thin white lines | l. hemmings

10

"This time I'm serious, I actually think I'm dying," Calum mumbled with a hand to his head. Luckily, the hallway lights in the hotel were fairly dim and not too harsh on the hungover boy and the sun hadn't even risen yet. He and Luke waited in the thin hallway for Michael and Ashton to come out of their rooms.

"You're serious every time. Take an aspirin," Luke shot at him, feeling shitty as well, but refusing to whine like Calum was.

"Michael!" Calum shouted, pressing his face against the closed door. "Can you get me an aspirin?"

The door opened just as he finished his sentence, throwing off his balance and causing him to stumble right into Michael, who already had two pills in one hand and a water bottle in the other. Calum took one of the tablets from him and Michael handed the other to Luke. He popped it in his mouth and took it while Michael handed Calum the water to wash it down.

Ashton was the last to join them in the hallway with a yawn. The others took a moment to look at him in the black shirt and sweatpants they were sure he slept in. He didn't let them look for too long before he reacted. "Are we going or just staring at me?"

"Alright, Ash. We're going," Calum raised his brows and started the four of them down the hall. They reached the elevator door before Michael froze and backtracked a few doors to knock on Delaney's.

"Delaney?" He waited for an answer but could only make out a faraway groan. He figured it was good enough. "We're leaving. We'll be back before the buses leave. Just...stay in there!" He shouted quickly and shrugged before jogging to catch up with the others already getting into the elevator.

"So, remind me what we're doing, again?" Luke mumbled with his head pressed against the mirrors that lined the elevator walls, eyes gently resting while he had the chance.

"House on Conway Drive," Michael said, giving almost no information but it was most of the information he had.

"And remind me why we're doing that?" Ashton asked with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't know," Michael shrugged. "When do we ever know?"

"Sometimes we know," Calum whispered from the corner, earning a glare from Michael. Before laughing, "Yeah I never know."

"What're we doing there?" Luke asked, still going for what he had originally asked.

"Taking some cash. Taking some meds and swapping them out I think," Michael explained.

"With what?" Calum widened his eyes in surprise at the task. He immediately received three sharp and annoyed stares. He pushed for information that they had just discussed never having enough of because they were solely told what they needed to know and nothing more.

"They have us doing so many of these small jobs," Ashton said with a sigh and squinting his eyes.

"Yeah, they do. I guess they must have someone else robbing banks and doing all that other shit," Calum realized, and everyone paused to agree. "I wonder who..."

The four of them drove a van to a nearby parking lot, where Michael stayed while they entered the house through a window in the side of the house, being especially careful as to not wake the family sleeping a floor above them. The three boys each had a task to take care of in the few minutes they figured they had.

Ashton was there to find a prescription pill bottle that was under the name, 'Daniel Rivera' and take a few of the pills out and swap them with a very similar pill in its physical appearance but with presumably very different effects.

Calum usually looked for any sort of cash or valuable item that would be useful to sell or use in exchanges. But for this house, he was told to hold off on the small thefts.