With Every Strike Of Lightning.

We walked onto the bus and smiled. Instead of sharing a bus with Honor Society because the bus wasn’t big enough, it was a girl’s only bus for the majority of the time. The boys from Honor Society only coming on when we were stopping for a little while.

“Claire, Jordan, we’re going on tour!” I yelled running through the bus.

“I know!” Jordan yelled running behind me, all of us having too much caffeine this morning.

“Top bunks mine.” I yelled throwing my bag onto my bunk.

“I get the one opposite Lauren because we’re tall.” Jordan laughing, throwing her things onto the bunk opposite mine.

“Shut up Jordan. Im not short, im fun sized.” Claire pouted, sitting on her bunk.

“Jordan’s allowed to be mean. It’s her birthday.” I reminded Claire.

“I know. We have cake later on.” Claire blurted.

“You weren’t supposed to tell her.” I laughed.

“I didn’t hear.” Jordan smiled.

Before long, the bus door was flung open and a high pitched squeal ran through to the bunk area.

“Back here.” Jordan yelled while I laughed.

“Oh my god, I cant believe im coming on tour with you all again.” Mel squealed upon seeing us.

“Yeah its nice to see you too Mel.” I laughed, jumping out of my bunk.

“Sorry. Happy birthday Jordan.” She laughed.

“Thank you.” Jordan smiled, taking the card that Mel had extended.

“Don’t worry. You’re opposite Claire, im going to see if the boys are on their bus yet. I wanna find out if I can challenge any of them at Mario Karts.” I laughed.

“Jordan’s coming.” Jordan yelled jumping off of her bunk.

“What about you two?” I quizzed.

“Nah, im gunna stay here and sort out some music.” Claire grinned.

“Ok, see you in a little while.” I smiled before walking out through to the living area where Jordan had already ran through too.

Before we could even walk to the door, it was knocked. Swinging it open, I grinned at Andrew.

“We’ve come to ambush your bus.” He smiled before the others all ran on behind him.

“Claire, we’ve goy guests!” Jordan yelled.

Moments later Claire came running through from the bunk area, Mel following close behind.

“Hey tour buddy.” Alexander yelled.

“Alex, sit down.” Michael laughed, pulling him onto the sofa.

“Hey.” Claire grinned hugging Andrew.

“Guys, this is Mel, our merchandise girl.” Jordan smiled.

“Hi, im Michael and this is, Andrew, Alexander, call him Alex, and Jason.” Michael introduced everyone.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Mel said, her voice getting higher and higher.

“Right, I think we need to get to know each other.” I said, sitting down on the floor.

“Yeah.” Jordan agreed, sitting on the sofa.

“Ok then.” Jason smiled.

Soon enough we were telling each other everything we would need to know. Claire, Jordan, Mel and I told the boys our pet hates while they told us theirs, we told them what made us hyper while they told us there’s.

“Well, we need to get to our bus before we set off.” Jason informed us after a few hours.

“Ok.” I smiled, jumping up to walk with them to the door.

“Thanks for letting us annoy for you’re a while. Oh and happy birthday Jordan” Michael smiled as he left the bus.

“Thank you.” Jordan yelled for what seemed the millionth time today.

“That’s ok. We’ll see you in a few hours.” I smiled as he walked over to his bus.

Closing the door, I walked back to the living area just as my phone started ringing in my pocket. Sitting down, I pulled my phone out and answered.

“Hello?”

“Lauren, hey.” Alex’s familiar voice said.

“Hey.” I smiled, blushing.

“Laurens talking to Alex.” Jordan giggled while Claire put her hand over her mouth so I could hear Alex.

I mouthed thanks before leaving the room. Pulling myself into my bunk, I started talking again.

“Sorry, Jordan’s a little hyper.” I laughed.

“That’s ok. Tell her I said happy birthday again please? So how’s it going so far?”

“It’s been ok. Honor Society came over for a bit and we’re just setting off to the first venue now. And of course I will.”

“Thank you. You don’t have a show until tomorrow though.”

“Yeah but we’re just going to have a look around.”

“Oh right. I miss you already. Jonathan misses Claire too. He’s been moping around since we left you.” Alex laughed.

“Aw, poor Jonathan. Get him to ring Claire. She won’t mind. She’s just sitting there.” I laughed.

“Ok. Ill tell him in a minute.”

“Alright.”

“So, we just got the tickets to your show in Paris.”

“You have to be joking me right? You’re going all the way to Paris to see us?”

“Nope not joking. We are going to Paris.”

“You’re mad.”

“Nope, not mad, just crazy for you. Ha, look, ive gotta go. Ill speak to you tomorrow though. Bye. I love you.”

“Cheesy sod. Ok, ill speak to you tomorrow. I love you too, bye.” And with that, Alex hung up.

I left my phone in my bunk and went out to the living area where the others were still sat. Sitting down, I crossed my legs under me.

“Alex and Jonathan are coming to the show in Paris.”

“What?” Claire asked in shock.

“Yup. Oh and Jonathan misses you and is probably going to ring you in a bit. Alex just told me.” I laughed.

Before Claire could reply, her phone rang, signalling Jonathan’s phone call. Claire skipped off into the bunk area while Jordan, Mel and I started a conversation.

“So you’re still with Nick, Claire's now with Jonathan Cook and you’re with Alex Gaskarth.” Mel asked confused.

“That’s it.” I smiled, hugging my knees.

“So what happened with you and Kevin and Claire and Joe?”

“Long story short, we changed and Kevin cheats.” I laughed, hoping up from the sofa to grab a drink from the kitchen.

As I walked away from the living area I heard Jordan tell Mel not to mention it again which I was thankful for. I didn’t want to keep remembering what happened. As I sat back down again, I opened the can of Dr Pepper I had while chucking a can of red bull at Jordan and Mel, leaving a can on the table for Claire.

“Movie time?”

“Yeah ok then.” Mel grinned.

“Ill grab a DVD from my bag a minute.” I said, skipping into the bunk area.

Claire was led on her bunk, looking at the top of it as she spoke to Jonathan. I didn’t know what she was talking about, all I know is she looked happy and I mean really happy.

“Claire, im putting on The Holiday.” I mouthed to her, getting a nod of the head back.

I grabbed the DVD before going back to the living room. Mel had taken a seat where I was sat before. Sighing, I grabbed a bean bag from the corner and sat on the floor, just in front of the TV while I put the DVD in.

Moving back slightly, I pressed play on the remote. Soon enough, the opening credits were playing, signally everyone to be quite. Smiling, I leant back into the bean bag and watched the film. Claire came from the bunk area not long after the film had started, taking a bean bag and sitting next to me on the floor.

Half way through the film, I pressed pause while Claire ran into the kitchen area and grabbed the cake we had brought for Jordan, the candles and a box of matches. She came back out carrying the cake. Jordan smiled.

We sang happy birthday as loud as we could be Jordan blew out the candles. After having a piece of cake each, we turned the DVD back on and settled back down to watch the remaining half.

As the film ended, I looked over at Claire. She was almost a sleep. Looking behind me, Jordan grinned, sitting up straight, wide awake while Mel mumbled slightly as her eyes closed.

“You sort Mel, ill sort Claire.” I laughed, nudging Claire gently.

“What?” She mumbled.

“Move your butt. You’re falling asleep on the floor.”

“So, it’s comfy.” Claire sighed, rolling over.

“Claire, please don’t make me ruin the carpets by chucking something over you already” I laughed.

“Fine, im moving.” She grumbled, moving from the floor.

“Can you find your way back there or are you just going to end up getting lost.” I laughed, remembering how Claire had managed to end up in my room not long after we moved into the apartment.

“I can find it.” Claire smiled before hugging me and going to her bunk.

Mel followed behind not long after.

“Right, what are we going to do now then?” I asked Jordan as I sat next to her on the sofa.

“Play on the wii.” She laughed, getting up to put it on.

Before long we were playing Mario Karts. Jordan won 3 times while I won once. After that, I was bored and tired so I went to bed. An hour after Claire and Mel though. Jordan followed after me about half an hour after I had gotten into my bunk, obviously bored of being in the living area on her own.

I fell asleep to the movement of the bus for the first time in a long time that night and felt completely fine with it.