Coda 03 -The Letter Z

grin from ear to ear, waitin’ for an answer. Matt’s obviously amused more by Jared’s enthusiasm than by the idea of Vegas, but I know he’ll do whatever Jared wants in the end. Zach’s thinkin’ ’bout it, but I can’t tell if he really wants to go or not.
    And me? I feel like a kid who just found out Santa’s comin’ twice this year. I’m so excited, I can barely hold still. I never been to Vegas. Never been anywhere, actually, ’cept when I was in third grade and my foster family took me with ’em to Yellowstone. Other than that, I never even been out of Colorado. Jared could’ve said he wanted to drive to Kansas to sit in the middle of a fuckin’ cornfield, and I would’ve been game. Still, I hate to look like a wide-eyed kid, so I’m doin’ my best to play it cool and act like it’s no big deal.
    “I guess maybe we could go,” Zach says, but he sounds skeptical. Then he turns and looks at me. Guess my poker face isn’t as good as I think it is ’cause as soon as his eyes meet mine, he smiles, and then he says to Jared, “We’re in.”
    We leave on Monday morning at five o’clock. Zach and Jared are both grumpy and complainin’ ’bout it bein’ too early. Matt and I ignore ’em. We stick ’em in the back seat of Jared’s Bronco and they’re both asleep again before Matt and I even finish our first cup of coffee.
    Matt and I end up doin’ most of the drivin’. I take the first leg. He takes over next. Zach and Jared wake up, and one of ’em pulls out a game of travel rummy.
    “Watch out, Zach,” Matt says, glancin’ back at them in the rearview mirror. “Jared cheats.” I laugh, ’cause Jared seems like such a fuckin’ Boy Scout. I’m sure Matt’s jokin’. But then he looks right at me and says, “I’m serious. He cheats.” Jared throws the cap of his Dr Pepper at him and actually hits him for once. “Hey! Don’t mess with the driver!” Matt snaps. “You want to end up in the ditch?” And I think he’s halfway serious ’bout that, too, and now I’m really laughin’.
    “Honestly,” Jared says innocently, “Matt caught me cheating one time , and he’s never let me live it down.”
    “Are you saying you only cheated one time?”
“I said you only caught me one time.”
“See?” Matt says triumphantly. “You can’t trust him.”
“What’s that?” I ask. “The lesson of the day?”
“Sure is,” Jared says. “Brought to you by the letter C.” “C for ‘cheater’?” Matt asks.
“C for ‘clever’.”
    Eventually we switch off, and Matt and I get in the back seat. He leans back and goes to sleep in ’bout five seconds flat. He can always do that. I think they teach it in cop school. I can’t sleep. Not that there’s much to see, but every bit of it’s new to me. I feel like if I close my eyes, I’ll miss somethin’.
    We get to Vegas, and it’s a good thing I’m not drivin’ ’cause we’d definitely end up in an accident. I know my eyes are ’bout to pop out of my head. I’m tryin’ to stare everywhere at once. We find our hotel and wait our turn at the check-in desk. “I have you down for two rooms, each with one king bed. Is that correct?” the lady asks us, not even battin’ an eye at the fact that she’s sayin’ that to four guys.
    “Yes,” Jared says.
    “No,” Zach says. Matt and Jared’s heads both whip in his direction in surprise. I look the other way so they can’t see me blushin’. But Zach doesn’t blush at all. He just says, “We need two beds in our room.”
    Our rooms are on the same floor but not exactly close to each other. We take our bags up then meet back downstairs.

    “Dinner first,” Jared says. “What should we do after that?” “It doesn’t matter to me,” Zach says. “Whatever Angelo wants to do.”

    I have to shrug. “Don’t even know what there is to do,” I say.
    We all look over at Matt, and he shrugs too. “The times I was here before, my friends and I spent all of our time gambling or going to strip clubs.”
    “Are you serious?” I ask.
“Of course. What else would you come to Vegas for?” I shake my head and say jokingly, “You disgust me, Matt.”
    He gives me that half-ass smile he uses instead of a real one, with one eyebrow up, and says, “What’s wrong with gambling?” and I have to laugh.
    “I never gamble when I’m here,” Zach says. “I can’t afford to.” “I don’t gamble either,” Jared says.
    “You guys know why Jared doesn’t gamble,