Hold On Till May

Hours had passed after they had all went to bed, except all of them were so excited and nervous for the day, that no one could sleep. "Okay," Alex sighed, "is anyone asleep at all?" Throughout the room, he heard four distinct groans and muffled no's. He rubbed his eyes, knowing that he was tired and then sat up in bed. "What should we do?"

"Want to just walk the streets for a while?" Rian suggested, trying to figure out if exercise would make them more tired and ready to sleep or not. It probably wasn't going to make any of them go to bed, but it was worth a fair try.

All of them got up and didn't think about changing their clothes; some in sweat pants, others in basketball shorts, but none of them cared. Before heading out, they grabbed hoodies or coats and then stumbled towards the door. Quickly, Jack grabbed the two bottles of Jager from before, thinking that they might have a good time walking around Manhattan at three a.m., but they'd have a better time if alcohol was involved.

Walking out of the hotel and onto the street, none of them made a sound until they reached Times Square where they were in awe of the bright lights in the city. You couldn't even see the stars through all of the lights there. "I came here to see the Backstreet Boys once," Aurora admitted with a snicker. That was when TRL was actually big and crowds filled all of Times Square in order to see the boy band of their liking.

Jack shook his head. "That's terrible."

All of them knew that deep down, even Jack liked the Backstreet Boys. They were on his computer secretly and had at least one of their albums.

"Admit that you like them, Jack. No one's judging you." Alex told him. "Well, okay, maybe we'll judge a little, but you can just come out with it. Like, I can honestly say that they're not that bad." Alex took a sip from the bottle in secret, knowing that it probably wasn't the best idea for a minor to whip out a bottle of Jagermeister in such a public place. To pass it, the friends would have to stand really close together in order to get it near the other persons pockets.

"Fine, I fucking like a few of their songs!" Jack finally screamed out.

"Are you jealous that I got to see them on TRL?" Aurora asked him in a serious tone.

"No, you probably were in a huge crowd freezing your ass off."

Alex started to laugh. "That's not true." He looked down at Aurora who was remembering that day when she was actually in the small studio, close enough to touch one of her favorite bands. To this day, Aurora still had a special place in her heart for them, and even *NSYNC, but she couldn't admit that back then.

As the hour dragged out, the five friends were drunk and laughing hysterically over absolutely nothing. Aurora used Zack as her human crutch like she always did when she was tipsy. Though it filled Alex was envy, he knew that next to him, she was closest with Zack.

"Wouldn't it suck if we were robots and every day after a shower you had to tighten your bolts?" Jack asked through his laugh, making everyone else roll their eyes but laughing along with him because his questions were just so stupid.

"Why would we be robots?" Alex questioned him.

"It's just a question, dammit!" Jack yelled while throwing his head back and jumping up and down on the street they were on. Oddly enough, the streets were barely filled with people. Actually, they had no idea where they were, but they knew they were close to the hotel.

"Thames Street?" Zack asked with his eyes squinted looking at the sign. "Weird, don't we have a Broadway and Thames Street that are connected?"

"Why do you know that?" Rian asked, surprised with his basic knowledge. No one ever paid attention to street names unless they lived there. All people knew were directions of how to get somewhere.

"Whatever." He scoffed. Aurora tapped stopped and tapped on his shoulders. When looking down at her, he saw that she was frowning. "C'mon," he said with a sigh and bent down, "get on." It was often that Aurora would ask for a piggy back ride during their long walks while inebriated. She claimed that her feet hurt far too often, but it didn't bother Zack, he was always there to help her out.

"Thank you, mister." Aurora leaned forward and hugged him around his neck and chest, finally resting her head on his shoulder.

Alex smiled up at her on Zack's back. "Pass me the bottle, honey." She took the bottle out of her hoodie and handed it to Alex as they continued walking. Finally, there was some darkness around them, allowing them to drink in the open.

Jack finally yawned as they stood in the small alley on the path to the hotel. His yawn triggered the rest of them. They realized that they were actually tired now, which was good for them since it was nearly five in the morning. With a silent gesture from Rian, they all walked back to their weekend home.

On the way back, Aurora fell asleep on Zack's back. "She feels like she weighs a ton more than she actually does." Zack complained. "Like her body is completely weighed down with sandbags."

The rest of them laughed while the skinny boy felt like he wasn't able to carry the girl around by himself anymore. Aurora was fairly skinny, just over a hundred and ten pounds, but right now, her body was completely limp.

Once back into their room, Alex tried waking up Aurora while she was still on Zack's back. "Hey," Alex said softly, "we're back to the hotel." She barely opened her eyes, not even realizing where they were or who was talking to her. "Let's go to bed." Zack realized her slowly, making sure her feet would touch the ground so she didn't drop flat on her butt.

Jack had already curled up with his blankets on the couch and Rian was just about to pass out on the chair. Zack and Alex walked her over to the bed, noticing that they were stumbling on their way over. It's possible that they drank more than they should have after seeing in tunnel vision now that they were back in the hotel. Zack couldn't even make it over to the other couch after he sat Aurora down on the bed, so he laid down next to her and Alex laid on her other side. It wasn't odd for them to sleep in the same bed, they knew that once they started touring more that it was going to become a frequent thing.

Alex cuddled his body closer to Aurora's and could tell that she didn't mind it. "Goodnight," she whispered to all of the boys. The ones that weren't already passed out told her goodnight back.

It was already the beginning of what was going to be a good, long weekend.