The Bass Player » [cashton] √

1.6

[17th of November- Zurich]

He had a hangover the next day. Michael had said he'd wanted to go out for a drink, not drinks. So after a bottle of scotch between them, they'd stumbled back to the hotel at some ungodly hour, and the last thing he remembered was Michael handing him over to Ashton at the hotel room door. The next memory after that had been Ashton gently waking him up saying he'd laid out some clothes for Calum and packed his bag, but they needed to leave now, or the others were going to leave without them. He'd followed Ashton, drowsy and confused and climbed in the car, falling asleep against Ashton's shoulder.

When he woke again Ashton was talking, "You really had to go and get him fucked up on the first night, he's going to be miserable all day," Calum pressed his face further into the soft fabric of the older boys hoodie, subtly drinking in the smell.

"He's in the industry I thought he could hold his booze better," Michael said, chuckling a little.

"He only joined Angel & Trinkets like a year ago, he's barely in the industry," Luke spoke seriously.

"I thought they met in college, how old is he?" Michael sounded horrified, and if Calum had been more awake and less headache ridden, he might have said something snippy.

"Twenty-one," Luke told him.

"He's a baby," Michael cooed.

Calum felt Ashton shift before he spoke, "He's only three years younger than you,"

"Yeah but he's like five years younger than you, that feels crazy, people that much younger than you should be in like high school right?" Michael explained, astounded.

"Imagine being twenty-one again," Luke groaned.

"You were twenty-one, two years ago," Ashton chuckled.

Calum shifted again; he wasn't resting on Ashton's shoulder anymore his face was almost buried in his side, under his arm, trying to use it to block sound and light.

"He's pretty comfy there," Michael laughed, and Calum assumed he was watching him, he couldn't help but blush, this was why getting tipsy around them was dangerous, he didn't want anything to slip out.

"Think he's trying to block out the sun and probably us, you should have seen how hard it was to get him up this morning, so thanks again Michael you made my morning a lot of work,"

"Ugh, you guys are so loud, how far away are we?" Calum groaned, finally deciding to sit up.

Michael grinned at him, "the baby's awake," he cheered.

"I have paracetamol here, it's the same thing as Tylenol," Ashton told him, leaning down in front of his feet to fish through his bag, when he sat back up he handed Calum a blister pack and bottle of water.

He took them and quickly chugged the water "Why'd you do this to me Michael?" he groaned, trying to shift himself, so he was sitting up comfortably.

Luke and Michael chuckled, and Ashton just smiled at him, "we'll get you some McDonalds when we get to Zurich."

They'd chatted the rest of the way into the city, Calum keeping quiet as the headache slowly ebbed away.

When they arrived, they were taken straight to the venue, which often happened when they got late starts. The boys left almost as soon as they arrived, going to get food, Calum stayed wanting to catch up with Lesedi and the others, and honestly feeling a little under the weather still.

They were spread out around the dressing room, Nia and Angel were curled up together on their phones, Lesedi was on the floor embroidering something into denim and Rachael, and Calum were playing a game of snap beside them.