Glitter And Ash (Jalex)

Chapter 21

Jack was woken that afternoon by a knock at his suite door. With a groan, he groggily got to his feet and slouched over to it. He was surprised to find a fully dressed Brendon grinning at him.

"Afternoon." He laughed, offering him a styrofoam coffee mug. Jack grunted in response, taking the mug wordlessly as he stepped back to let him in.

"You ready?" He asked as he looked over Jack's dishevelled appearance with a raised eyebrow. "Ready for what?" Jack frowned. Soundcheck wasn't for another couple of hours at least. "Band meeting. We've gotta decide on a setlist for this TV thing."

Jack stared at him with a blank expression which only made Brendon chuckle. "I told them you wouldn't have remembered. Do you ever check the schedule?" Jack shrugged.
"I don't need to; I just have to wait for Pete to come and yell at me about being late."

Brendon snorted, shaking his head with a fond smile. "Well in a couple of days we've got a Christmas TV appearance thing and we've gotta perform five Christmas songs. We've gotta meet the other two in Tay's room in half an hour to decide on a setlist and start practising. We'll be practising all day tomorrow too, so you'll have to cancel any plans you had with Lover Boy." Jack rolled his eyes but couldn't really argue given that spending time with Alex had been his exact plan.

"When was all this decided?" He huffed, feeling somewhat left out.
"Last night on the plane. We did try to wake you up to include you, but you were out cold." Jack sighed and took a large swig of coffee.
"Gimme ten minutes to get changed."

They arrived at Taylor's room ten minutes early which Jack was pretty sure was some kind of record for him. He'd never been early for anything before, being on time was a struggle most of the time and mainly down to Pete.

Taylor seemed whole-heartedly surprised when she opened the door to see him standing there. "Jesus. Did you just not sleep or something?" Jack rolled his eyes as he headed through and dropped down on the couch. "Brendon came with coffee and filled me in."
"He didn't even remember we were doing this." Brendon grinned.
"Big surprise." She muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey listen." Jack began as she sat cross-legged on the floor next to the coffee table. "I didn't get the chance to say it yesterday but thank you. What you said last night meant a lot... even if it was bullshit." That made her laugh. "It wasn't. I know we don't exactly get on, like ever, but you guys are the closest thing I've got to family. Besides, the shit this guy's pulling isn't right. Not even you deserve that." He rolled his eyes but smiled. "Gee thanks."

Patrick ended up being nearly twenty minutes later than planned. "About time!" Brendon called as Patrick stopped dead with surprise.
"I figured it wouldn't matter 'cause we'd be waiting for Jack! We're always waiting for Jack." They all laughed at that.
"Sorry man. I actually managed to get him here early for once."

Once they'd all settled down, they quickly realised this was going to be a lot harder than they'd first thought. "How many songs do we need again?" Jack asked searching through the various Spotify playlists for inspiration. "Five."

"Okay let's try a different approach." Patrick sighed, running a hand through his freshly de-hatted hair. "Do we want to cover traditional songs, or do we want to play songs we actually like." Jack frowned at that. "I'm not playing hymns." He said flatly making Brendon snort.
"He didn't mean hymns you dick." Taylor sighed, sending him a withering look. "He meant shit like Last Christmas or Little Drummer Boy." That actually made more sense.