The wind whistled against the windows, shrieking in the silence of the hotel room. Over on the bed, Michael shivered, despite the warmth of room. He was frustrated that he had woken up at 3am, his body shaking but sweltering hot at the same time. Reaching over to the side table, he picked up the half-full water bottle and took a long sip, coughing slightly afterwards. His coughing and shifting woke up Calum, who had taken up residence on the floor beside Michael.
"You ok there Mike?" Calum sat up, rubbing his tired eyes.
"Yeah, just thirsty, sorry for waking you up," Michael replied, pulling the covers away from Luke, who was passed out next to him on the bed. Calum picked up the thermometer on the bedside table and sat down on the edge of the bed, trying not to wake Luke or Ashton, who was sleeping in the armchair beside Luke, snoring lightly.
"Feeling any better? You were out like a light right after dinner," Calum gently nudged the thermometer towards Michael's mouth. Michael obliged and opened his mouth, allowing Calum to shove the thermometer under his tongue.
"Still feel shitty but my head and throat hurt less," Michael mumbled through the plastic stick, waiting for the shrill beep. "Is it still snowing?"
Calum got up and walked over to the windows, pulling the curtains back a tad to peep through.
"Yeah, it's still coming down hard. I bet our show tomorrow is going to be delayed," Calum said, pushing the curtains back in place. Just as he shut them, the thermometer beeped. Michael pushed himself up against the pillows, and squinted at the numbers in the dark.
"What's it say Mike?" Cal asked, grabbing more pills from the side table to give to Michael.
"100.6," Mike replied, accepting two red pills from Cal, chasing them down with a large gulp of water. He was relieved that his fever was lower than before, his head still felt stuffy and body ached, but he wasn't wishing for immediate death like he had been earlier in the evening.
"Much better than yesterday! I think if you just take it easy and rest for a day or two, you'll be ok," Cal smoothed some of Mike's sweaty hair back. Michael hummed in response. "Go back to sleep Mike, I'll wake you up if we hear anything from management." Cal watched as Michael's heavy lids blinked a few times before sliding shut.
After making sure Mike was back to sleep, he walked back over to his makeshift bed and checked his phone, the bright screen shining harshly in the darkness. He had a text from their manager letting them know they were aware of the storm and that the venue had cancelled all shows for the next two days due to a downed power line that wasn't able to be fixed until the blizzard passed through.
Calum closed out of his messaged, sighed and walked over to Ash, shaking him awake.
"Hey, Ash, wake up for a sec bud," Calum whispered to his friend. Ashton groaned, blinking awake.
"What? Is something wrong?" Ash's voice was scratchy with sleep. He glanced over at his friends asleep on the bed nervously.
"Nah, just management texted us we don't have to go anywhere for two days and our show was cancelled, something about power lines," Calum said, watching Ash sit up abruptly.
"Really, that's great! That should let Mikey and Luke rest up a bit. Have either of them woken you up during the night?" Ashton looked over where the boys were sleeping, both looking sickly pale.
"Yeah, Mike woke up about 5 minutes ago. His fever is lower and he said he felt a bit better. Have you checked on Luke? He was pretty bad last night." Calum reached out to Ash, pulling him into a standing position.
"No, he fell asleep about an hour after you and hasn't moved since. I'm worried if his temperature isn't any lower, we're going to have to call the front desk and ask them what to do. He was so out of it last night," Ashton frowned slightly, walking over to Luke's side of the bed. He shook his friends shoulder gently. "Luke, buddy, wake up. We got to check your temp."
