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“Please?”
Charlie raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth twitched in a small sign of annoyance. “But you’ll be back by the time the show starts?”
“Promise”, Funny clasped his hands together to beg Charlie. “Please let us go.”
“You sure you don’t want to join?” Johnny asked.
Charlie shook his head. “I’m gonna help out with the setup but if you’ll be back in time – which is TWO HOURS before the show starts – then you guys can go off and have fun.”
Danny jumped Charlie, squeezed him into a hug. “Thank you thank you thank you.”
“Hey”, Da Kurlzz clicked his tongue and folded his arms. “Don’t be too grateful, alright?”
Danny peeled his hands off Charlie and backed off, hands raised. “Property of Matt, understood.”
Charlie huffed. “I’m no one’s property, fuck off.”
Da Kurlzz gave Charlie a look and crept closer to Danny. Charlie shoved him back a small distance. “Alright, alright, I get it. You don’t have to demonstrate it.”
Kurlzz put an arm around Charlie’s waist, squeezed him closer. “I’ll stick with you to help out, alright?”
“Alright, but we’re gonna get work done”, Charlie warned him. Matt shrugged. “Sure. I don’t wanna go to the waterpark. I’ll never be able to make something of these curls once wet.”
“Not even your hair’s straight when it’s wet”, J-Dog commented. The group laughed at the comment, even Kurlzz couldn’t hide the smile on his face. “One more gay joke from you guys and we’re gonna start fucking when you guys are asleep in the bus.”
“Ew, dude, what the fuck”, Funny Man cringed. “Stop it. No one wants to know.”
“But now you know”, Charlie teased. “Now go! Be back in time. Johnny’s responsible for checking the time!”
“Alright!” Johnny agreed.
“Go!”
The four didn’t need to be told twice as they scurried to get their swimwear for the waterpark nearby. It was open until midnight with unlimited access once they paid for a ticket and the guys had about five hours to go before they had to be back to go over the setlist and be in time for the VIP meet & greets.
“Hey Johnny, camera or no camera?” J-Dog asked aboard the bus. Johnny craned his head back to look at J-Dog who held a camera in hand. Johnny shoved his swim shorts into a backpack without looking. “Camera. If anyone slips, I want it recorded.”
“What if you slip?” J-Dog teased.
Johnny smirked back. “Then I want it on DVD.”
“DVD? You’re ancient, dude”, Funny Man snorted from his crouched position beside the bitch bunk. Danny walked by him and kicked him in the ass. “Hey, I own DVDs!”
“And you’re ancient, too”, Funny Man grumbled, rubbing his ass. “And don’t kick me or my ass!”
“I’ll kick your ass anytime”, Danny huffed. “Kick-Ass! That’s a recent DVD I got.”
“Ancient”, Funny Man huffed.
“How is it ancient? It came out last year”, Danny argued. The two went back and forth for a few minutes while J-Dog made his way over to the front of the bus and out the door. Johnny followed. The pair walked off.
“So how long until they notice we’ve left?”
“I give them about five minutes.”
“I give them about ten”, Johnny contemplated. The two of them were halfway the walk to the waterpark when Funny and Danny came running up behind them. Funny Man ran up to them and jumped, shoving J-Dog in the shoulder. “Dude! Watch out! I’ve got a camera on me.”
“And I have a phone, so what?”
J-Dog grumbled something under his breath. Johnny checked the clock. “It took them five minutes to figure out we had left. You win.”
“We knew you guys left”, Danny huffed by their side. “Some alone time couldn’t hurt.”
“Gross”, J-Dog shuddered. “Don’t need to know about your quickies.”
“Ew”, Danny instinctively responded. Funny perked his head up. “Excuse you?”
“No offence, Funny, but I’m not interested”, Danny chuckled. Funny dropped his jaw, pretending to be offended. “And here I thought we had chemistry.”
“Awe, look, the kids are flirting”, J-Dog gestured to the pair to Johnny. Johnny chuckled, watched the pair run around them in a pursuit. They really were like parents to them right now.
“Did you drink?” Johnny asked, directed at Danny but with the fast-moving pair they couldn’t keep up. Funny stopped. “I did, sorry.”
“So did I”, Danny smirked. “Day drinking scratches an itch I didn’t even know I had.”
“Same”, Funny agreed. J-Dog pulled him by his arm to walk next to them. Before they knew it, they reached the waterpark.
The four bought tickets for the entire day, even if they could only stay for five hours. They hit the nearest dressing rooms, switched clothes quickly. Johnny could hear Danny laughing as he passed by Johnny’s stall, could hear him ask Funny where to put their clothes and Funny said something about lockers. Johnny heard J-Dog come out of the stall next to him but Johnny just sat there, looking into his backpack and cursing himself.
I didn’t pack my swimwear. He rubbed his face in frustration. He hadn’t been looking when he grabbed his swim shorts and well… turns out he grabbed a shirt instead. Can’t you wear the shirt as shorts? Yeah, sure, put the gaping hole for the head where your ass is, dumbass. Johnny sighed. He ducked his head startled when he heard a shriek but nothing followed. He took off his shirt, shoes and socks and decided to just walk around in his current shorts. He couldn’t get it wet though so no pool for him, he guessed. He walked out and put away his stuff into a locker.
“Where were you?” J-Dog asked with a smile plastered onto his face. He held out his camera to Johnny. “You missed something.”
Johnny leaned over. It was a video of Danny, dipping his toes into the water. He shuddered and said something about getting into the water slowly because it was cold. Funny Man appeared in the shot, the camera began to shake. “I was laughing”, J-Dog clarified. Funny Man hoisted Danny over his shoulders and jumped into the pool with Danny. Legend has it, his screeching could be heard all the way from Europe. Johnny shook his head. “So that was the shriek I heard?”
“Yeah. Get in the water, dude, I’m gonna stay out to record.”
Johnny tensed. “I’m not getting in.”
“What? Why not? You were looking forward to it.”
Johnny shrugged. “Don’t want to get wet before the show.”
J-Dog gave him a look of disbelief but shrugged it off. “Alright, we’ll just go around recording Danny and Funny’s bullshit then.”
“Yeah.”
The waterpark was huge. They had a pool with jets to make it appear like a whirlpool, a wave pool, a slide with colourful lights on the inside, a massive waterslide, a broad waterslide to use with provided inflatable rafts, pool noodles to mess with. It was absolute waterpark paradise.
“They’ve got a short slide that drops you in a free fall six feet down into the pool!” Danny excitedly called out after he got out of – presumably – the pool he was talking about. J-Dog elbowed Johnny. “Man, we gotta catch that footage. Charlie’s gonna wish he were here when he sees it.”
“Definitely”, Johnny agreed. He felt like shit he couldn’t try it. He really wanted to. Especially when he saw the slide Danny was talking about. “Funny, let’s go together!” Danny called out. Funny agreed. Although the sign said they shouldn’t, Danny sat down between Funny’s legs and Funny hooked his arms around Danny, slowly sliding down until the edge came near. When the edge came, Funny shoved Danny away to prevent dropping on top of him in the pool. Both fell six feet down, yelling for the entire waterpark. And J-Dog caught it all on camera.
Hours went by and it was nearing twilight. The dusk was falling rapidly but the four were still at the waterpark, having fun.
After exploring the entire waterpark, their eyes had fallen onto the massive waterslide and the one with the inflatable rafts.
Johnny stared at the big one. “That sure looks awesome.”
“Then get on it?” J-Dog offered. “I’ll stay here so I’ll watch.”
Johnny denied the offer, sadly. J-Dog didn’t understand. Funny tapped J-Dog’s shoulder with a wet hand. “Dude, dude, watch me come off the slide, alright? Watch me!”
“Yes, Funny, I’ll watch”, J-Dog chuckled. Funny ran off and Johnny frowned. “No running at-…”, he caught himself mid-sentence. “God, when did we become their parents?”
“When Charlie allowed us to babysit his children”, J-Dog grinned. “Danny’s coming down.”
Danny yelled the entire way down the slide, flew out of the tube to strike a pose for the camera and fell face first into the pool. He surfaced and jumped. “That was awesome! I wanna go again!”
Next Funny Man came flying out of the slide, nearly knocked into Danny but avoided him at the last second. J-Dog took a picture of him mid-air and caught his panicked face when he realised he was about to fly into Danny. Johnny didn’t even smile at it anymore. He really wanted to try it.
“Why aren’t you getting on? I can tell you want to”, J-Dog asked. Danny and Funny already left to go for another ride. Johnny sighed, leaned in. “I didn’t pack my shorts. I accidentally packed a shirt instead and these are my only good normal shorts for the show tonight so I can’t get in.”
J-Dog cocked his head. “Why didn’t you say so? You can have mine.”
“Wait, what?”
J-Dog nodded. “We’ll trade. I’ll wear yours since I’m not getting wet and you can have mine for the rest of our visit.”
“Really?! Thanks!” Johnny dragged J-Dog back to the stalls to switch, seemingly stoic from the outside but absolutely buzzing with excitement on the inside. He ran outside and vaguely heard J-Dog yell: “No running!”
“I wanna go for the slide!” Johnny called out. Funny Man took him by the wrist and pulled him upstairs for the biggest, blue slide. Danny followed. On top, they were the only ones there. Funny went down the slide and Johnny looked back at Danny. “Don’t go until I’ve been down for a bit, okay?”
“Okay”, Danny promised. Johnny squinted his eyes at him. “I don’t want us to clash in the pool, okay?”
“Okay”, Danny smiled. Johnny sat down and went down the slide when he heard Danny launch himself into the waterslide by the metal bar over his head. Johnny looked back, saw Danny about three feet away from him. “Danny, no!”
“Danny, yes!” Danny called out, swiping his hands across the sides of the slide to go faster. Johnny did the same, tried to get away from Danny as soon as possible. “No no no!”
“I’m coming, Johnny!” Danny laughed. Johnny jumped out the slide as far as he could, swimming to the side as soon as possible when Danny hit the water right next to him. “Danny, that was dangerous!”
“But so fun!” Danny chuckled. Funny Man used the steps to get out of the pool but slipped, landed onto his knee and rolled onto his back, laughing at his own stupidity. J-Dog had his camera in Funny’s face. “I recorded that. Just like I recorded Johnny’s terror of being followed by Danny.”
Johnny grumbled. “Unfair, he followed as soon as I went down the slide!”
“I wanna go again”, Funny Man said from his position on the floor. He got up. “Maybe we should do the inflatable rafts again? Johnny hasn’t.”
“I want to!” Johnny called out, nearly bouncing at the idea. J-Dog smiled behind the camera. “I’ll just keep recording then.”
Danny got out of the pool and Johnny followed. He walked up to J-Dog. “Thanks, dude.”
“Anytime”, J-Dog hushed him. Johnny put his hand on J-Dog’s shoulder and gave him a quick kiss to the lips before he ran after Funny and Danny. J-Dog smiled to himself, feeling warm inside. He pointed the camera at the broad green slide.
Danny came down first. Neither one of the other guys probably trusted him to wait long enough to avoid collision at this point. Danny flew through the sky on his 8-shaped raft and landed perfectly, squealing the entire time.
Next came Funny, soaring over the water. The friction became too much as the raft toppled over and sent Funny flying into the water. Danny dove for Funny’s raft to get it out of the way and laughed when Funny surfaced. “Are you always this clumsy?”
“It’s my pre-show talent”, Funny stuck out his tongue.
J-Dog frowned. “Hey, where’s Johnny?”
Danny and Funny looked up and at the slide when they heard the roar of a grown man. “WOAH!” Johnny screamed when he fell off the raft and into the water. The three laughed. Funny Man bounced in place in the water. “Let’s do it again! Let’s do it again! I can see why those kids from before wouldn’t stop doing it!”
“Yeah, let’s go!” Johnny called out. The three went again and again, each time funnier than the last when J-Dog sighed. “Battery’s dead, guys. No more videos.”
“It’s fine. When should we head back?” Funny asked.
“I don’t know. Johnny’s responsible for checking the time.”
“I was?” Johnny asked. J-Dog blinked. “Y-you didn’t check?”
“No.”
J-Dog pulled his phone from his – well, Johnny’s – back pocket and checked the time. He cursed. “Get out! We have to go!”
“Shit shit shit”, Johnny chanted. He got out and ran to the stalls, so did Danny and Funny. J-Dog right behind them.
“How late are we?”
“Oh you know… about an hour and a half”, J-Dog yelped as he got changed. He threw the shorts over the stall to Johnny who put them on. “Shit, VIP event has already started.”
“Charlie’s gonna be pissed”, Danny added.
“He won’t have time to be”, Funny huffed. At a record time, the four ran out of the stalls, left the waterpark and headed for the gig they were playing at. There was a mass of people waiting in line and some of them spotted the four, started screaming at the sight of the bandmembers.
“Oh fuck”, Danny said. “Backdoor, backdoor!”
“That’s what he said!” Funny Man added. The four found a crew entrance and ran inside. They bumped into Charlie who looked beyond mad. “Get your fucking asses inside. VIP fans have been waiting for 40 minutes!”
“Sorry”, Funny Man dropped when he passed by Charlie. Charlie huffed. “Save it. Go do your thing with the fans.”
“You should see the footage I’ve got of the waterpark. It was amazing”, J-Dog mentioned. Charlie finally cracked a smile. “I hope it was fun if it made you this late but do better next time, alright?”
“Score, he’s not mad”, Johnny teased. Charlie stomped him in the stomach. “You’re all gonna hear my wrath tonight, asshole.”
Charlie grumbled something about unreliable bandmembers and went back to Funny, Danny and Da Kurlzz. Johnny glanced at J-Dog. “Thanks for lending me your shorts.”
“Anytime”, J-Dog shrugged. Johnny put an arm around J-Dog and squeezed him to his side. “I love you.”
J-Dog couldn’t hide his smile but shoved Johnny away playfully. “Not here. You know I don’t want them to know.”
Johnny gave him a look. J-Dog smirked and pecked him on the lips shortly. “But I love you too.”