The blonde woman on the local news had been blathering on in the hotel room for several minutes as Michael Clifford sat up in bed, shifting a pillow to support his head. The 5SOS boys had a well-deserved morning off before they were due to head to Minneapolis for a show the next night. Michael had decided to spend his morning in his room, watching the news and bumming around on his phone.
"Remember to wash your hands well folks, flu rates are through the roof this year. The state of Minnesota has reported this as the worst flu season in years," Mike heard the lady on the tv continue. "In addition to high rates of influenza, we also have some severe winter weather coming this way so bundle up fellow Minnesotans, its going to be a cold one out there tomorrow!"
A knock on Mikey's door pulled his attention from the news and his phone.
"Just one second," he called out, walking over to the front of his room. As he opened the door, he was greeted with a frantic-looking Ashton Irwin, standing in his pajamas outside in the hotel hallway.
"Hey Ash, what's up?" Michael greeted his friend. Ash gave him a brief grin, inviting himself into the room.
"Hey Mike, sorry to ruin your peaceful morning but I've just got a call from management and they need us on the road ASAP. Something about a winter storm coming through and they want us to get to the venue tonight before the snow comes," Ash plopped himself down on Mike's bed. Michael groaned at the news
"Yeah, I saw on the news that it was supposed to snow tomorrow. I guess its not super surprising they want us to bounce out of here early. So much for being able to spend all day in bed though," Mike responded. Ashton moved up onto his feet, heading back to the door.
"Well, we're meeting in lobby in 25 minutes. I've woken up Cal but was hoping maybe you could wake up Luke, I don't feel like having to spend forty minutes getting his ass out of bed today," Ash glanced back at Michael as he headed to the door. Michael could've sworn he saw Ash's eyelashes flutter in a desperate plea to win him over. Mike sighed.
"Sure thing, Ash, I think it was my turn to wake him up anyway. Cal had to do it yesterday," Ash grinned at Mike's response, his face lighting up.
"You're the best Mikey!"
With that, he closed the door, heading back to his own room to finish packing. Michael sighed again and moved to put his shoes on to head out to Luke's room. Grabbing his key card on his dresser, he picked up his phone and walked out into the chilly hotel hallway.
Reaching Luke's door, he knocked three times, and hearing no response, settled for pounding incessantly at the door. This was why no one wanted to be on 'wake-up-Luke' duty.
"Luke, wake up! I have news for you!" Michael shouted through the crack. He heard a groan and the stamping of feet heading toward the door. The lock clicked and Michael was greeted with a very sleepy, very pale looking Luke Hemmings.
"Hey Luke, can I come in," Michael gave a second glance to his friend, noticing the black bags under his eyes and the slight shake to his shoulders. Luke blinked up at him.
"Sure thing, what's up?" Luke's voice was rough and scratchy. He moved back into the room and beckoned Mikey back in.
"You sound like shit dude," Michael was a bit surprised to see his friend in such a worn down state. He had seemed fine yesterday, if a bit tired.
"Yeah, I'm not feeling so hot. Don't know what's wrong but anyway, why are you here to wake me up so early? I thought we had the day off? " Luke coughed briefly and moved to sit back down on his bed, pulling the thick duvet up and over his head. His broad shoulders were shaking underneath the covers.
