John needed Skittles. Bus call had already passed a few minutes earlier at 12:30am, but his sweet tooth needed to be satisfied. I also needed to return all 6 rooms keys we had to our hotel room... Yes, 6 keys.
A little bit of background, a lot of drama had taken place around missing or pushing back our bus call times. They became more of a curfew than actual bus calls to ensure the entire cast and crew made it back before the buses left for our next venue. Our bus wasn't actually leaving until 2am, but to compensate for others' previous mistakes, everyone was held accountable and was required to be early.
John needed Skittles. After dropping something off in the crew bus I made it a point to tell Margaret, our director/matriarch that I still needed to return the men's room keys.
"Oh of course, Connor!" She said, probably noticing the halo glowing around my head.
Seeing me exit, John followed. "I'm want to talk with Connor" He said, "I'm going with Connor." I'm sure it was directed towards our matriarch, but the delivery was vague as he pretty much said it to the ground.
"I really want candy, but I need to get change."
He's a quirky guy, but in that strangely loving way where you appreciate having him around.
"Okay."
We had to walk around front to the main entrance, where I dropped off all the keys and he broke his five dollar bill. Why we had so many keys I couldn't answer, but I'm pretty sure only one of them actually worked on our door.
Taking the elevator to the second floor, we exited to our left where the vending machine greeted us in its all-but-defunct state. No lights were on, but we assumed it worked.
Fourth column, sixth row down. "Skittles!" He said excitedly as he tried to slide his single into the machine. It wouldn't take it.
"There's another machine on the third floor." I told him.
"But what if they don't have skittles?" He asked me.
"Well, there's a fourth floor so if the third floor doesn't have it then we can go up again!"
Third floor, no luck. Fourth floor, still no Skittles. Rude.
Distraught, I told him "You know, Angel broke your five, I'm sure she's got four quarters too."
Back downstairs to the lobby.
"Hey Angel, we're back!" I said probably a little too energetically for almost 1 a.m. "Here's the thing, John really wants Skittles and only the second floor machine has Skittles, but it won't take dollar bills. Can we get four quarters?"
"Yeah," she replied. "Just gimme a sec."
After the exchange, we took the elevator back up to the second floor. As John put the change in and pressed 4-6, I clumsily laughed "I really hope it doesn't get stuck as the thing is turning it out!"
...
The Skittles got stuck.
"NO!" We yelled as our stomachs began to hurt from the intensity of our laughing. I jinxed it. Of course I just had to go and say something stupid. The vending machine gods were against us.
"It's fine." I told him. "We'll go back down stairs, see Angel again, I'm sure she'll be happy to break another one of your dollars. I mean, we're her entertainment for the night, she has to enjoy this story!"
We took the elevator back down to Angel to whom we recounted the whole story as she broke another of John's dollars. She thought it was humorous and said "If it happens again, let me know."
One more trek up the elevator, which had now become our personal escort since no one else was using it at one in the morning, and back to the jinxed machine we went.
In went his four quarters and out came both packs, the stuck one and it's partner.
Needless to say, John was happy and we had a great story to tell.
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