“Hey, watch out, it’s cramped back here,” Sara said, not hesitating to knee me in the ribs. I shuddered.

  “Hey Danny, why is it that you get to sit up front?” I said through gritted teeth, reaching out to clutch the back of his seat.

  “So what have you been up to, David?” Sara said from behind me, her voice sounding quiet compared to mine.

  “Well Josh, it’s because he’s the only one that asked nicely,” Rodney said, butting in.

  “No one’s talking to you, pretty boy.”

  “you know I’m the one driving right” Rodney said glancing back at me

  “Shut up and drive, blondy.” I said, slumping back against the seat.

  I always hated this stupid Honda. I reached down to touch the seats and, well—

  “Rodney, why are the seats sticky?” I said, reaching forward to wipe my hand on his shoulder.

  “Josh, what have I told you about asking questions—”

  “Ew, Josh, what possessed you to touch that?” Sara interrupted.

  “—you don’t want the answer to?” Rodney finished while making a wide left turn.

  “Duly noted,” I said, resting my head against the window.

  “Jesus, Rodney, watch those turns, will you?” Sara said, not missing the opportunity to knee me in the ribs again.

  “Yeah man, seriously, I think you sailed the median,” David said, seeming awakened from whatever cryostasis he was in.

  Sara sighed “why do we even have to do this”

  "Remember what Ashley said," Danny chimed in. "Go have a team building day. I don't care where, but it can't be here." He did his best Ashley impression on the last part.

  I tuned out the rest of the conversation.

  “Well, we’re here,” Rodney said after another five minutes.

  “Aw, I wasn’t able to get a word in the whole car ride,” Danny said, opening his door.

  “No complaining. You weren’t stuck back here with her,” I said, shivering.

  Stepping out of the car, I was enveloped by neon light, but I was more focused on getting Rodney’s car juices off of me.

  The smell of cigarettes wafted out the door. “Well, we’re here, guys. We’re at the casino,” Rodney said, sweeping the door open dramatically.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised. This was his favorite place on earth. He called it his “hunting ground,” Rather concerning if you ask me.

  I looked over at Sara. She was in a black dress that went down to her knee with red flower print flowing down her left side.

  “What are you looking at?” she said, finally finding something to get angry at.

  “Nothing, just the dress. It’s nice,” I said.

  “Well it better be, it was expensive. Well I didn’t pay for it, but still,” she started rambling on.

  David stepped out of the car next . Nothing really to note there. He was still in his black button up, but unlike me he bothered to put on slacks.

  Danny and I were basically wearing the same thing: a black button up and some black jeans. Black and purple were the company colors, and well, I don’t mind black.

  Rodney was dressed to the nines, flaunting money we obviously didn’t have. He brought out the tux he wore to prom for this. It was a simple black tux, but still overkill. The average person here was probably 65 and in a sweaty tank top. This isn’t Vegas.

  “Well ok, are we going to stand out here like homeless people in the Arby's parking lot, or are we going to go spend some money?” Rodney said, stepping inside.

  Rodney was really capitalism’s strongest soldier.

  Following him inside, the smell of cigarettes infested its way into my nose even more. It was overpowering. Glancing over, Sara was covering her nose.

  “Too much for you?” I asked.

  “No, I just have to get used to it, alright,” she said, not dropping her hand.

  I turned to Rodney. “Hand me your keys.” I stuck out my hand.

  “Why?” he said, fishing into his pocket.

  “Just do it,” I said, moving my hand up and down.

  He placed them in my palm and I slipped them into my back pocket

  As soon as we made it to the main floor, Rodney beelined it to the largest bar.

  He turned back. “You comin?”

  “I’m not waiting 45 minutes for a drink,” I said, turning back to the group.

  And they were gone, of course they were gone.

  I started to wander around the floor. The place was packed, it being a Friday and all. As I expected, most of the people here were in their mid 60’s, and they were on slots. Of course there were some good looking ladies at the bar, but why bother. After about 20 minutes I had drifted to one of the bars on the outskirts of the casino.

  “Hey, can I get a Coke?” I said, sliding into a bar stool.

  “Pepsi ok,” the bartender said, not bothering to look up from the drink he was making.

  “Nah, it’s fine. A water then,” I said, resting my chin on my palm.

  “Lame,” a voice said from behind me. I turned around, it was Sara.

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  “Can I get the house beer?” she said, sliding into the chair next to me.

  “Ma’am, this is a casino,” he said, looking up at her. I see how it is.

  “Well then, any beer,” she said, turning slightly red.

  “Smooth,” I said, turning to face her.

  The bartender placed a coaster down and then my water on top of it. Then did the same for Sara’s “house beer.”

  “Why aren’t you drinking?” she said, finally rotating the stool to face me.

  “Tell me, Sara, how old do you think I am?” I said before taking a sip of my water.

  “Ahh. I don’t know, like 34,” she said, dead serious.

  I choked on my water. “You think I’m 34 years old?” I said through coughs.

  “Well yeah, you’ve got that dead look in your eye. You know the kind fish have, and you get along well with Ashley. And she’s what, 28, and you definitely look older than her.”

  “Yep, you’re right on. Turned 34 last month,” I said, trying to keep the water down.

  “Really, yes,” she said, lifting her fist up and then dropping it.

  “Yeah, no. I turned 21 last month,” I said, turning to face the bar again.

  “21?” she said, shocked. “So you just look like that then?”

  “Yeah, I just look like that,” whatever that means.

  “In hindsight, the no wrinkles should have been a tip-off,” she said, placing her hand on her chin.

  After a few minutes she started up again.

  “You not going to gamble?” she said.

  “Don’t have any money, what about you?”

  “Me neither,” she said, dropping her face onto the counter.

  “Oh I forgot to ask, how old are you?” I said, turning again to face her. With all the turning I was doing in this conversation, I would never need to work out again.

  She brought up a finger to my mouth and shushed me. “Don’t ask rude questions.”

  Another 20 minutes passed, and for Sara another three beers.

  “I’m boooored, Josh. How about we go upstairs and get a room?” She was clearly getting drunk. I would call her a light weight, but I really don’t know anything about alcohol.

  “Why would we need a room?”

  “To do it,” she said, leaning towards me.

  “If by it you mean go up to the room and watch Pokémon Legacy on Boomerang, then I’m in.”

  “You’re such a buzz kill. I was just joking anyways.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

  “Well, I’ll be off,” she said, stumbling to her feet.

  “Off where?” I said, helping her up straight.

  “To find David or Danny,” she said, beginning to walk past me. Something tells me it’s not smart to let her go.

  “Are you sure you can do that on your own?” I said, sitting back down.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said.

  She went to leave, but right as she got to me she leaned down and whispered in my ear, “The offer still stands,” and began touching my hair with her fingers.

  “Stop that,” I said, swatting her hands away. She just began to laugh, cackling even, slipping into the crowd.

  I lingered at the bar for a little while longer. Couldn’t risk getting up and running into her when she’s like that. I was lucky to get out of that with my chastity.

  But it was time. I needed to go find Rodney. God only knows how much shit he’s gotten into. Looking around, everyone looked the same. It was a sea of dad bods and tank tops. I didn’t bother shouting. If he heard me, he wouldn’t respond.

  The first place I checked were the bars, of course. Then the poker tables. He was a pretty big fan of showing off. He was nowhere to be seen, and for gambling that was about it for him. He was too stupid for anything else.

  I needed some fresh air. I looked around for a door with an exit sign. There was one right next to one of the bars. Damn, it was the bar I was at with Sara. I went in a big circle.

  I expected the air outside to be cleaner, but well, I don’t know why I thought that. This was the back door. This is where people go to smoke and do meth.

  I was about to head inside when something caught my eye: tuxedo pants. I walked over. Behind the dumpster sat Rodney, passed out, missing his jacket and his watch, and his shirt was buttoned all weirdly. I crouched down to check him out.

  “Looks like they ran your pockets. Driving home’s going to be a hassle,” I said to no one in particular.

  Oh yeah, I still have your keys. I patted my back pocket.

  I gently poked him with a stick nearby, can’t be catching anything.

  “I think he’s alright, the stick’s not melting.”

  Standing up, I hoisted him over my shoulder before awkwardly shuffling my way back inside.

  Lucky I didn’t need to go far to find a place to put him. Shuffling up to the bar, I plopped Rodney down on one of the stools. Then I took out the sunglasses from my breast pocket and slid them on his face.

  “Hey, can you watch Bernie here? Someone Cardi B’ed him.”

  The bartender half nodded. I took that as a full yes.

  I needed to find Danny or David. Right now Sara would be no help. I walked around for a little while, mainly from bar to bar. Then I made eye contact with David. He was in one of the crowds. I pointed at him and I pointed at my feet. He nodded, then disappeared back into the crowd.

  “Hey,” he said, popping up right beside me.

  I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Holy! How did you get here so fast?”

  Never mind that, what do you need from me?” he said, like I interrupted something.

  “What, I mess up your date?” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. “Never mind, just go babysit that corpse over there while I find Danny.” I pointed to the bar on the far end of the casino.

  “Hey guys,” a voice from behind me said.

  I turned and there was Danny.

  “Can people stop sneaking up on me? I’m tired of it,” I said, turning so I could see both of them. “Well ok, David go back and keep an eye on Rodney. I can’t have him losing those glasses. And Danny, you’re with me. We have to go find her.” I shivered.

  We began looking around for Sara. We walked back to Rodney with David just so we didn’t have to check back that way later. But after that we set off.

  “Hey, you and Sara were at the bar for a long time, what happened?” he said while looking around for her.

  “What can I say, she was bored so she got drunk and I felt socially pressured to stay,” I said, doing the same.

  “She’s like a toddler, isn’t she?”

  “Yeah, definitely.”

  We looked around for another 5 minutes.

  “Hey Josh, what do you want out of working here?”

  “What? Why ask me that now?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just that Sara and David have aspirations, and I have people to support, but why are you here? What is it that you want?”

  “I really don’t know, maybe that’s my reason. I’m here to figure it out.”

  “Can’t you figure it out at home?”

  “I could, but I’ll have no experiences to base it off of.”

  “Good point.”

  He walked in silence till we found her.

  There she was in a lounge area on a stage. There was a karaoke machine. She was standing up there swaying side to side singing “Hey Ya!” by Outkast, rather poorly I might add.

  Also to an audience of nobody. There was no one here, it was just Sara on a stage covered in blue light.

  I jumped up on stage. “Come on, time to go,” I said, grabbing her hand. “I promise they won’t miss ya—”

  “No, I’m finishing my song,” she said, looking like she might break down into tears.

  “Ok, ok, let’s calm down.” I hopped off stage and sat down, pointing for Danny to do the same. We sat there and we watched the whole thing.

  When she was done we got ready to go and then she went and threw up on the stage.

  “Well we gotta get out of here before they make us clean it up,” I said, running over to Sara.

  Danny nodded. “Time to go.” He moved to the entrance of the lounge. “Take Sara outside, I’ll go get David and Rodney.”

  We waited on the curb for them to get all the way across the casino.

  “I’m sorry, Joshhh,” she said through slurred speech. She was leaning on me and rocking back and forth like a fucked up pendulum.

  “It’s alright,” I said, pushing her hair out of my face.

  “I was just kidding about the sex thing. You know I wouldn’t do that, you right?” she said, poking my face.

  “I know, I know,” I said, swatting her hand.

  She continued to sway back and forth, managing not to knee me in the ribs again. A fact I was more than grateful for. It was quiet, weirdly so. Then she started humming.

  “Can you cut that out?”

  “Whyyyy,” she said, bashing into me again and then again.

  “This is why no one likes you,” I said.

  “Rude,” she said, facing me. “Is that any way to talk to a lady?”

  “There’s a lady here?” I said, standing up and brushing myself off.

  Then I was almost knocked off my feet. Sara had jumped on my back. Her arms wrapped around my neck.

  “Onward,” Sara said, pointing a finger past my face.

  “If you have the coordination to jump on my back, then you can walk,” I choked out, her arms still wrapped around my neck. “Fine, I’ll carry you, just loosen your grip.”

  She slumped back, finally loosening her hold on my neck as I went to grab her legs.

  “Alright, let’s go,” Danny said from behind me, Rodney slung over his shoulder. By my grace Rodney got to sit in the passenger seat. We loaded everyone in and we were off. Of course I was driving.

  About 5 minutes into the drive it was just me and Danny awake. I didn’t think David was tired, but I can never really tell what that guy is thinking.

  “What sex thing is she talking about?” Danny said, staring out the window.

  “I have no idea.”

  Another 10 minutes went by and he was down too.

  5 minutes after that Rodney woke up, by the grace of God I guess. Or maybe he built up a tolerance.

  “They got me again didn’t they?”

  “They got you again.”