
“Stand still then!”
“Nup!”
“Hey Al,” I say before I shoot her.
“Wh-?! You shot me!” she stares at me and giggles. Howie takes his chance and escapes, shooting Ali for good measure and throwing me a wink. “You picked HOWIE over me!!”
“Hey,” I shrug. “He’s on my team.”
“Ugh, I’m SO gonna get you now!” Ali takes aim but before she can fire or I can run, I hear a noise signalling that I’ve been hit.
I spin round and see Kevin cackling at me. Another noise tells me that Ali’s shot me as well. I back away from them both towards an empty tunnel.
“No fair!! You’re ganging up on me!”
“All’s fair in love and…WAR!!” Kevin yells.
I aim at him and hit him. I do a little victory dance until I hear my sound again. I turn around and see Brian grinning at me.
“Hey baby.”
“You traitor!” I yell, aiming at him as both Ali and Kevin shoot me again. “AWW! Three on one is NOT fair! AJ! HOWIE!” I yell. I get hit five more times and manage to hit both Ali and Brian twice before AJ and Howie come running. “Oh you’re a GREAT team! I’m almost dead!”
“I think you ARE,” Kevin says with a grin.
“You killed Jade?!” AJ shoots at Kevin and chases him round the assault course. “I will revenge my beloved Jade!”
“He killed me too,” I tell Howie pointing at Brian. “And she did.”
“Oh no!” Howie puts on a heavy Spanish accent. “My sweet Jade! I will kill you back!” He runs at Ali who screams and runs off, with Howie in hot pursuit.
“Hmm, I guess it’s up to me to get you,” I tell Brian.
“Sweetie, you’re dead.”
“Ain’t you heard of GHOSTS?” I yell, shooting at him non-stop as he turns and runs laughing loudly.
“NICK!!!”
“Oh yes, NICKAY!” I yell. “I already got him.”
“Don’t. Call. Me. That.” Nick jumps out at me and shoots me mercilessly.
I flop onto the floor, “Ok, this ghost is dead.”
Nick and Brian high-five each other and start doing a victory dance as the end-of-game klaxon sounds. The main door slides open and I reach my hands out to Brian and Nick. They pull me up and we join the others outside. We dump our lazers and vests and crowd around a TV screen displaying our scores. The scores aren’t up yet.
“I bet we won!” Nick says excitedly.
“No question!” agrees Kevin.
“I shot AJ a few times,” says Howie.
“Yeah and I was on your TEAM, dumbass!”
“You were weren’t you? Oops.”
“Ooh scores!” Ali says as the screen flickers into life.
The red team won. And the rankings put Kevin at the top, then it’s Howie, AJ, Brian, Ali, Nick and me.
“You sucked at quest!” AJ tells Nick with a delighted grin.
“Jade sucked more!” Nick defends.
“Hey, I got ambushed!” I yell. “And in no world is three on one fair!”
“And we only had three people on our team,” Howie puts an arm around me.
“We won really cos Howie and me came second and third,” says AJ putting his arm around me. “C’mon Jady let’s go find somethin’ to do, preferably NOT involving clowns.”
I giggle and walk off with Howie and AJ.
“Hey water ride!” I point it out in the distance and AJ grins his approval.
“Water? Nuh uh! I’m not gettin’ this hair wet,” says Howie trying to pull us past the ride entrance.
“Live a little,” I tell him as we drag him inside the ride.
Nick, Ali, Brian and Kevin are close behind us. We buy our tickets and wait in the queue.
“How many people to each thing?” asks Nick as a little dinghy comes round the bend. He counts the seats quickly. “Looks like 6 but we got 7.”
“Wow, Nicky,” I tease. “You missed a great career in banking.”
“Yeah, well if it all goes wrong…” he responds, tickling me. The dinghy stops in front of us and the ride owner takes our tickets. “Can we fit 7 in?” Nick pleads.
“Uh, well… Get in and I’ll check if it’s safe.” We all climb in – it’s a tight squeeze but everybody’s butt is on a seat. “That’s fine,” the guy gives us the OK signal and we start moving.
“I better not get soaked,” warns Howie. Almost immediately Nick and AJ start rocking the dinghy causing sprays of water to hit us all. “Dudes!” exclaims Howie wiping his face and laughing.
I manoeuvre slightly in my position between Brian and Kevin and dangle my hand in the water. “Geez, it’s FREEZING!” I exclaim, flicking the water at Brian.
“Thanks Jade,” he wipes his face before scooping up water to throw at me. He manages to hit both me and Kevin. “Oops, sorry bro.”
“Oh you WILL be!” Kevin scoops up water and before long everybody’s soaked and laughing.
We go round a bend and see a huge drop and waterfall feature.
“PLEASE tell me we bypass that!” begs Howie as Nick laughs gleefully.
“Don’t think so,” I grin.
“We gonna get WET!” yells Nick happily.
The dinghy reaches the top of the drop and pauses. AJ and Nick start rocking the boat and Brian reaches for my hand with a grin. A second later, the boat tips over the edge and rushes down to the bottom. A wave of water covers us and we spin through the waterfall, getting even wetter than before. We come out and slowly move towards the end platforms. I stare at the others and start giggling. Howie looks like a drowned rat with his hair all over his face; Nick looks like he’s been swimming; Kevin’s wringing out his shirt; Ali’s hair is plastered to her face; AJ’s cleaning his shades; Brian’s spluttering and I’m sure I look like I just took a bath fully-clothed.
“Hell, there’s more water in here than outside!” says Kevin, sloshing the water with his feet.
We reach the platform and climb out. We all squelch our way along to a wall and stand there wringing out our clothes. We get a lot of odd looks.
“Why’d I bother with that shower?” Brian asks me, brushing back his hair.
“I guess we need to go get changed again,” I say with a laugh.
“No way! We’re goin’ to the Stratosphere!” Nick says. “We’ll dry off there, no problem.” We all follow him outside the hotel.
“Unless they have walk-in hairdryers, I doubt that,” AJ mutters.
“They have somethin’ better… The Big Shot baby,” Nick replies, hailing a taxi van.
We all pile in and head to the Stratosphere. A few minutes later, we’re in an elevator shooting up to the top of the tower. We walk out and see what Nick had been referring to. Right at the top is a ride called The Big Shot which basically shoots you up into the air. It looks pretty cool and we all get into the queue without any fuss. A few minutes later, we’re strapped in. I’m between Brian and Kevin. The ride owner comes over to us.
“Ok, hands on the bar and legs right out. Enjoy!” he cackles and heads off to the controls.
Kevin looks at me, “Ok, I’m scared now.”
“That cackle was kinda B-movie,” I say.
“Exactly,” he agrees.
Before I can say anything else, the ride suddenly moves up slightly so that we’re dangling in the air. I hold on tightly to the bar and look up at the night sky. Ahead and below of me is Las Vegas. It looks beautiful with all the lights and the mountains in the distance. All of a sudden, we’re shot up into the air and my whole body rises out of the seat. We hit the top and hurtle downwards, against gravity, and I can’t feel the seat. My legs are straight out in front of me and all I can hear is the tail-end of the “Ohhhhhhh fuuuuuuuuuccccckkkk” that all seven of us had yelled the minute the ride had started. We bounce up and down for a while before being lowered to the ground. The safety bars go up and we stumble out of our seats, grabbing each other for support and wobbling our way into the restaurant.
“Fuck, that was wicked!” AJ exclaims.