A/N: This one's for you Katie, sorry it's a bit late, works a killer :P Hope you like it :)

Chapter 18

Day 6 of Tour: Texas – Hotel – Evening.

The two shows they'd done today and the one yesterday, had gone well, and because they'd done two shows they were exhausted, they'd barely had time for a proper lunch on the journey between the schools. But Esther being Esther made sure they did get fed.
     After finishing the second show this afternoon they had realised something very important, the Britney Medley had to go, Avi struggled to hit his long notes at the beginning of the song and Scott's words started to come too quickly that he was straining halfway through the song and out of breath before his last note which he didn't hit at all this morning. They gave themselves a couple of minutes break between the Britney Medley and Dog Days in the afternoon but by the end they were still shattered. It had to go, but they knew they wouldn't have the proper time to work on something new until their day off on Sunday, it was Wednesday and so they had two more shows that they had to perform the Medley in. They'd live.
     "I'm about to go out and get you guys some dinner, I'm thinking there's a Chinese takeout down the road so I might just walk there. I'll call when I get there and read off the menu, sound good?" Esther asks, standing up from the couch, adjusting the hem of her shirt.
     "Oh, I'll come with you," Kevin offers with a smile.
     "Me too," Mitch sticks his hand up but doesn't look away from his phone.
     "Alright then, might as well go now, early dinner, early night, early start to Mitch's family tomorrow," Esther states, picking up her handbag and tucking her phone in there.
     "Is it bad that I'm sick of traveling already?" Avi asks with a chuckle.
    "It'll be more interesting when we get to the more scenic states, you'll love it," Kirstie tells him with a smile, tucking herself under his arm in their spot on the couch.
     "And we've got plenty of days off to do fun stuff in between," Esther tells them, "It's just very go-go-go at the moment."
     "And at the end," Kevin reminds them, "All those California shows."
     "Nah well, we'll make it fun," Scott smiles.
     "Absolutely," Mitch nods in agreement.
     "I know," Avi says, "It's just the driving, but Texas is huge so it won't be so bad in the other states."
     Esther looks between the five of them before speaking again, "Alright let's get a move on." She opens the sliding door of the unit, it was more of a motel than a hotel this time. Kevin and Mitch get up and follow her out, leaving Kirstie Avi and Scott in the room.
     "We should go for a swim!" Scott says the second the door slides shut behind the other three. "I'm gonna make it my personal mission to go in every pool at all the hotels we stay at."
     "Fun," Avi says sarcastically.
      "I'll come for a swim," Kirstie replies. "Come on Avi, it'll be fun," she nudges her boyfriend.
      Avi glances out the window, it was still light, still sunny, he nods, "Sure," but he didn't sound overly happy. Kirstie and Scott didn't register his tone of voice, Scott was already dragging his bag into the bathroom. Kirstie was quickly off the couch and at her suitcase, on her knees, searching for her swimsuit. The slightly less enthusiastic man takes his time getting up and going to his bag, he's still looking for his board shorts when Scott emerges from the bathroom, ready to go.
     The blonde throws his bag over Avi then goes to walk out the door but stops and dashes back into the bathroom before Kirstie can get in there.
     "Dammit Scott!" she curses with a chuckle and just goes into one of the two bedrooms instead. With the toilet flushing, he re-emerges with a towel, just as Avi walks into the other bedroom.
     "You guys are so slow! We're literally gonna get in and the others will get back!" Scott says.
     "Go on ahead, we'll meet you there," Kirstie replies from in the room.
     "Alright," he says and leaves at the same time.
     As Kirstie is about to do up the tie at the back of her neck of her one-piece she stops, and just holds it there with an idea in her head. "Avi! Can you please help me!" she smirks to herself as he replies.
      "Yeah, just a moment."
      Kirstie had bought a new swimsuit for the this trip, it was three shades of blue, you could call it colour blocked, with the bottom half one shade of blue and the top half split down the middle of her chest with two more shades of blue, there was even a small cut-out which she felt was very brave for her. And it wasn't a moment later that Avi knocked on the door.
Kirstie laughs, "Babe, I said I needed your help and you knock?"
      "I wanted to be sure," Avi says as he enters the room in his board shorts and swim-shirt. "I don't want to get sunburnt," he says quickly as he notices Kirstie eye his choice of swim-wear, like people always did.
      "I didn't say anything," she shrugs, turning away to look in the mirror, "Can you do this up for me?" She knew she could easily do it up herself, but she wanted Avi to do it, it meant he'd be close to her, since she was finding it hard to get him physically close to her and that was exactly what she wanted.
      "I don't really know how to," he says, but steps up behind her anyway, taking the strings she was holding up.
     "Just double knot it, then tie it in a bow then double knot that bow."
     "You seem to know exactly what to do even though you can't tie it yourself," he says as he starts following her instructions.
     "New swimsuit, I want it done tighter since I don't know how it'll hold up in the chlorine," she says nonchalantly, like she had the excuse on the tip of her tongue. But she ended up disappointed because his fingers barely brushed her, it was like he was trying not to touch her at all.
     Avi looks up at her in the mirror when he's finished. "Are you okay?" he asks, concerned.
Her eyes meet his in the glass, she notices his concern and pulls on a smile, "I'm great, let's go for a swim," she turns to him, stretching onto her tiptoes to quickly kiss him on the lips. She then wraps her arms around his waist and leans into his chest, his swim-shirt smelt like chlorine. Her lips form a smile as he wraps his arms around her too, some contact was better than no contact, even though she could get a hug like this from any of the boys on the trips with them. But this one, in her arms now, she wanted more from, Kirstie just didn't know how to get more than just hugs from him.

A/N: I thought this was a pretty meaningless chapter then I reread it through editing and then I had to to go and check my story plan and t's actually better for the story than I thought! It's exactly on plan and I'd almost forgotten to do this (not saying what, but something in the chapter obviously ;)

Hannah :)