He was also currently letting out a string of swear words that would’ve gotten entirely bleeped out had he been on TV.
Thiswas Aspen? The “Boy Scout”?
The only badges he was earning were Worst Dressed and Most Creative Use of Foul Language.
Four girls also covered in confetti and wearing glowstick bracelets stomped out of Club Z’s doors and started looking around angrily. I had a feeling they wanted their guest of honor back.
“You should probably start driving,” Leon said helpfully.
Right. Okay. I started the car, shaking myself out of my shock.
“Lucy, meet Aspen,” Jake said casually, as if we weren’t in the middle of an abduction and the boy next to him wasn’t yowling like an irate kitten being forced to take a bath. “He’s the bandmate who once put pink Jell-O in the combat boots I had to do a quick change into during a concert, because he said—” Jake snapped his fingers and pointed at Aspen.
“It would be funny,” Aspen completed.
“Right,” Jake said dryly. “Funny.”
“And it was. Your boots never smelled better either. So fresh. So delicious. Like they belonged to Strawberry Shortcake.”
“Hilarious.”
“See? I told you you’d laugh about it one day.”
“Still waiting,” Jake said, before motioning toward me. “Aspen, meet the lovely Luciana. She’ll be our getaway driver today.”
I glanced in the mirror to see Aspen leaning forward, studying me with new interest. “Luciana?”
“I go by Lucy now,” I told him.
Aspen’s gaze jumped from me to Jake and Leon, then back again. “Hi, Lucy,” he said, his tone taking on some undecipherable tone, like he was in on a joke I didn’t know. In fact, they had all been acting that way. “How’s it going?”
“Uh, fine,” I replied. “You?”
“Oh, no complaints. Or, you know, none until these two idiots bandnapped me on vacation,” he replied, sulking and crossing his arms.
“You wouldn’t answer your phone,” Leon pointed out.
“Whatever, still can’t work that stupid thing. I should’ve taken the energy drink commercial instead,” Aspen muttered.
I eyed him in the mirror as he unwound a foil streamer from around his upper arm. “Didn’t you tell everyone you were connecting with nature?” I asked.
“I was connecting with my party animal instinct.” Aspen elbowed his bandmates. “You guys could’ve at least waited five more minutes to kidnap me. Chloe and I were hitting it off.” He sighed forlornly. “She had a tongue ring.”
“So sorry for your loss,” Jake deadpanned.
“I don’t think you’re missing out,” Leon inserted. “She literally said Phillip was her favorite.”
“Thatguy,” Aspen muttered under his breath. “Well,Phillipwasn’t there. And being second-favorite’s not bad.”
“How do you know you were her second favorite?” Leon asked curiously.
Aspen grunted, crossing his arms. “This is definitely my least favorite bandnapping.”
Excuse me?“You’ve been bandnapped before?”
“A girls basketball team in Duluth hijacked my limo after a concert,” he answered, his voice sounding wistful. “They all had on tiny fake mustaches and smelled like apples.”
“You were only bandnapped for five minutes,” Jake said. “Security found you when the girls couldn’t figure out how to properly corner a twenty-foot-long car and tipped over a taco stand.”
