KISS: Road Trip

Ch 26: Oops (Bruce)

"Let's go to a bar and have fun!" Ace said with a smile. "Mm sounds fun," I mumbled, not bothering to look up from my phone. "Yeah you guys go and have fun, I'm gonna stay here and work on things," Gene said quietly. It was really obvious Paul was disappointed that he wasn't going but nevertheless the five of us called a cab and headed toward the nearest bar, already talking about how wasted we were going to get.

We were all very, very drunk by the time we made it back to the motel. I was barely able to walk in a straight line into me and Eric's room, slurring a goodnight to Gene as I walked past him, which he didn't bother looking up from his paperwork to return. I fell onto bed and almost immediately passed out.

Not even two minutes later Gene was in my room shaking me awake. "Where's Eric?" Still very drunk and half asleep, I pointed at the pillows next me. "Mright there," I mumbled. "Bruce. No he's not. Where's Eric, seriously?"

Something finally clicked and I sat up, staring at him in horror. "Oh shit...we f'rgot Eric," I whispered. Gene pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a long sigh, before looking at me in exasperation. "How the fuck did you forget Eric?!" he shouted. "He'sh shoo...tiny! Little foxy baby got losht in the crowd," I slurred, falling back to the pillows and passing out despite the situation.

I woke up the next morning to a still-empty bed and stumbled into the living room, letting out a relieved sigh when I saw Eric and Gene sitting at the table eating takeout breakfast.

"M-morning Eric, Gene. You get some for the rest of us?" I asked with a yawn. Eric squinted at me for a moment before turning back to his meal without a word. I sat next to him with a quiet sigh. "Look Eric I'm really sorry about last night, I was drunk and I didn't even--" "Hey Gene how's breakfast?" he asked, cutting me off. Gene jumped, looking at the two of us, face turning red. "Uh...it's good, thanks man. I appreciate it." "Yeah you know I figured I'd get you something since you were the only person who cared to figure out where I was last night," Eric said, still not looking at me.

"Eric, come on, I'm really sorry it was just an accident we weren't--" "Uh-huh. Suuuure it was," he said, giving me a flat look with his eyes shining, meaning I had no idea if he was joking or not.

Paul was the next one to wake up. "Morning guys." What's for breakfast?" he asked, sitting at the table and closing his eyes with a wince. "Whatever we've got here. Eric only got food for himself and Gene." "Wow thanks a lot Eric," he muttered. Eric raised an eyebrow, still shoveling pancakes into his face.

"Yeah I don't know if you remember last night but we uh...we forgot Eric at the bar," I said after a pause. Paul's eyes widened and he covered his mouth with his hand. "Oh shit Eric I'm sorry. Eric I had no idea, I'm so sorry, I was super drunk I thought that you--" "Uh-huh. Sure ya did."

Ace and Peter stumbled out of their room, eyeing Eric's breakfast. "Ooh curly that looks smack, you got any more for the rest of us?" Eric stood up abruptly, shoving his chair back from the table, looking at all of us before. "Hey Gene you want any more pancakes?" he asked, giving him a grin. Gene shrugged, smiling. "Nah I'm okay, thanks man. And thanks for breakfast in general!" "Yeah of course man! Anything for a friend!" he said cheerfully, before giving us all a very pointed look and dumping the rest of his breakfast in the trashcan.

"Anyway I'm going to go take a shower and get cleaned up, screw all of you except Gene because Gene cares about me," he said, flipping us off before walking out of the room. "Thanks again Gene!" "Yeah any time man!" Gene called back, before giving us all a look. "Y'all seriously messed up."

"I'm so confused, what happened?" Peter asked, looking at us. "We forgot Eric at the bar and he's kinda mad," I mumbled. "Oh. Oh no. Oh damn we really did mess up," Ace said, looking at us with wide eyes.

"Yeah y'all seriously messed up. He was really upset last night when I picked him up. I mean come on guys, you know how he's still kind of afraid of being pushed aside since he's the newest person to our friend group, and then y'all just forget him?" Gene said, raising an eyebrow. You could almost feel the fatherly disappointment radiating off of him.

"Someone...someone should probably talk to him, right?" Paul asked slowly. "Bruce you're his best friend, maybe you should go talk to him." I nodded, rising to my feet. "Y-yeah. Yeah, I'll go talk to him."

I sat on our bed and waited for Eric to finish his shower, trying to figure out how to apologize him. Eventually he walked into our room, still trying to dry his hair. "Well, well, well, look who it is," he said. "Eric look I'm really, really sorry. I know you're mad, I'd be mad too! We were all drunk and none of us were thinking but we still messed up and I know we did and I'm really sorry." He heaved a sigh, shaking his head.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm not even that mad, not as much as I was last night. It's kinda funny in a way that y'all were so wasted you didn't even realize I wasn't there. But also I'm kinda hurt because that kinda sucks. That like you didn't care enough to realize I wasn't there," he said, walking over to the mirror and running a brush through his hair. "I mean come on, we literally share a room, we share a bed, but you didn't even realize I was gone. At least Gene was still awake to answer his phone otherwise I would've had to pay for a cab."

My heart sank and I nodded sadly. "Yeah. That's uh...that's fair. I'm really sorry man," I mumbled. "We all are." Eric just shrugged, letting out a yawn. "Yeah I know. Like I said, I'm not even super mad anymore. I mean I get I'm the newest member of the group and I haven't known you guys for that long, but I thought you guys liked me enough not to abandon me at a bar."

"We were drunk! It wasn't anything personal! We were drunk and we thought we had you and we just...I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!" I cried, blinking back tears. He sat next to me, giving me a friendly punch in the arm. "Bruce Kulick don't you dare cry over this. I told you, it's okay, really! I'm just joking. It was kind of funny, I was getting more food from the bar and then I looked around and realized that all of you guys were gone."

I nodded miserably, feeling guilty despite him telling me not to. "Yeah I'm really sorry it was messed up of us." "I know, I know, just don't do it again and we're all good! Anyway I found an apartment for us to share, it's only like $4000 a month so I don't know about you but that cuts my rent in half! It's one bedroom but two beds so I think it's fine. If not we can keep looking," he said, tossing me his phone.

I swiped through the pictures on the listing, giving him a smile. "Looks fine with me." He grinned, giving me a high five. "Hell yeah, let's move in when we get back because I don't want to have to pay rent in July if I'm moving soon." I grinned back. "Sounds perfect."