As we arrived, we parked in a parking lot not facing any windows so Mr. Shepherd wouldn’t look out and see our car or anything. We crawled out and I locked the car before heading to a backstage door. I texted Luke briefly stating our presence and after a couple of minutes, the door pushed open and Michael stood there with a soft smile.
"Hello," he said as he gestured for us to come in. We thanked him as we stepped out of the cool winds and into the warmth of the building. He shut the door when we were all inside. "Sorry for the wait, we had to wait until Shepherd was gone," he explained.
"Where is he now?" Amanda questioned curiously.
"Bathroom," Michael said as he wedged between us. "Follow me," he said leading us down the hallway and down another turn that lead to an open room where the boys sat near a buffet table. "Hey! Save me a cheese puff!" Michael said and ran over to where Calum stood shoveling some in his hand.
Ashton sat on the couch with his phone, and Luke was in a chair by the TV. He stood up when he saw me and smiled, greeting me with a gentle, ‘hello.’
"Shepherd ate shrimp so he’ll be in there for a while," Ashton said, glancing at the empty doorway as Amanda and I walked to the middle of the room.
"Yeah, but when he comes back we’ll need a place to hide you. Somewhere he won’t expect," Calum said with a handful of Cheetos, carrying a handful in his palm with cheese dust surrounding his lips a little. He walked over to Amanda and held out his palm to her. "Cheeto?" he offered and Amanda giggled before accepting, grabbing one of the orange objects and tossing it into her mouth.
"They could hide under the sink again?" Michael suggested, but Amanda and I declined instantaneously. That experience was a pain in the… well… everything really.
"What about under the buffet table?" Luke asked as he walked over to the different types of chips and lifted up the table clothed that draped over all sides of the table, exposing a nice, well spaced area. Amanda and I glanced at each other. I went down on my knees and crawled under as Luke continued to hold the flap up. We had room to move around and shuffle carefully, and as we crawled out, we nodded.
"That works," I said.
"Do you know how to play Fifa?" Luke asked me and I turned to him. I knew how to play it, just not very well.
"Yeah… what console do you have it on?" I asked and Luke took a quick look.
"Looks like they have PS3 here," he said and I nodded.
"Perfect," I said and followed him to the couch as I noticed Amanda giving Calum her phone number. I took a seat next to Ashton, Luke sitting next to Ashton in the middle and me on the other side as I grabbed a controller and Luke popped in the disc before settling back down, drumming the controller again his thigh as he waited for it to load. As it got to the home screen, I looked at him.
"I feel ridiculous, but I forgot how to shoot," I admitted and he looked over and leaned over, his finger tapping a control. "That button," he explained. "Ready to go?" he asked and I nodded. "You can start with ball," he smiled and I nodded happily.
The first few minutes were chaotic. I had no clue what I was doing, and 2 minutes within the game, Luke was already up with a score of 4-0.
"Well… you’re better than Ashton is," Luke said with a little smirk, glancing over at Ashton, who’d looked up from his phone at the sound of his name.
"Hm?" he questioned, glancing between Luke and I.
"Nothing," Luke said before I kicked off the ball to a player of my team. In mid-pass, though, Luke swiped it and I made my player run as fast as he could, but Luke was already a few yards away from the goalie’s box and he scored. After a while, he won. 22 to 10, but I knew he just let me have those goals.
The clicking of dress shoes warned the coming of an outsider and Amanda jumped up from her spot next to Calum, and I raced with her until we were both under the buffet table.
"Are you all done with the appetizers?" a woman’s voice asked as she started pulling on the buffet table. I looked and saw that on the end of the legs were wheels to make travel easy. Amanda and I crawled on our knees so not to disturb the motion.
"Um…" I heard one of the boys mutter and the cart stopped instantly.
"Yes?" she asked. There was shocked silence before the lady spoke again. "You’ll be on live soon. I’ll get you the main courses," she said, and before they could procrastinate, she wheeled out the table, taking us with her down the hall. My knee caps ached through the fabric of my jeans as I lifted up my feet and applied all the pressure on my knees to keep my shoes from scuffing. Finally, we turned into a cold room with tile flooring. Wonderful smells erupted left and right and orders told me we were in a kitchen.
We were wheeled off next to the wall and waited there.
"Come on! Quickly!" a man said. "Let’s go, let’s go!" he encouraged the workers to move faster. "I need this table cleared!" he said, his voice near our shelter. "Come on, yes. Alright. Is the cart for the 5SOS boys ready?"
"Yes sir!" a woman’s voice confirmed.
"Alright, send it!" he ordered, but our cart did not move. We were trapped in the kitchen.
