Cassette Tapes and Tour Dates - An iDKHOW Story

Ch. 5 - You Think A Duck Is Weird? Casey has a Destiny's Child sticker On His

     Entering the tour bus, Grey caught sight of the tour schedule once again. It was a single piece of paper taped to the wall with scotch tape.

23 shows.

•Cheyenne, Wyoming
•Denver, Colorado
•Lincoln, Nebraska
•Chicago, Illinois
•Indianapolis, Indiana
•Columbus, Ohio
•Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
•Toronto, Canada
•Buffalo, New York
•Albany, New York
•Boston, Massachusetts
•Washington D.C.
•Richmond, Virginia
•Charlotte, North Carolina
•Atlanta, Georgia
•Orlando, Florida
•Nashville, Tennessee
•St. Louis, Missouri
•Dallas, Texas
•Phoenix, Arizona
•Las Vegas, Nevada
•Los Angeles, California
And last but certainly not least,
•Salt Lake City, Utah

Cheyenne was tomorrow night. Luckily, it was only a six hour drive.

Grey took a spot on the corner of one of the couches as the bus started to move.

Ryan was on the opposite end of that same couch, scrolling through something on his phone. Dallon was in the back of the bus, doing something.
Now Grey felt awkward, not really knowing what to do.
Going back to the bunks, Grey climbed/rolled into the floor bunk. The bunk itself was much less claustrophobic than Grey expected. Sure, it wasn't huge, but Grey was somewhat glad to be fairly short in this situation. The storage for the bunk was a compartment underneath the end of the mattress. Grey began unloading the duffle bag of everyday clothes and packed it all neatly into the storage with extra space still available. There was a pocket at the foot of the bed as well. The pocket was big enough for Grey's laptop. Grey still had to do class on the bus. Most of the material was online, but whatever Grey needed fitted well into the floor compartment with all the clothes. After making the bed and arranging everything just right, there was one thing left to do.

Grey pulled out Casey's picture of the brown bag and stuck it to the wall near the head of the bed.

After packing everything away, Grey emerged from the bunk, laptop and notebook in hand. Not wanting to disturb anyone, Grey peaked out into the front of the bus, seeing if anyone was there.

Ryan was still on his phone and Dallon was at the other end with his laptop.

Grey shyly slunk past the two of them to sit at the small opposing booth.
Dallon looks up, giving the younger one a slight look of empathy before looking back at the bunk area.

"Ryan, do you ever unpack?" Dallon states as a fact rather than a question.

"I prefer my open way of going with the flow," Ryan answers.

Grey feels bold and decides to chime in, (It just works alright?) "So until there's laundry to be done?"

Both men look at Grey for a few moments. Their faces are unreadable, until both of them start laughing, Dallon's is more of a scoff while Ryan's is more of a snicker.

"Exactly. Grey understands me," Ryan argues.

"Didn't say I understood, just said the facts of the matter at hand."

Dallon rolled his eyes dramatically and went back to looking at his computer briefly before staring at the back at Grey's laptop

"Can I ask why your laptop has a sticker of a duck on it?" Dallon asks.

Grey chuckles, "Uh, well, it's a bit of a story," Grey explained not wanting to bore the two.

Dallon shook his head, "We got a bit of time."

"Well, I was a roadie for a rock band about three years ago. The lead singer was not the easiest of people to work for, but I managed. One time during a show at a outdoor festival, there was a pond nearby. Randomly, during one of the songs this duck just glides onto the stage out of nowhere. The singer sees it and starts cursing out the duck kicking his tail. The duck flies away and loops around to sit on top of one of the speakers. The singer doesn't notice, but it's still not safe for the duck to be there, knowing how unruly the crowd can be. I wasn't sure what to do so I ran into the festival and found a hotdog stand. I bought a bun for a dollar and ran back and coaxed the duck off the stage with pieces of the bread from behind the open stage back. I didn't really think anyone noticed, but right before the tour ended the drummer gave me this sticker. He said I'd had been the most dedicated roadie they had in years despite the singer being a... not very nice person. Kinda made me proud, so therefore the duck sticker resides on my laptop."

"That's fantastic," Ryan giggles.
Dallon smiles, "Makes my Tardis sticker seem lame."

"Nah, Tardises are just like fezzes. They're cool," Grey jokes.

Dallon winks at the student, obviously understanding the reference.

Grey smiled looking back to the notebook on the table. This was all gonna be alright.