Falling Slowly

Pt.3|Ch.17

Two More Months Later

"Ouch!" Josh whispered as loud as he could, falling to the ground with a loud 'thump'.

"Shh!" I whispered fiercely in response, hauling him to his feet.

He put his hands over a spot on his side, whimpering, "I ran into the counter."

I winced, not wanting to imagine the kind of bruise that was going to result from that. "Just try to get out to the hallway without making any more noise, okay?"

He nodded and gingerly stepped over to the door to the dark hotel room, which was slightly ajar.

"Okay," Ben reappeared at my side, pulling a hoodie on. "Let's go."

"I've never seen that one before." I commented, tugging his sleeve as we carefully closed the door behind us, trying not to wake Sky up.

He gave me a look. "You can't have this one."

I crossed my arms. "Why not?"

"Because you already kidnapped that one," he replied, pulling the hood of the one I was wearing up over my head.

Morgan had beat us to the lobby that morning, scrolling through social media while she waited for Nick to get back from his coffee run.

"Good morning," Morgan chirped sarcastically, waving us over. "How are we doing so far?"

Ben answered first, shaking his head. "Four a.m. is definitely not a favorable wake-up time for me."

I elbowed him in the ribs. "It's for Sky and Aiden."

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "The things we do for friendships."

"Oh, Austyn," Morgan pointed at me as if she'd just remembered something, "I have your dress up in my room, and I'll give it to you when we get back."

I bit my lip. "And you're sure it's okay for me to borrow it?"

She nodded. "Of course! You look so pretty in it, it would be wrong for me not to let you wear it." Smirking, she gestured to Ben. "I'm sure he agrees."

Ben raised his hands in surrender. "Don't drag me into this, all I said was that it was a nice dress."

"I wasn't talking about anything you said," Morgan crossed her arms, sitting back against her chair. "I was talking about how you could hardly take your eyes off of her when she wore it for the 700 shows dinner."

He opened his mouth to defend himself, then closed it and shrugged. "Alright, you've got me there."

Nick arrived a few minutes later with five Starbucks cups and a brown paper bag.

"As specifically requested," he said, setting the bag next to Josh, who had fallen back asleep on the carpeted floor.

Josh's eyes cracked open, but when he saw the bag, he shot up and opened it, pulling out a chocolate scone and taking a bite. "Thank you, Nicholas."

"Mhm," Nick replied, handing out the cups of coffee. "Are we ready?"

"Ready when you are." Morgan answered. "Who's driving?"