Chapter 14

"Hey Claire?"

Claire looked up from the bathroom mirror once more, trying to detangle some locks of hair; the rest had gone successfully straight with a slight wave to it.

"What's up Andy?"

"Just wondering, can I get some water from Room Service? If they even have it…do they?"

Oh sorry! I completely forgot, we should've got you guys drinks earlier!"

"It's okay, I was just wondering, it doesn't ma—"

"Yes it does! Hang on…"

The lock clicked and Claire strode out of the room, dressed in new clothes, her hair bouncing on her shoulders. She was already out of the room and knocking on next door when Andy turned in surprise.

"We didn't feed them Julia."

"HEY! We're not from the zoo!"

"No but you act like it," the girls called back simultaneously.

Obviously their hushed whispering was not hushed enough; Pete and Joe came to the door and stood behind the girls indignantly, whilst Andy and Patrick joined Claire's side.

"Thought you said you were tired," Claire asked slyly.

"Thought you were supposed to be keeping us quiet," Pete replied quickly, gesturing the open corridor and high-fiving the others. Julia shrugged.

"I've gotta give him that one, that was quick especially for him."

His smiled widened.

"Well, do you guys wanna eat or no?"

There was a loud chorus of 'hell yeah!' silenced by Claire and Julia's manic, panicked waving hands.

"Well we'll get you one of the finest things Britain has to offer." Julia grinned. "Crappy take-aways!"

They were crammed back into the van again, this time wary of Julia's driving; however it was with relief and panic that Claire took over the wheel. Was she going to be as insane as Julia when driving?

"How do back there?"

The guys mumbled that they were good, and Claire fired up the engine. Julia twisted in her seat and threw a pencil at Pete. She attempted to throw a piece of paper to him too but it drifted sadly to the floor; the girl sighed and struggled up.

"JULIA! Why do you always have to move every time I'm driving?"

"'Cause I'm that good a friend?"

Claire rolled her eyes and drove steadily on whilst Julia dropped onto her knees and passed the paper to Pete once more.

"Can I take your order sirs, and would you like fries with that?"

The guys passed round the paper and wrote down what they wanted to eat before passing it back to the now humming girl. She wrote something herself on the paper and leant back to whisper to Claire. Standing, Julia took one look at the guys and then behind her at the front seat; she grimaced and shrugged, sitting back down. No way was she jumping in the front of a moving vehicle; Claire would murder her.

"Northwood Drive?"

Julia grinned and sucked in a breath.

"NO! No no no, you are not singing that song! You know I crack up every time you sing it and I really don't want to crash, so please shut up before you even say anything!"

Julia's smile faded and she faced the window sulkily; Claire sighed and rolled her eyes as the faint sound of Julia singing came from her huddled, stroppy figure…

"We have to destroy their organisation, I don't care how long it takes and who you terminate, get the job done!"

The Boss sighed and pressed the bridge of nose in frustration; an accomplice gabbled pathetically on the other end of the mobile he was using.

"Take out their Boss first. He's going to be the most difficult. I'm coming back soon, and when I do those girls are going to wish they'd never been born!"

There was a silence between the two before the henchman stuttered again.

"Stop your stupid stammering and get the damn thing over with! Put aside your best men…I don't give a crap if you need them or not, I need them! Well obviously if you lousy men were unable to take out two young girls simply, I'm going to need the best ones to finally finish them off. Do you understand?"

There was another silent pause.

"Get to it."

He stabbed the 'end call' button and glared at the airport in front of him. Grinding his teeth together, he strode forward angrily through the entrance…

"I'm gonna die!"

"You only had a small meal, what's up with you?"

Julia rubbed her stomach in pain.

"I haven't been skating or walking for a while, I can feel the pain of eating too much and exercising very little. Sorry if we can't all take it like you Joe!"

Joe laughed and patted his own stomach.

"I didn't even know you liked Chinese."

"I told you England's good for crappy take-aways."

They grinned at each other.

"Well you two can be fat then," Claire began.

"Will do!"

She gestured toward herself, Andy and Patrick.

"We on the other hand know what's good for us; next time you should get a salad and save yourselves the pain."

She glanced at Pete.

"At least Pete can keep down a pizza no hassle."

He pretended to curl up in pain.

"Could I suppose…" Julia contemplated the offer of healthy eating.

"It's a possibility," Joe agreed folding his arms.

"We'll look into it -"

"Or not."

The two smiled cheekily at the others; Claire rolled her eyes and Patrick raised an eyebrow. Pete grinned and threw a bread roll at Andy jokily. He ducked, picked it up from the floor and threw it back harder. There was a dull thud as Pete whipped to one side and the dented roll collided with the wall; Claire frowned and tried to keep back a smile as Pete, Joe and Julia burst out laughing.

"Y'know," Julia started, holding back her hysterical giggles. "You could play the mother figure of our merry band of mishaps Claire. There's a starring roll of the steady father if you're interested Paddy."

Claire sighed as Patrick pretended to laugh.

"You should be a comedian really," he answered sarcastically.

"Yeah you could be the ventriloquist dummy," she retorted cuttingly. He pursed his lips and folded his arms. Pete chuckled and shot a glance at the small alarm clock placed on the bedside table by Claire. He groaned and rubbed his eyes suddenly tired; Andy looked at the clock too and yawned.

"8:52." Pete stretched. "I'm completely wiped out."

"Totally beat," Patrick mumbled.

"C'mon then munchkins." The girls stood up simultaneously. "Let's get some sleep before we have to leave the burrowing confinements of our beds in the morning."

"What she means is, we'll figure out our next step in the morning and see where we are with the whole mission and stuff," Claire said reassuringly, smiling warmly at all five of them.

Claire departed the room with Andy and Patrick, calling 'good-night' as they left. The remaining three slumped back further where they sat.

"If everyone else is as knackered as me, I say we just drop where we are." Julia looked round expectantly.

"No way dude!" Pete struggled to stand up and made for the sofa; the girls had already made up make-shift beds for the night. "I need a good night's sleep and the couch is calling my name!"

Julia sighed and attempted to stand.

"Fine, have your stupid comfort…" she grumbled.

Snatching up her backpack, she pulled a face at Pete and sauntered into the bathroom.

Claire came back into the main room as Andy darted past her into the bathroom. Patrick glanced up from the bed as she treaded lightly through and smiled bashfully. She wore simple red pyjama bottoms and a loose, colourful t-shirt; a Fall Out Boy tour t-shirt. Looking down at it she shrugged, her face turning a slight lobster colour as Patrick took in her shirt.

"It was the first one I saw back home, so…" she trailed off and moved slowly toward the sofa, avoiding Patrick's eye. There was the click of the bathroom lock behind her and the sudden pounding of running footsteps as Andy came tearing out and launched himself onto the sofa expertly; Claire blinked.

"So you guys can move fast…"

Andy smiled angelically.

"Only when we want to."

Claire rolled her eyes in mock-irritation and reluctantly turned to face the bed; Patrick looked up at the ceiling with fake interest and twiddled his thumbs as Claire wandered timidly to the bed. Taking an inconspicuous deep breath, she casually slid under the duvet next to Patrick and sat bolt upright; the nervous two sat identically, tense and looking anywhere but at each other.

Andy yawned under his thick duvet and chanced a peek at the uncomfortable couple. With difficulty he refrained himself from laughing or calling out 'The Married Couple'. He allowed himself a small giggle before his mouth opened wide in another yawn; he turned on his side suddenly weary and snuggled down on the sofa.

A few minutes passed before Claire heard the steady breathing of Andy obviously fast asleep. She blinked and suddenly the heavy weight of sleep hit her. Slumping slightly, Claire glanced through the strands of her hair hanging over the left half of her face, the only thing separating her and Patrick. Patrick looked over at her at the same time; their faces flushed scarlet in a second. Clearing his throat he nodded.

"Right…so…"

Claire bit her bottom lip.

"Best get some shut-eye. Umm…night. I'll just…just turn off the light."

He stretched to his left, swallowed a lump and flicked the switch to turn the lamp off; the room was plunged into darkness, leaving the sitting couple even more uncomfortable than before.

"G'night," Claire whispered, dropping quickly onto her side facing away from Patrick.

"Night," he replied in a strange whisper as he lay down facing the other way to her back.

'Well this isn't awkward,' he groaned to himself as he felt Claire tense up next to him.