The Existence of Carrie Griffith (5SOS) [Editing]

Chapter Forty-Six: I'm Coming Home

We got to the airport and while the crowd was slightly smaller than when we’d arrived, it still terrified me. All these kids had school the next day! I felt like yelling at them to go home but I managed to hold my tongue. I snuck away and found myself at a bar, until I remembered that in America, you had to be 21 to drink alcohol, so I just ordered a Sprite. My phone rang and Michael’s voice echoed through my head.

“Hey bub, where are you?” I looked up at the sign

“I’m at uhh… The Corona Bar. Walk ahead after Starbucks and just keep going and I’m there.” I said.

“Ok. I was just checking you were ok. You’re very good at sneaking away.”

“Oh the advantages of being tiny.” I chuckled. “Have fun with the fans. I’ll see you in a bit.” I hung up and dropping the phone beside my glass.

“Hey there honey.” I looked up and Lou was smiling at me.

“Lou! Oh my god!” I flung my arms around her and she returned the embrace. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“About a week.” She chuckled.

“But it felt like ages. Are you coming back to Aus with us?”

“No. I’m saying goodbye before flying back to England. I was here to see some friends.” She took the seat next to me and ordered a drink. “So I heard about you and Michael.” I started blushing. “So it is true!”

“Yeah.” I smiled bashfully.

“Awww. Don’t be embarrassed love. Marrie is so cute.” I started laughing and she joined in. “How long has it been.”

“Oh crap! A week today!”

“Why are you freaking about that?”

“I haven’t said anything!” She chuckled.

“Has he?”

“He mentioned it last night but I told him not to worry about it.”

“Calm down Carrie. He won’t care. It’s one week. It’s not like it’s a wedding anniversary.”

“I guess.”

“A vodka for the girl please.” Lou ordered me a drink. The bartender was too stuck on the fact that Lou was gorgeous to check my age. She just ignored him but he was infatuated. “You should meet my daughter.” She turned to me.

“You’re a mum!?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“Yeah. Her name’s Lux. She’s three.”

“Aww. I’d love to meet her.”

“And I’m sure she’d love you.” We shared small talk over drinks until screams interrupted our conversation about school. English schooling was a lot different to Australian schooling. The screams were piercing and we looked to see a crowd led by four guys in bro-tanks. I started laughing until I was hysterically giggling with teary eyes.

“What up with her?” A familiar cheery voice asked.

“I don’t know.” Lou answered. I looked up and let out the last few dry chuckles to see Ashton in his Weekend Warrior tank, looking worried.

“Oh my God!” I giggled. “The way you four were leading those fans made it look like a scene from the ‘Beat It’ music video. You looked like a gang.” He stepped back and looked at me like I was an absolute idiot. He then proceeded to scull the rest of my vodka and lead me and Lou to the departure lounge where we would wait for our flight and where we’d say goodbye to Lou. We passed a Krispy Kreme and Calum absolutely lost it and pouted until we sighed and agreed on getting some. The mob of fans had thinned reasonably so we were just being photographed whilst people in the area just stared at these five teenagers being photographed like we were famous or something… I was so tempted to have a coffee but then realised I needed to sleep on the plane if I wanted to be a functional human being when we got to Sydney.