slowly drifting ★ circa waves

IX.

when emma and joe returned from the roof (dragging the mattress) to the group, there was a lot of fighting. to avoid the whole ordeal, kieran quietly left the room, pulling eleanor out with him- knowing how much worse it would get if she stayed. in the kitchen, eleanor put a bagel in the toaster and kieran started making hot chocolate.

"to be honest, i didn't think they'd be that mad," he admitted, swirling the chocolate powder into the hot milk in one of the mugs. eleanor shrugged in response, getting a plate out of the cupboard.

"i kind of knew how emma would react, but i thought joe would be chill."

kieran let out a chuckle, moving onto the next cup. "for me it was the opposite. didn't sam tell you that the whole 'bad boy' thing is an act?"

she slowly nodded, sitting down to eat her bagel. kieran handed her a mug of hot chocolate and she downed it seconds, while he was still taking wary sips waiting for it to cool down.

the kitchen was fairly large- considering it was a hotel room. lucky for the band, the hotel had heard of their music and they got the biggest room for 40% off. even if it was the largest, the kitchen wasn't distant enough from the living room, and yells were still audible through the walls.

kieran remains standing/leaning against the kitchen counter, soon taking small sips of his drink.

after a minute or two, sam walks in. "well, that was enjoyable," he says, rubbing his eyes tiredly. all three could still hear the argument from the other room.

"wait," eleanor begins, then turning on sam. "did you leave colin in there by himself?"

his eyes widen in realisation before all of them sprint in the direction of the noise. eleanor runs to colin's side, and he looks terrified- almost as if he's about to cry. colin doesn't handle conflict very well. emma was rambling about human rights and joe threw in the occasional 'yeah' and 'get rekt !!' where it was necessary. this went on for ten minutes, and eleanor was getting impatient, though she wasn't the only one.

"i'm hungry. who can cook?" they all turn to eleanor, who shrugs and waits for an answer. sam raises his hand.

eleanor dragged sam into the kitchen by his elbow, signalling for the other boys to step in. the two remaining boys look at each other expectantly. eventually kieran sighs and speaks up.

"look, emma—" he pointedly looks at emma. "joe—" he pointedly looks at joe. "you're my friends. mates. pals. buddies, even—" joe snorts. "but i love ya. what else is there to say?"

colin looks nervously at emma. "um... i think there could be one more thing. i think we should say sorry. sorry," he apologises. emma nods in triumph, and joe laughs at the situation.

"got youuuuu," he yells. kieran and colin stand motionless, confused. "we pranked you," he finishes, crossing his arms and putting on a smug face.

colin glances anxiously towards emma again, as if waiting for her to implode. kieran just stands stands stupidly with his mouth slightly open.

"what you say?" he mutters almost incoherently. colin lets out a hearty laugh at his friend before shutting up quickly.

"uh, we were trying to get back at you guys by being really 'mad' at you," emma tries to clarify. colin and kieran laugh wearily at their friends, unsure of what to do and how to react.

"hey, does it smell like burning potatoes to anyone? or is that just me?"

before any of them can speak, a scream is heard from the kitchen.

eyes widening, they rush to the next room along, to find a hectic sam and an awkward eleanor coughing amidst heavy black smoke.

colin rushes to her side, turning off the oven she was standing next to; it was the source of the smoke. through violent coughs, joe asks sam what the hell happened.

"what the hell happened?"

"uh, potatoes?"

"what? you put potatoes in the oven? what were you trying to do?"

"i don't know! but you should know that i can't cook! i just wanted to get out of that situation!"

joe runs to help colin sort out the fire, and sam follows emma out of the blackened room. colin tries to get eleanor out, but she's still hungry and won't move.

"you need to get out! it's not safe, eleanor."

"no shit sherlock. i came in here for food and i'm not leaving without it!"

eventually, he has to carry her out of the room, to which she reluctantly obeys after a bit of struggling.

joe appears a few minutes later, with a smug grin on his face and claiming to have fixed the problem. they all hesitantly follow him back into the kitchen, the smoke now subsided.

instead, water covers the floor, almost definitely heading to flood the rest of the hotel room. emma punches joe in the shoulder.

"you blimmin' idiot," she mumbles. the rest share a frustrated sigh. sam puts his head in his hands, tired after the commotion. a few of them jump to sit on the counter rather than stand on the soaking floor.

eleanor almost collapsed in fatigue, mumbling something about food withdrawal, but colin caught her in a hug. kieran was trying to swim in all of the water on the floor, pretending a shark was after him. joe stood there sheepishly with emma glaring at him.

suddenly, kieran's head perks up, causing all of them to look his way.

"did you hear that?"

-

hey i'm back with a cliffhanger bitches¡!