I woke up early, the sun just rising beyond my window, and quietly slipped out of bed. Jack was still sleeping and I didn’t want to wake him. I put on some clothes and ran around the corner to Starbucks where I picked up some coffees and was soon on my way back home.
When I got there the bus for the video had arrived and Jack was signing off for it. He skipped cheekily over to me and then picked me up spinning around and around.
“Well now I'm dizzy.” I said with a laugh.
“Come on babe! Lets go pick everyone up!” he exclaimed and then ran off towards the bus. I ran after him and hopped on, first stop Caspar and Alfie’s apartment.
An hour later everyone was on the bus and we raced on towards our destination.
“Where are we even going?” I ask cautiously.
“Were you even listening yesterday?” Zoe replied.
“Ashlynn… drumroll please” Alfie begins while everyone stomps on the floor, “WE”RE GOING TO THE CIRCUS!”
“WHAT?” I snap back
“Babe, the circus, that’s where we’re filming the video.” Jack says with a sigh.
“Yeah, Jack can show off his wacky talents, while I mess around” Finn explains sticking his tongue out afterwards.
“Wow, the circus” I laugh it off before shuffling down the aisle to sit with Jack.
Marcus speeds off and we get there a little while past eleven where we spend almost an hour setting up. Nikki sets up the camera and I help move things around. Zoe has some gymnastics training and is going to be doing trapeze with Alfie, who also did a bit of gymnastics when he was younger. All the youtubers will do their special intro, and then we will start.
The video was going to be an hour long special, so we would be filming for at least three hours and then editing it down to the good bits. We’d take a break at lunch and then head back to it. Jack was going to be juggling on a unicycle and then Finn is going to be messing around and hopefully jumping successfully though a massive ring of fire. There are lions in a cage near our right and a massive shark tank across the room, this video was going to be amazing.
All of the sudden, a small car circles around the room and then five of my worst nightmares flood out of it. Clowns. I screamed and dropped everything, while running off in the other direction. I ran strait into Jack’s arms who immediately hugged me and kissed my head, whispering “It’s alright I’ll get rid of them right now, they weren’t supposed to be here.”
“Mates, who did this? It isn’t funny, Ashlynn’s scared to death right now.” Jack yelled protectively over my sobs.
The room fell silent and one of the clowns inched closer to Jack, “We were told we had to come here today, some big event and one of the people in it asked specifically for clowns.” He explained carefully.
“Well we’re the only ones here and we can’t have you in this today at all,” Jack said calmly. “My babes terrified of clowns ok? I need you to leave now. Nikki, can you take Ashlynn to the bathroom and get her some tissue while I sort this out?”
“Sure, come on.” Nikki said taking me by the shoulders and leading me to the bathroom.
When we got there I cleaned myself up before asking Nikki about the situation.
“What do you think happened?” I asked nervously.
“Probably a mistake these guys are idiots” she laughed as she spoke. “I mean none of us would do this to you, we all know about your phobia.”
“Ok, thanks Niksters, love you.” I said as I hugged her before we left the bathroom and returned to the tent.
Immediately Jack came up to me wrapping his arms protectively around me.
“Wanna take a walk sweetie?” he said sweetly.
“Sure”
I nodded and he squeezed me a little before letting me go and wrapping my hand with his. We walked around the tent for a while before we took a break and sat down.
“I love you, you know that right?” he said burying his head into my neck, I laughed a little before teasing him by whispering “Maybe.”
“No, seriously I love you.”
“I know. I love you too.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, believe me I need you a lot more than you need me.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Jack, before you I was still heartbroken over a high school love.”
“Oh yeah. I remember that, what was his name again?”
“Alf- ummm Alex.” I say cautiously, “but that does make me wonder hmm”
“Wondering what exactly?”
“What if it was Alex and I who had stayed together?”
“Don’t even say that. I’d probably be dead.”
“Suuuuure” I say sarcastically.
“No, really. I couldn’t stand it without you.”
I laughed before I ran off back inside, where to my surprise I found everything set up and ready. Jack rushed in and the cameras started rolling.
