Daft || Malum

Hemms Lukeing

We're in a new city, another outside stage. We're scheduled to go on in five hours. The rest of the boys are cursing loudly and shoving each other while playing video games, as much as I wanted to join in and order pizza, I couldn't.

"Michael, do I have it right?" Jane asks politely, tapping my arm with the guitar head.

I pull my eyes away from the other boys and look to Jane. Who has the finger placement wrong, yet again.

I give her an 'you've got to be kidding me' look, "What note exactly are you trying to do?"

"Uh, A I think." She mumbles.

I put my guitar down, scooting closer to her.

"Your grip on the guitar is a little too tight, you're not trying to strangle the thing." I chuckle, loosening her grip and moving her fingers around.

"That's a A, you were close before but you're index finger was on the wrong string." I explain.

I look up to make sure she gets it. She nods.

"Okay, let's go through the notes you've learned once more. E, F, G, A." I pause after saying each note to make sure she has the right finger placement.

"Now B." I move her fingers again.

A throat clears and my head whips up to see Calum looking at us intently.

"H-Hey Calum." I greet awkwardly.

"The boys and us are going to get some pizza, want to come?" He asks, eyeing the distance between Jane and I carefully.

I stand up, "What kind of question is that?"

"Let's go then." Calum says, dragging me toward the door.

I look back to see Jane looking down at my one of acoustic guitars sadly.

"Jane. Want to come?" I ask, taking pity on her and inviting her along.

Even though she's a murderer.

Right! I nearly forgot, it's the cat slippers, they throw me off.

Michael you idiot, you invited a murderer to get pizza with you.

"Sure." She exclaims excitedly, slipping out of her cat slippers and quickly putting on some white Toms.

There's no way to dis-invite her now unless I want to be rude or let her know that I know her true identity.

Calum's grip on my wrist tightens slightly, he's not happy about it either.

He must know too!

We meet in front of the unmarked tour bus, the fans don't know we're two hours ahead of schedule.

"Patrick told me there's a pizza place down the street." Ashton gestured to the right and across the street.

We set off quickly, eventually coming to a stop across the street from the local pizzeria, it looked like a family owned restaurant, nice and cozy.

The road is extremely busy and we stand there for five minutes, looking both ways just to see another line of cars zipping along the asphalt.

Jane being a lot short than the rest of us couldn't see over the cars parked on either side.

She starts walking as a red truck whips around the corner.

"Fuck." Calum swears, quickly grabbing her hand and tugging her back just in time.

The driver honks once and speeds away.

"Language." Ashton scolds Calum, hoping to lighten the mood quickly.