— ARIA —
Coming far from home for the goal seemed like a good idea - we wanted to get out the house for a while and to see parts of our world which we'd never seen before. It seemed like a really good idea at the time and we were really proud of ourselves for coming up with the idea. That was, until Brooklyn started complaining every five minutes that he needed a wee. Then, it didn't seem like such a good idea.
"I need a wee" Brooklyn muttered to Rye in the drivers seat, for the umpteenth time.
"Brooklyn please shut up, I'm asking nicely" Rye said, taking a hand off the wheel to wave his hand at Brook. "We've been in the car for an hour and all you've done is complain, let us get to a bloody services before you complain again"
"But I need the loo" he said again and I watched in the rear view mirror as Rye rolled his eyes. "And I wanna get out anyways, my legs have all cramped up in here"
I shook my head at him, as him and Rye began to have a slight debate in the front seat - I chuckled under my breath, lying my head back down on Jack's shoulder to the place is was previously. We were heading up to Scotland for the third goal on my list which happened to be one of the ones which made us all giggle.
[[ Take a roadtrip ]]
I promise, there was no pun intended within that goal.
We'd decided as a group that instead of just going up to Scotland for the day to complete the goal and then come straight back again,me would rent out a caravan in a holiday park somewhere and stay for the week. There were a few goals on the list which could be tended to while we were out there and it fit perfectly with our regime; you'd never believe it, but it was Brooklyn that thought of that one.
It was an exciting feeling to know we were visiting a city we didn't see very often. Sure, the lads saw Glasgow when they came on tour, but they never really went out of the Glasgow area and actually explored Scotland, and to me, it's strange to think there's a whole world out there with places, and people, and buildings that I've never seen or had the chance to interact with and just the thought of how big the world actually is and how much is just in one tiny place makes my whole head spin.
Jack grabbed my hand randomly and started rubbing small, affectionate circles across my palm. The car was once again silent, something it hadn't been since Brooklyn began to complain and I relaxed again; of course, it didn't last long as Brook had to ruin the moment and break the silence of the car once again.
"Rye, I really need to get out of the car, I'm not joking" Brooklyn whined, and he sounded remarkably like a young child who wasn't used to doing such lengths in a car.
"Oh, Brook man" Andy moaned from the front seat where he was sat beside Rye. "There's a services just five minutes away from this point, hold on and we'll stop so you can get out and do whatever, okay? Just hush for five minutes though"
That seemed to satisfy him as he shut up, sitting silently as he bounced his knee up and down in anticipation, waiting for the sign for the services to appear. When we arrived at the services, I don't think we'd ever seen Brooklyn get out of the car so fast in his life and it set us all off laughing as we followed him inside.
We all separated off once in there to do our separate stuff, and I went to the bathroom just to give myself a look over in the mirror once I was finished - something I commonly did nowadays without really noticing I was doing it. It made me notice things about myself which I would never notice if I wasn't looking; I was very thin and pale, the colour having been lost from my face slightly when I started my second round of chemo and I could just faintly see an operation scar lifting above my hoodie collar.
People would probably consider themselves ugly or disheveling looking at themselves in the mirror and seeing what I see, but not me. All I see, is a girl who's fought on for as long as she can, and even when she's found out the worst is coming, she's still living everyday to the full and taking the most out of each day that she lives. I see a girl who's lived a life full of traveling and is having the best time of her life with her best friends and that's all that matters. The girl I see is beautiful no matter what.
(I really like Aria, she's so positive about everything)
I gave myself one last look over, flashing myself a reassuring smile in the mirror before leaving the bathroom to find only two boys waiting for me outside. And of course, it had to be the worlds most iconic duo, Andy and Rye. They were never apart.
"We seem to be down three members loves" I said, laughing a little. "Please don't tell me you've lost them in the services already, we've not been out the house that long"
"Aria, what do you think of us!?" Andy said, putting his hand on his heart, mocking offense. I glared at him for using my full name as he knew full well just how much I hated it being used in a context where it wasn't needed and he smirked.
"Don't worry yourself none" Rye said. "Brook and Mikey have gone into WHSmiths for a bit of food and Jack went back to the car because he was complaining he was tired. He's gonna fall asleep, just watch, but at least the more people that fall asleep the more peace we'll have and besides, we'll need it on this journey"
"This seven and a half car journey does not sound pleasant" Andy shuddered.
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!¡ Trying to make this as real as I possibly can, so here's the set out of the caravan that they're staying in if you want to imagine it. Bedroom One will be Jack and Aria. Bedroom Two will be Brook and Mikey and Bedroom Three will be, of course, Andy and Rye. I love taking tips on detail ¡!
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Rye always seemed to be right when it came to Jack. When we'd managed to round up the remaining members of the band and get them back to the car, he was already asleep and I'd only just managed to slip into the car without waking him. He'd managed to navigate his head to my shoulder in sleep, and that's where he'd been the whole seven and a half hour journey - I'd stayed awake, keeping an eye on our drivers to make sure we didn't end up in any bushes or in any side road ditches and it was quite fun. We'd arrived into our holiday park, but I was struggling in moving one from the car.
"Jack" I mumbled to him, running my fingers through his hair softly. "Cmon buddy, you can't stay here forever, we've gotta get out so Andy can lock the car"
He murmured slightly in sleep as if retaliating against me and his head moved around on my shoulder but he didn't wake up. Rye turned from the front seat to face me.
"Just get out of the car and then his head will fall off your shoulder, that's what I would do. Makes life easier" Rye said and I hit his arm lightly and he mocked his pain.
"Rye, I bet you can't even imagine me doing that in your head" I said and he shrugged. "You can't say anything anyways, you were the one that got Andy to drive halfway here so you didn't drive any of us into a ditch with how tired you were"
Rye stuck his tongue out at me playfully, knowing I'd outed him and dived out of the car. I watched him disappear into the caravan and Mikey started to deplete too.
"We'll be inside" Mikey said. "Don't listen to Rye, be as gentle as you want with him"
I gave Mikey a nod before he disappeared too, and I continued to run my fingers through Jack's hair before he began to stir a little and I attempted once more to speak to him now that he was waking up a little bit more.
"I don't want to have to listen to Rye and be brutal with you, but if you don't wake up I think I might have to" I chuckled, and finally, his head lifted from my shoulder. His green orbs were still glazed over, and he still looked exhausted, but he was awake.
"Are we here?" he said, leaning his head against the back of the seat.
"Yeah" I said. "Come on, before the lads steal the best bedroom from us"
I stayed with him while he played his usual game - falling back asleep for five minutes before waking himself up and coming to his senses and we eventually got to the caravan with our luggage after a twenty minute struggle in waking him. There was so,whine happening when we entered the caravan and I gave Jack a looked but he shrugged.
"Brook, Mikey, stand down" I heard Rye say. "This room is off limits"
"But I want the big room" Brook whined. "The big one is always the best one"
"But, you know we all agreed before we left to let Ari and Jack have the big room, remember?" Andy said and I chuckled, covering my face with my hand. This was the one argument I knew was going to break out, even though we'd agreed on it.
"Yeah, we know that, but that was before we realised how big it was" Mikey pointed out. "The room is huge, and we didn't know it would be that big when we got here"
"Right, right, bloody stop, you all sound like married couples fighting" Jack said, waving his hands around and his hand actions seemed to shut everyone up. "Brooklyn, odds on? Numbers between one and ten, I get it first time, me and Ari get the room, I don't get it, you and Mikey get the room okay? No matter what we agreed"
Andy was about to protest but I stopped him as I knew what Jack was doing. Whenever we did an odds on with Brooklyn between one and ten, it was always the same number.
"One, two three" Rye said and Jack smirked a little, his plan evolving.
"Six" they both said in sync and Jack fist pumped in celebration.
"How the hell do you always win odds on?" Brook said, pouting.
"Because Brook" Jack said, coming to stand beside me and grab my hand - the sudden affection took me by surprise, but I grew to get used to his hand being in mine. "You always chose the number six no matter what. As long as the number has a six in it you will chose it so when its one to ten, you'll chose six. You need to start differing your options, or you're never going to win an odds on"
All the boys laughed and Brooklyn continued to pout before he joined in.
"Now" I said, deciding to be a mum considering the inky author rice figure right nice was Jack, and I couldn't trust him. "Go and unpack your stuff and set your rooms up or none of you are coming down to the club with me later and you don't get to show off your dance moves to the Scottish people like you've been wanting and waiting to for so long. I'm giving you all a maximum of thirty minutes. First team done, wins"
The two duos set off towards their rooms to best one another while me and Jack took it slow, not being completely bothered whether we won or not. It was times like this that i realized just how nice it was to be around him and just how special it really felt to have him by my side all the damn time and to have him always be there.