speak now | jack hughes DISCONTINUED

chapter nine

A/N: This is a wayy longer than I meant for it to be, but oh well!

Bailey Cameron

I honked my horn repeatedly at Jack as he tiredly walked towards my car. It was six in the morning, and I was forcing Jack to come with me to a fall festival/fair type thing that was going on a few miles out of Newark this weekend. I would've brought Amelia, but she said she was absolutely swamped with her schoolwork. So naturally, Jack was the next best choice.

"Hurry up!" I rolled the window down to yell at him, letting the morning chill into my car. It was early November now, so the weather was starting to get colder. He just yawned. "If we don't go right now we're gonna get there late!"

"Bails, it's six in the morning. That's not late," He mumbled as he got into the passengers seat and picked up my cup of coffee. "Please say this is for me."

"Nope," I said, plucking the drink out of his hands. He opened his mouth to protest, lazily trying to grab the drink back. "But this," I handed him his own cup of coffee that I had made for him before I left, "is for you."

He hummed as he took a sip. "You're a lifesaver. But I'm never waking up that early again for a festival."

"If we get there any time after it opens it'll be crowded and it'll take forever to get in, which is why we're going so early," I said as I pulled onto the road. "And have you never woken up this early for a hockey game or event or something? This should be a piece of cake."

"Not recently, no," He yawned again, "And besides, that's hockey. I love hockey. This is a festival. I don't love festivals as much as I love hockey."

"Well, you're gonna have to suck it up for a while, 'cause we're gonna be there all day," I connected my phone to the cars Bluetooth system and played some Taylor Swift. I started with some songs from 1989, hoping the upbeat, pop vibes from it would transfer into us and help Jack wake up. The first song was New Romantics, which was perfect, and I turned up the volume up a few notches. I happily sang the lyrics, occasionally glancing at Jack, who was unfazed by the music. "You look like you're about to fall asleep again," I commented as I turned the volume down to talk to him.

"I'm thinking about it," He mumbled as he took another sip of coffee, his eyes closed. I had stopped at a red light, and quickly pulled out my phone to take a picture of him, snickering.

"That's just—that's gold. Thank you for that," I grinned as I set my phone back down. Jack mumbled something, but I couldn't hear, so I just ignored him. I seriously think he fell asleep the rest of the way to the festival, because he didn't say anything for the rest of the drive, even when I pulled into a parking space.

"Jack," I said, shutting the car down. "Jack, we're here. Hey, sleeping beauty, wake up," I poked his shoulder. Nope. Nothing. Jesus, how deep of a sleeper was he? I furrowed my brows at him, trying to think of how to wake him up. He looked oddly peaceful, his head resting on the window and a content look on his face. "Jack Rowden Hughes! Wake up!" I finally raised my voice, shaking his shoulder. He jumped up in his seat, wide-eyed.

"A simple, 'Hey Jack, wake up, we're here!' probably would've worked, y'know," He said as we both got out of the car.

"I tried that. You're a very deep sleeper, apparently," I smiled a small smile, which he responded to with a sarcastic roll of his eyes. "And look, we got here so early that we got parking right in the front. See, waking up at five or whatever was totally worth it, right?"

"No."

I frowned. "Wrong answer, but okay."

Once we got through the entrance, I looked at the little map the security guard had handed us. Jack poked his head over, letting his chin rest on my shoulder, so he could see the map too. "This makes zero sense," He said into my ear. I hummed in agreement. The way it was set up was weird, and I highly doubted we'd be able to navigate it easily.