“I don’t remember it being this difficult when I was a kid.” I grumble under my breath, my brows pinched together as I sit up on my knees to get a better hold on the pumpkin.

I glance over, then do a double take when I see how far you’ve gotten.

Much farther than me.

“Hey!” I frown. “What the hell? How are you so good at this?”

To be fair, you’ve always been much craftier than me. Or any of us, for that matter. When we’re on the bus for over 7 hours at a time between cities on tour, you spend at least half of the trip off in your own corner doing one of your many activities. It’s like you have a new one every week.

Crocheting, for example.

I still have the beanie you made me last winter.

Then there was beaded bracelets. Then some sort of bracelets you made with rubber bands. Or the duct tape stuff you saw on pinterest.

Oh, can’t forget the time you wanted to paint stuff on your jeans. But the paint kinda made the bus smell weird, so that one didn’t last long.

Lately, you’ve been begging for someone on our team to get pumpkins so you could carve one, with the Fall season officially starting and Halloween rapidly approaching. Then, today when we arrived in Auckland for our show tonight at Vector Arena, there were two pumpkins waiting with all the proper carving equipment.

I’m still not sure how I got dragged into doing this, but I don’t really mind.

I would honestly argue that, besides Niall, you're the one I’m closest with in the band. Obviously, we’re all great friends, but we also have our pairs within the group that we break off with when we have some free time.

Which is rare.

I mean, even now, we’re carving these damn pumpkins backstage before the show in a few hours.

“You two,” Harvey, one of our crew members, says as he peeks into the room. “Soundcheck in one hour. Don’t be late because of pumpkins.”

I huff and wave him off, mumbling under my breath as he walks out.

“Can’t get a damn break.”