Permanent Vacation // 5SOS

20. Cody

"Codikins, wait up!!" Tess yells after me. I'm about to step off the bus and head inside to watch the boys' concert.

"Why're you using that horrible nickname?" I whine. She smirks.

"Well it was either that or saying something about Calum." She tells me, linking arms with me as we head into the stadium or arena or whatever it's called here.

"How's your elbow feeling?" I ask. She shrugs and holds it up for me to see. She's not wearing full bandages any more, and only really covers it when it starts to bug her.

"It's had two and a bit weeks to heal, so it's doing pretty well. And my wrist practically has full movement back too." Tess informs me happily, twisting her hand around at heaps of different angles she couldn't get to a week ago.

"I'm glad." I smile, flashing my backstage pass at the security guy at the same time as my sister. He nods and opens the door for us. "Thank you!" I call over my shoulder.

"So are we staying back here or going out with the fans for this one?" Tess asks as we stroll along arm in arm.

"I was thinking we should try going out this time." I tell her. "It'll be good to see how a band works from the fan perspective instead of just watching from backstage like normal."

"Doing research for later, are we?" Tess raises an eyebrow at me. I smile and shrug innocently.

"You're the one that said it'd be good to pay attention to how everything works." I point out. She nods.

Tess hasn't had a memory issue in almost two days, and the last one wasn't as bad as the others; she only forgot how to play the Xbox and guitar. No biggie. And she's been really nice lately. I'm seeing more and more of the old Tess coming through, and oh how I missed it... Although she does still swear quite a bit around the boys.

"Hey, Tess! Cody!" I immediately turn around at the sound of Luke's voice. He sounds and looks super stressed as he comes running towards us. "You need to come quickly." He grabs Tess's arm in one hand and my wrist in the other, then pulls us back the way he came from.

"Is everything okay?" I ask.

"Keep in mind that we have shorter legs than you and it's hard for us to keep up." Tess points out. Luke ignores both of us, breathing heavily and never slowing down. If anything, he's moving faster as we go down hallway after hallway.

"Luke, where are we going?" I ask. Still no answer. He just pulls us along with a determined look on his face and an ever-firm grip on our arms. Tess and I have to jog to keep up with his gigantic strides.

Finally, we stop in front of a closed door and Luke faces us. All three of us are breathing heavily.

"Don't ask questions, just listen. Behind this door is a man that'll explain everything and tell you what to do from here. I have to leave now to get ready to go on." Luke explains quickly, then opens the door and shoves us inside.

"What? Luke, what the--" Tess cuts herself off when she realises we're in someone's office.

"Good evening girls. I don't believe we've met. I'm Ben Walter, the manager of the boys at the moment. Please have a seat." A fat man is sitting behind a temporary desk on a worn out wheely chair. The room looks like someone's attempted to make it look formal and expensive, but it really hasn't worked.

"Are we in some kind of trouble?" Tess asks as we both sit on the shaky wooden chairs provided.

"Oh, no. On the contrary..." The guy trails off as if he's thinking. "In a way, you're being rewarded."