Permanent Vacation // 5SOS

10. Cody

"Holy fuck. I wasn't sure how much longer I could last in there." Tessa's so dramatic. Especially since the doctor had to drug her before he could give her a brain scan. She's just high on meds right now.

"Tess, let's play a little game." I say tiredly. I really should've gone to bed earlier last night... Or technically this morning.

"But I really just want cookies." She whines.

"Well if you win this game, I'll buy you as many cookies as you want." I tell her. She grins and grabs my hand, swinging it back and forth as we walk out of the hospital and head off down the street. I can already hear the music from the arena where the boys are playing now, and we're still a good half hour walk away.

"I fucking love you sis." Tess sighs happily, looking up at the sky.

"Yeah, yeah. You too." I mumble. She's so weird when she's this happy. It sort of makes us switch roles a bit. "So, the game is that we have to go to the arena and watch the boys from backstage, then congratulate them when they finish up. Deal?" She narrows her eyes at me, and for a moment I think she might be back to normal.

"And if I win, I get seven billion cookies?" She asks with such a serious expression that I want to laugh at her.

"Yes. You can have seven million cookies." I tell her; she'll believe anything right now, and with her memory the way it is, she probably won't even remember this conversation.

"DEAL!!" She yells before running off down the street. I just roll my eyes and run after her, but I can't help grinning; Tess has always had a really contagious smile.

After a bit of a walk/run, we're at the back door of the arena. There's a whole heap of fans lined up to try and meet the boys and I'm trying not to draw attention to us as I casually walk up to a security guy and show him my pass and Tessa's. She's been giggling non-stop so she's useless at speech right now.

Once we get in, with a few screams of anger in our direction, I lead Tess towards the stage by following the signs they have around the place. I used to think I'd get lost in one of these places, but you'd have to be the dumbest person alive to miss the signs.

"It's so loud in here!" Tess yells as we walk along hand in hand. It's actually pretty quiet compared to outside, which I guess is a little weird. "C'mon I wanna see them live!"

Tessa runs off, dragging me behind her since we're still holding hands and all. She somehow knows to follow the signs, even in the state she's in, and we arrive in time to see two full songs being performed by the boys.

"Yeah! Woohoo! This is awesome!!" Tess yells in my ear. I fight off the urge to laugh at her.

"We still have to congratulate them." I remind her. She nods very quickly.

"Yep, then I get my cookies." She grins. I hope she forgets about that soon.

Right at that moment, the boys come running offstage, sweating and pumped up on adrenalin. Yay. More hyper people.

"Hey guys! How long've you been here?" Ashton asks. Tess responds before I can.

"Only two songs, but you guys killed it out there! Congrats!" Tess is still yelling, even though it's a hell of a lot quieter now.

"Wow." Calum seems suspicious, and his eyebrows are doing this adorable little crinkle thing. "What's wrong with her?"

"Yeah, what'd the doctor give her?" Luke asks.

"Doctor? What doctor? You went to a doctor?" Calum's awfully curious all of a sudden, and Michael hasn't said a word from where he's standing next to Ashton.

"We went to a doctor while you guys were doing your concert." I explain.

"Oh." Calum says. Such a simple sentence, but he makes it sound so beautiful and complex.

"It was scary. They gave me a big needle." Tess tells them all, gesturing with her arms to show an exaggerated version of how long the 'big needle' was. Really it was normal sized, but she's scared of needles so I guess any size would freak her out.

"So what'd the doc say?" Luke asks. I'm honestly surprised he even remembered that we were going to go.

"Uh, she'll take up to six weeks to heal properly, which means there's just over five weeks left." I say. "I'm sorry that you guys have to see her like this; I swear she's a perfectly sane person when we aren't travelling and when she's not injured like this."

"Hey, don't sweat it. We like having you guys around." Ashton says with a grin. "We actually have to talk to you later about staying with us." Oh crud. This is where they say we can't stay with them at all.

"Codikins, I feel sick." Tess whines, using her childhood nickname for me as she leans her head on my shoulder suddenly. I sigh, not surprised at all.

"Okay, let's get back to the bus while the boys clean up." I put an arm around her in a supporting way, feeling like I'm looking after a two-year-old.

"But I wanna stay with them." She whines. "They're funny and I only need to sit down for a while. It'll be fine." Great. I sigh.

"You might get lost on the way to the change room, and it's a fair distance away." Luke says. He gives me a quick glance, then looks directly at my sister. He's taking my side. Trying to help. How... Nice.

"But I don't wanna walk anywhere. I just wanna sit." Tess sounds like a tantrum-prone toddler. Slowly, she slides out of my grip and lies on the floor with her limbs everywhere. I sigh again.

"Fuck it." Michael suddenly decides he has a voice, as he walks over to Tess and lies down next to her. "C'mon guys, let's stare at the stars."

"Michael, there aren't any stars here; we're inside a building." Calum points out. Michael rolls his eyes and Tess starts singing retardedly from the floor.

"I'm a star, you're a star. Just get on the floor, you twits." Michael demands. I fold my arms in defiance; I am not a twit... But then Tess reaches up and pulls me down anyway.

"Let's count the roof tiles." She says, making it sound like it's the most exciting thing she's ever done.

"Tess, no." I say, trying to get back up. She wraps her arms around me, seemingly not caring about her injury. She's holding me tightly, almost like a floor hug.

The others are now all on the floor, some more defiantly than others; Luke's sitting on the floor, but definitely not lying down like the rest of us.

"Wishing on a star that's just a satellite." Tess sounds as if she's drunk as she sings the first line to All Time Low's Satellite. That's all she says though; after that she's asleep.

"Well that was easy." Ashton mutters, getting up again. We all do the same, then Calum helps me pick my sister up and carry her to their dressing room. Thankfully, they have a couch.

Another five weeks of this?

We're fucked.