It was Friday afternoon when Josh arrived at Las Vegas, the city of sin, gambling and sex. He wasn't here for any of that, in fact he didn't know what the plan was. He's going to be married in a month, and his best mates planned this trip for his bachelor party as a surprise. Josh looked around in hopes of finding a familiar face, all he knew was the plane ticket that his best friend Rudi sent him and a list of things he needed to bring, and now he's here at the airport, completely clueless.
Josh was half expecting a cliche "kidnapping" surprise when a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind, another hand sneaked around his waist and held him tight. He knew immediately who was behind him, people had their secret handshake, and this was the way Rudi and him greeted each other. He didn't remember how it started, but from as long as he knew, Rudi always sneaked behind him and gave him the biggest hug.
"Look who it is! Welcome to Las Vegas." Rudi was still holding him tight, until Josh struggled to turn around to face Rudi. It had been a while since they saw each other, they still texted each other almost daily, but between Rudi working as a truck driver, always moving between cities, and Josh spending most of his limited free time with his soon to be wife, meeting up proves to be almost impossible. Three months was a very long time, considering Josh was going to be married in a month, a life changing moment for him. However, it felt like no time had changed when Josh met Rudi's gaze, the familiar smile on his face, with his full luscious beard. Josh was always jealous of Rudi's beard when they were younger, when it was time to prove they are real men. Rudi was always the hairy one, his ginger hair was all over his body already at 18, while Josh could hardly grow any hair. He blamed his blondness, making it extremely hard to notice his beard, well, his almost non existent beard, and now he embraced his clean shaven face, a look that his fiancée approved, especially for the wedding.
"Hey Rudi, long time no see." Josh returned the hug, now that he's facing Rudi. Rudi was warm, and it warmed his heart to be close to his best friend. The tight shirt didn't stop Josh from noticing Rudi was getting bigger, more muscular than he remembered. It didn't surprise him as Rudi was always at the gym, he used to drag Josh to the gym when Rudi was in the wrestling team, Josh probably had to thank Rudi for his workout habit, now getting a muscular body himself, being one of the reasons he's marrying his beautiful girlfriend Bea.
"Who's here? just you? Where's everyone?" Josh let go of Rudi, now trying to figure out what's going on.
"Just me for now. Tim and Jack arrived this morning, but they couldn't stay still for long so god knows where they are now. Tommy needs to take care of the kids tonight so he's going to be here tomorrow morning. The real party is going to start after Tommy arrives so we can just relax and catch up in the meantime."
Josh already knew Tommy was going to be late. Tommy was his work buddy at the office, he was there when Josh was the new employee, and Tommy took him under the wing and helped him along the way. Tommy couldn't keep a secret if he tried, and he already apologized for being late yesterday when they were at work. And Josh wouldn't say he's surprised that Tim and Jack wandered off on their own, Tim being his college roommate, he couldn't count how many times he sneaked in and out of their room late at night, sometimes bringing a girl with him, and with the news that he recently broke up with his girlfriend, he was probably somewhere trying to get laid. And Jack, his cousin, he knew exactly where he was, the casino, a perfect place for a gambling addict.
"Come on. Let's get you settled first." Josh followed Rudi into a car. Rudi already rented a car, not a limo, none of them had the money for that, and they drove to the Airbnb booked for the weekend. The place was big enough for the five of them, if they squeezed two people in two of the three rooms. It had a somewhat big living room with a huge couch and a mounted tv, an open kitchen with the basic cooking supplies, a small backyard with a hot tub and a common bathroom for all five of them. They didn't have the budget for a big place, and they had to make do with what they got.
"Tim already claimed the smaller room for himself, Jack and I took the remaining rooms, you can take your pick, me or him." Rudi was the obvious choice, they had their fair share of sleepovers when they were young, and Jack was a snorer, and Josh would expect him to stay up late gambling and interrupt his sleep when Jack returned if they shared a room. Josh followed Rudi into their room, the room was cozy, there was a king size bed in the middle, a desk on the opposite side of the bed and a huge mirror on the wall, you could clearly see yourself on the bed with the mirror, and Josh wondered if this was some sort of sex thing for couples. There was a small window at the end of the room, the view wasn't much, it was connected to the backyard and you could see the hot tub from the bedroom.
"So, what's the plan? Should we find Tim and Jack?" Josh dropped his luggage at the side of the bed and asked.
