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“Macie, we’re on our way, with about two hours left.”“Hope so, cause soundcheck starts in three hours.” Celeste sighed, looking out the window ahead of her. The snowflakes were flying down from the skies, growing thicker and thicker in the past hour, with the windshield wipers going almost at top speed.“We’re trying with the best we’ve got Macie,” she grumbled into her phone.“Well try a little harder. Jacob is on my ass if they don’t get here on time.” Celeste frowned. Jacob, the tour coordinator, was on both Celeste and Macie’s asses about everything, from how the boys would not arrive on time (Celeste’s “fault”) or how the venue wouldn’t be available to the crew until the day before or the day of the show (Macie’s “fault”). Much to say that Celeste and Macie shared hatred (even initially bonded over it) for Jacob throughout the entire tour.“We’ll get there when we get there, and work from there. Plus, the boys don’t technically need to be there for the soundcheck.”“Babes, you forgot that we sell tickets for soundcheck privileges.” Oh. Right.“Dammit,” Celeste groaned, “traffic does not look good with the snow accumulating on the highway.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with Jackass when the time comes. Safe travels.”
“Thanks, Macie. See you soon.” Celeste clicked the phone call off, placing her phone next to the clipboard with the seemingly unending lists of things to do. She glanced out the window, bracing herself at the door frame before walking closer to the front of the bus.“Hey Danny, how we doing?”“Well Ms. Morgan, it looks like we may be behind schedule with the way the snow keeps coming down.” He didn’t even bat an eye when Celeste sat next to him, as he continued driving, bobbing his head slightly to the music playing in the front. She sighed deeply, rubbing her temples.“Well, I guess we’ll get there when we get there?” She stood up, wanting to update the boys in the back.“Yes ma’am, when we’ll get there.”“Thanks, Danny.” He nodded, while Celeste walked away.She heard a couple shouts followed by laughter, the closer she got to the end of the tour bus. Once she opened the door, all four boys froze where they were: Michael sat on the couch with his head nearly squashed by Luke’s arm; Calum flopped on top of Luke, their faces inches apart; Ashton was balanced standing on the arm of the couch, leaning forward with his arms spread out wide, about to belly flop onto the other three band members. Celeste rolled her eyes, then walked up to Ash, pulling him back down to the floor, shoving Luke off of Michael and sitting in between them, and then pushed Calum off of Luke to the point of him careening to the floor.“Ow,” Calum yelped.“You are all acting like children,” she said, whilst unlocking her phone to pull up the ever-updating schedule.“So if we’re the children, then you’re our mom!” Luke grinned, perching his chin on her shoulder.“And if you’re our mom, Ash’s our dad!” Calum said, laying on hers and Luke’s laps. She caught the eye of Ashton, who was sitting on top of the makeshift coffee table in front of them.“What do you say, wifey?” he said with a smirk plastered on his face.“I say that there’s a change in schedule, and we’re gonna get to the venue late with the rate that the snow is falling.”“Oooh, it’s snowing?” Then the curtains in the back, flew open, followed by the oohs and ahhs of the white fluff falling down, slowly piling up on the road.“So,” she continued, pulling two boys back into their seats, “with the snow and pending traffic, we’ll be late, if not completely miss soundcheck.”“What do you mean miss soundcheck? We can’t do that-”“If we’re lucky, we’ll arrive at the venue two hours before the show starts, maybe even an hour,” Celeste said, cutting off Luke, “which barely give you guys enough time to change and warm up before the openers start.” The four boys looked at her, their expressions turning solemn.“Are we doing anything in exchange for the fans that bought soundcheck tickets?” Calum said, shifting his head in her lap. Celeste nodded, checking her phone to see if Macie got back to her with any updates.“That is what we and management are planning if traffic does get so bad. But, I’m hoping that will just be the worst case scenario.”“Well then, if we’re gonna be stuck on this bus for at least three more hours, are we up for a Mario Kart tournament?” Michael said, handing two controls towards Luke and Celeste.“As much as I would love to kick your asses, I have more work to do,” Celeste said, handing Calum the control.“C’mon mom, is there really anything that you can do on the bus?” Luke said, raising his brows. She chewed her lip, debating for a few seconds.“I guess not, other than Jacob’s work, which should technically be done by him,” she trailed.“Yeah, let the asshole do his own work,” Ashton muttered, picking up a controller from the table. Celeste raised her eyebrows.“You know?” was all she said, which then Ashton turned around, facing her with a small smile.“We’ve all witnessed Jacob treat you and Macie like shit,” Calum confessed.“Jacob Andrews is bloody brilliant in his work, but also a fucking prick.” Ashton nodded.“Well I’m glad to be only dealing with his bullshit for you guys,” Celeste finally said after moments of silence. “Now, I’m gonna kick your asses on the track.”“Did the bus just stop?”Celeste blinked, squinting to see the time.“What time is it,” she croaked. Her legs were tangled with someone’s and someone else’s blonde curly hair was tickling her cheeks (she wasn’t so sure if it was Luke or Ashton). After their Mario Kart tournament (Celeste got second while Ashton got first, to her disappointment), taking a little over an hour, they all fell asleep, one by one, all curled up in the back of the bus on the couch that they all managed to squeeze onto.“Around 5 o'clock, I think,” the blonde curls said in front of her (Celeste is pretty sure that’s Ashton).“How long did we sleep?” Luke grumbled, shifting his legs to sit up, which also prompted her legs to the ground. The next thing she knew was that she was falling, and Ashton was going down with her.“Oof!”“Ow!”There were thudding steps coming to the door.“The bus stopped.”Celeste blinked, her eyes coming into focus, realizing that she was on top of someone (Ashton) and that their faces were millimeters apart.“What do you mean the bus stopped?”Ashton looked at her, his eyes drinking her face in, and Celeste only now realized that he had flecks of green in his hazel-y brown eyes.“Hi,” he whispered, whilst the boys around them continued to talk.“If we don’t move, can we just pretend that we’ve fallen asleep until they leave?” she whispered back while closing her eyes and snuggling closer to him.“Shh, I think they fell asleep,” she heard Mikey said.“Let’s go out, I’ve never stepped in this much snow before.” Celeste heard some more shuffling and whispering before the door clicked shut behind them.“Are they gone?” she whispered to Ashton, right up to his ear. He snored softly, his breaths tickling her neck.“Are you fucking kidding me, you actually fell asleep?” she said, turning her head to face him. Then she heard his giggle.“Had to play the part wifey.” She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t force the smile on her face to go away. They both stood up; Celeste picked up her phone to see if she had any text updates from Macie or hell Jacob. But alas, none, which may be contributed to the no signal that she was receiving.“Where are you going?” Ashton had been walking towards the front of the bus, sliding on a beanie and a jacket from near his bunk.“The bus stopped. Better take the chance to see the snow,” he said, grinning. Celeste didn’t answer him, but she did grab her coat and bobble hat, following him out the bus.Once Celeste reached outside, it felt like a whole new world. They were out in the countryside, the ground stretching for miles and miles, all covered in white powdery snow. The sun graciously peeked out from the clouds, and there was a light breeze to bring more snowflakes down.“Wow,” she breathed.“It truly is something.” She glanced at Ashton, looking at the winter wonderland ahead of them with the same awe that she had (and still has) moments ago.“Why did we stop?” she turned to see Danny hop out of the bus, shutting the door behind them.“Traffic was backed up on the highway for another couple hours, putting us to arrive at the venue by 8 or so,” he replied. Celeste frowned, but nodded for him to continue.“So I made the executive decision to take the country back roads for a shortcut, which was going rather well for the past hour until we ran out of gas. And the brakes seem to be freezing up a little. It was safest to stop.”“Did you call management to let them know? And we need to call a tow truck or something the way-”“Don’t worry about it Celeste, I got it covered. You just relax with the boys in this weather for once,” he said, with a knowing look.“Are you sure Danny, cause I should technically be doing that since it’s in my job description an-”“Celeste,” Ashton said, holding her shoulders with his hazel eyes staring into hers, “calm down. Danny’s got it.” She sighed, but nodded while watching Danny walk to the front of the bus, making some phone calls.“Plus, you need the break. You’ve been running yourself ragged since the tour started.” She focused back on Ashton, who was now walking further into the snow, ignoring that the white powder was coating his dark jeans the further he walked.“Fine,” she huffed.“Yay! Now let’s make snow angels!” The three other boys were ahead of them, flopped in the snow in the empty pasture tens of feet ahead of them.“Are you nine?” Celeste said, staring at him.“Maybe so, but c’mon!” And so she did, letting Ashton pull her along to the other boys and wiggle in the snow to make extremely tall snow angels.And she secretly loved it.