What is he doing right now? That’s not hard—he’s probably on his computer, playing Halo. I bet Mum is cleaning the kitchen, wearing her dusting shoes, flapping around with a feather duster and singing along to eighties classics. My dad, on the other hand, is probably playing solitaire on his computer, or pretending to do the crossword in the paper. He never does them properly; he just tries to think of the most immature words he can to fill the spaces, then leaves the crossword out for my mum to find on one of her cleaning sprees. She will usually laugh uncontrollably and they’ll end up smooching like teenagers in a heap on the sofa. I shudder and quickly snap out of my daydreaming.
“That’s not true, Penny!” Noah laughs. “I seem to remember you kicking my butt at Mario Kart last time I saw you!”
“Aha! I knew it,” snaps Blake. “No excuses!” He shoves a controller into my hand and stretches out in a chair in front of a TV, placing a bottle of beer on the table and burping out of the side of his mouth.
“You’re on,” I say, sitting down beside Blake and putting on my best smirk as he starts a game of Forza Motorsport. I can’t say car racing is my forte, but I’ll give my best shot.
“Prepare to lose,” he chimes back, with a strange smile on his face. He takes a sip of his beer, holding eye contact with me until I feel uncomfortable and turn towards the screen and select my car. Blake stretches out with one leg up on the table, burping and swearing at his racing car. I might actually beat him! I can hear the rest of the guys laughing behind us, and Noah is improvising an entire song about bratwurst.
“Hey, so your friend Megan is something else,” Blake says without taking his eyes off the screen.
“What?” I’m so shocked I almost drop the controller, and my on-screen vehicle crashes dramatically into a concrete barrier.
Blake zooms past me and pumps both fists up in the air when he crosses the finish line. “Oh yeah! I knew this little girlie couldn’t beat me. Better luck next time.”
I don’t care about the car—but I do care about this new piece of information. “So, you and Megan talked then?”
Blake winks at me. “Why, you jealous?”
“Leave her alone, dude,” says Noah.
I look over at Blake, who is frowning in concentration at the screen. He’s a really strange character; I have no friends like him, no one to compare him to. He is so different from Noah that I find it hard to think of them being close friends for so long. Noah is caring, gentle, and funny, while Blake seems very unaware of other people and somewhat cold. I can’t place my finger on it, but something about him makes me feel uneasy. One thing I know for sure is that Noah wouldn’t be drinking beer at two in the afternoon while swearing profusely at an animated car.
I want to know more about Blake and Megan, but I don’t know how to ask. As the bus starts to crawl forward Blake throws his arms up in the air again.
“We’re OFF!” he yells, and my thoughts of Megan are lost in the infectious cheers of excitement that ripple across the bus.
Chapter Thirteen
Larry emerges from the front of the bus, a large German flag draped on his shoulders.
“All right, you party animals, we should arrive in the city within forty minutes. Use this bus as your base. A lot of the crew will be staying here, but I want you to feel as though you can come here for some peace, or a game against me on the Xbox. That includes you, Penny!” He gives me a little wink. “It’ll be hotels for the night in each city and then the travelling will continue in the bus or by plane to each country and city that we go to.”
“How much are we paying you to be our tour guide?” Noah shouts, and everyone else laughs.
“Nothing, you silly fool.” Larry throws the flag in Noah’s direction and he wraps it round himself. It’s nice seeing Noah in his element, laughing and joking with his friends and being so excited. It’s a whole other level of attractive, and I honestly just want to smooch him right then and there.
“That’s another forty minutes of me whipping your butt at racing then,” Blake says.
“I guess so,” I say, almost sighing. I take out the replacement phone that Tom has given me (his older, less cool one, which he doesn’t mind me losing or breaking) and I text Elliot.
Landed in Berlin and now stuck playing car games with Noah’s drummer, Blake, who smells like BO masked in aftershave and stale cigarette smoke. Did I mention he’s already on his third beer of the day and it’s 2 pm?! Please remind me why this is a great idea xx
I immediately get a reply from Elliot.
Princess P. Most impressed that you even managed to step onto the tour bus in the first place, but totally unimpressed that you are being made to play garbage on a screen in such a beautiful city. Please don’t come back to England with game skills and a lack of sightseeing knowledge. It would break my encyclopaedic heart. Think of the photos, the adventure, and the history. If that fails, think of the food. THE FOOD, PENNY! Magical Mystery Day in each city is going to be absolutely amazing. You can visit the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag Building. And OMG have you seen the Fernsehturm yet? x
Elliot, I believe you’re forgetting that all I’ve seen so far are the dark windows of a tour bus and the side of Blake’s head. I also don’t know what the Fernsehturm is because I am not a walking encyclopaedia. MMD is the one thing I really am very excited about. It will be so romantic getting to explore each city with Noah. Hand in hand, strolling along sampling some of the finest international . . . cake xx