I Need You || a.i. (EDITING) [On Hold]

Chapter 5

When we got to Luke's house, Michael parked out front by two other cars, one of which was Ashton's. They had already gotten out and were standing next to a girl with black hair. Michael and I walked up and I tried my best to act cool. Was she Ashton's girlfriend?


"Took you guys long enough!" Calum complained.

"Nah ah! We were right behind you! We just got stuck at that one stupid light!" Michael laughed awkwardly.

I got a better look at the girl, who Luke had his arm around. Okay, so she wasn't Ashton's girlfriend. She was Asian, for one. Luke leaned over and kissed the side of her head after laughing at something she'd said.


"Lauren, this is Luke's girlfriend, Jessica," Michael pointed out.


She smiled and held her hand out to me,


"Nice to meet you, Lauren."


"Same," I replied.


"Where's Kate?" Michael asked Ashton.


He just shrugged his shoulders and headed for the front door. Michael rolled his eyes and we all made our way to Luke's front door. Once inside, I followed everyone to the back of the house where Luke's room was. It wasn't very large, but across the hall was a larger room with some recording equipment and sofas.


Opening up a closet, Michael, Calum, and Luke grabbed their guitars and bass. Ashton pulled a cajon from the corner of the room and sat on top.


"Want to run 'Heartbreak Girl' for Lauren?" Luke asked.


"I think that's a good one," Jessica smiled at him. Luke blushed and turned to his guitar to get it all set up.


"You guys ready?" Luke asked. He looked up and everyone gave him a nod. Ashton looked up at me, but when he saw me look back, he turned back to his drum, playing close attention to it.


"You call me up... It's like a broken record, saying that your heart hurts..."


I liked their lyrics and the sound was good too. It wasn't too pop, but it had a good beat.


At the end, Jessica and I clapped for them. They all smiled, well, except for Ashton. The door pushed open behind me, and I turned around to see a red-headed girl walk in. She glanced around the room and smiled at Ashton before looking directly at me.


"Do I know you?" She asked, almost in disgust.


"No, I just moved here, well, sort of..." I felt stupid stumbling over my words.


"-Kate, this is Michael's step-sister, Lauren. She just moved here from America for her summer," Calum said.


"Oh." She didn't say anything else, but instead walked straight past Jessica and I to Ashton. Leaning over, she pulled his face into her hands and kissed him. He didn't hold her back, making it kind of awkward. He reached for his hips and you could practically see her shoving her tongue down his throat. I remembered what Michael had told me in the car... Everyone else seemed really umcomfortable.


When she pulled away from him, she turned and gave me a smirk. I glanced at Ashton, who looked annoyed actually. He saw me and turned away again.


"Nice to meet you, Lauren. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other."


She tried to sit down on Ashton's lap, but he pushed her off.


"What the hell is your problem?" She whined.


"I'm can't fucking play when you're sitting on my instrument!"


"Babe-"


"Don't."


She tried to brush it off with a smile, and leaned it to kiss him, but he avoided it and her lips ended up pressed to his cheek. We all just watched this unfold before us. Ashton glanced in my direction and I could see something in his eyes... I couldn't give it a word, but there were just so many different emotions going on.


"Want to do 'Beside You' next?" Luke asked excitedly trying to break the awkwardness in the room. I knew he really wanted to show me all of their music.


"Good choice, mate," Michael said as he adjusted his guitar for the new song.


They all got ready and I looked up to see Kate sitting with her legs crossed on a chair behind Ashton, glaring bitterly at me.





Jessica and I walked to the kitchen to grab a few water bottles for the boys and ourselves. I couldn't help but laugh at some of Luke's baby pictures plastered on the walls.


"That's one of my favorites," Jessica smiled, pointing to one by the stairs. He was sitting in the bath with his hair spiked up into a mohawk and a bubble beard.


"How long have you and Luke been dating?" I asked as we walked into the kitchen.


She pulled out a few water bottles and shrugged. "Five months in like a week. We've been friends for a really long time though. One of those relationships, you know?"


I nodded and smiled. I'd almost had one of "those relationships" before I came here, but long-distance wasn't really my thing. Footsteps behind me caused me to turn around. Ashton walked in and looked up at me.


"Hi."


"I'm going to take these to the rest of the boys! See you guys back in the room." I smiled as Jessica walked out of the room, handing one to Ashton on her way out.


When she was out of view, I grabbed another water bottle and tried to walk past Ashton. He caught my arm and pulled me back.


"Hold on there, don't be like this," he cooed.


I rolled me eyes and screwed the lid back onto the bottle.


"You should have told me that you had a girlfriend..." I spat at him, trying to keep my voice down as I glanced around.


"You shouldn't have assumed I was single," he snapped back.


Annoyed, I tried to keep walking but he stopped me again.


"Wait, I'm sorry... You're really cool and all, but I just don't know why you assumed I had a thing for you? I saw the way you reacted this morning when Calum talked about Kate, and how you looked at her when she walked in..."


I laughed and tugged my arm away from him.


"You're ridiculous. I never had a thing for you, and I never assumed you had a thing for me! We just met yesterday!"


I walked back in the direction of the room.


"So you aren't interested in me at all?" He asked, a hint of humor in his words. Rolling my eyes, I turned back toward him.


"No, I don't even know you."


Turning back around, my stomach dropped. Kate stood in front of me with her arms crossed.


"Excuse me," she demanded as she pushed past me.


I watched her walk past me to Ashton. He grabbed her waist and pulled her in for a kiss. She was paying attention to him, but his eyes opened and made eye contact with me as they kissed, a smirk prominent on his lips. Trying to ignore them, I walked back to Luke's room and sat back by Jessica.


"I think they're going to do 'Try Hard' next! It's so good! You'll love it."


Forcing a smile, I tried not to think of Kate's annoying red hair and Ashton's long fingers digging into her waist...


Everyone started getting impatient for Ashton and Kate to return from the kitchen. Eventually, they came back. Ashton sat at his drum and didn't protest when Kate wanted to sit with him this time, though it wasnearly impossible for him to play.

The entire time he avoided looking at me.




After several more songs, they put up their instruments.


"So yeah! That's basically it. We're working on a few more songs right now," Calum said, obviously giddy with excitement.


"It's hard to make time to practice when three of us are still in school," Michael said rolling his eyes.


I had never even questioned whether any of them were still in school.


"What grade are you guys in?" I asked, trying not to sound too surprised.


"We are all Year 12s."


I nodded and assumed that was the equivalent to being a senior.


"Ashton thinks he's so cool because he's already graduated!" Michael rolled his eyes and Ashton smirked at them from his spot with Kate.


It really shouldn't be bothering me the way she's touching him. She's his girlfriend, and it's not like I know him, but something didn't seem right. He looked at me, catching me staring and I quickly turned away. We needed to stop looking at each other before I got bitch-slapped by this red-head.


"Can't believe we all have school tomorrow! Seems like just last night, Lauren and I were singing on stage with All Time Low," Luke complained.


Jessica put her arm around his shoulder and turned to Kate.


"Do you have the physics notes by chance?"


Kate shook her head, "Not with me right now."


Wait. Kate was still in school too?


Everyone stood and started to gather up their things to leave. It was kind of cute that they were all still in school, but then again, I didn't really have anyone else to hangout with. I'd probably have to make friends sometime soon... Where can I acquire those again?


Michael, Calum, Jessica and I walked out to the cars. I leaned against the car door with Jessica while Michael and Luke talked about some new video game coming out soon. Ashton and Kate walked out of the house hand-in-hand toward us.


"Bye Jessica," Kate said, waving pretty pathetically, and without acknowledging my existence.


"Bye Kate," Jess said with only slight emotion and a big smile. As soon as Kate wasn't in ear-shot, she turned to me and rolled her eyes.


"Sorry that she's being a bitch to you. If it makes you feel any better, I don't care for her either. She's never really nice to me, or any of us except Ashton, for the matter."


"I'll meet you by the car," I heard Ashton tell Kate. He walked back over toward us, and I figured he was going to go talk to the boys.


But he came over to me instead. Jessica had just walked over to tell Luke something while I stood by Michael's car.


"Look, I know you don't really know anybody yet, and with the others in school, there isn't much to do. If you want, I could pick you up and we could hang out tomorrow?"


I tried to hide my excitement, and nodded with a grin.


"Yeah, that sounds nice."


He had his hands shoved in his pockets and lifted his head to smile.


"Cool! And it's not like a date or anything...obviously."


I nodded, my lips pursed.


"Yeah, just friends... Obviously."


Kate called to him from the car and he turned to her.


"I'll get your number from Michael or something?" He said as he walked away.


"Sure."


"Cool."


"Cool."






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