It was 1 am when we finally arrived together at the hotel. We were hungry, tired, crabby, and Maggie seemed to be on the verge of turning into a zombie. Colton seemed to still be in high spirits, but he had somehow slept the duration of the the bus ride. Schyler, on the other hand, was a mess.
“I'm so hungry.” she moaned for at least the thousandth time. I gave her a look as I tried to shake Colton awake. The bus had just come to a screeching stop in front of a brightly lit hotel. To my amusement, he was snoring gently. She raised her eyebrows at me. “Shaking him is not gonna wake him up.” she held up a finger and then basically speared his stomach with it. He jumped and his eyes flew open.
“Wha-” he began, startled. I pointed at Schyler, who was already sauntering towards the front of the bus, impatiently dragging a huge suitcase behind her. It kept getting stuck on everything, and she would just jerk until it came free. Maggie was already jumping out the door.
“I tried shaking you,” I shrugged, “It didn't work.”
He yawned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, then stretched his arms. I was reaching above him to grab our suitcases. Which wasn't exactly working out very well, considering my height. Colton was still sitting there, watching me. I threw my head back in frustration.
“Need help?” he finally asked, snapping awake.
“If you aren't too asleep, it'd be brilliant.” I crossed my arms and stepped aside. His eyes twinkled in amusement as he reached above and easily snagged my bag, handing it to me. He reached up a second time and got his.
“See, that wasn't so hard, was it?” he chuckled.
“Says the guy who's like ten feet tall.” I mumbled.
Someone cleared their throat from behind me. I turned to see a guy with curly brown hair. He looked around Colton's age, maybe a bit older. He had a guitar case thrown over his back. I remembered him from the flight to Nashville. He'd been behind us, and had offered the puking man his bag when he first became sick. I hadn't even noticed there was anyone else on the bus.
“If you guys aren't too busy flirtin' or whatever, I'd like to get into the hotel.” he drawled. I felt my face turn red.
“You here for idol?” Colton asked charismatically, stepping towards me to clear a path.
“Yeh,” he sounded pretty disinterested in the whole ordeal. And he appeared pretty bored by it, too. I fought back a grin. He fit right in with Colton and me, who both didn't want to be here in the first place.
Colton seemed to agree, because he smiled and offered him his hand. “I'm Colton.” he said, “And that's Natalie.”
“Phillip.” the guy replied. I saw a slight twitch of appreciation in his eyes. “Hey, I'll see you guys around?”
Colton nodded. “Hope so. Nice to meet you.”
I saw Phillip grin as he turned to walk the rest of the way. We followed, dragging our suitcases behind us. I didn't blame him for being appreciative. It was really nice to know someone.
Colton hopped out ahead of me, then offered me his hand. “It's hard to see the step,” he explained, shrugging, “And you haven't exactly demonstrated coordination in the short time I've known you.”
I glared at him, but accepted the help. Mostly because I knew he was right, and cracking my head open on concrete on my first day in Hollywood didn't seem like the greatest way to go. After my feet were safely planted on solid ground, we headed towards the glowing front doors of the hotel. Maggie and Schyler stood right inside, wearing identical looks of annoyance.
