FIFTH HALF ― luke hemmings ✓

#27

"How did you know I was here?"

The first question I had the stomach to ask after several minutes of staring at him in disbelief. At the back of my head, it still feel like a dream. But as we lean over the wall at the empty street beside the pub, and as the smoke of his cigarette clouded through us? I couldn't deny that anymore. That he is, in fact, right beside me.

"All signs pointed to New York, Lacey." He spat, "Don't think five months would make all the fans forget about you." The edge on his voice came back and I knew better. Calum Hood had a certain type of anger. One where he would talk to you, still reach out to you like it's nothing, but the edge on his voice was never gone. He won't look at you straight in the eye, won't try and get all mushy with you even if you tried, or would never stand close to you. Like what's happening right now...

"B-But why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be busy?" He sighed heavily and that made me look away. Scared of what he'll say, or what's going to happen now that he found me.

"It's supposed to be us against the world, Lace. It's 5SOS against the world even if they threatened us with stakes and hated us." He hastily threw away his second cigarette and faced me. "You have to remember that we're a family. That you're a part of that family, and that you shouldn't have left."

I gritted my teeth. "If I didn't, I would only ruin things, Calum."

"Did you leave because of that night?" He asks, although lowly. As if he's careful about the outcome of his question. "Don't think for a second that I—we don't know."

"So what if I did, Calum?" I snapped. "So what if I left because I can't take it anymore?!"

He inclined his head with a smirk of disbelief and the look on his face ached my heart. It aches so bad I could feel it crushing. This was not the Calum I was used to seeing, but then again? This isn't the same Lacey they were used to seeing. One that would raise the white flag and pack her bags to leave the war. "I—I'm not gonna ask you to come with me, not gonna tell the boys I found you, or ask you to leave everything behind for us but there's something you have to know, Lace."

"What?"

"You have us." He paused, his jaw clenching as he did. "You have me, Ashton or Mikey. You have us." He paused and the hurt on his eyes says it all. "Luke has been a total ass, and believe me when I say I hated him ever since all that shit that happened, but—Lace? You deserve an explanation from Luke. Whether you like it or not, it'll come soon and you'll have to face him. To face the truth, and forgive him." Calum gave one final tight smile before turning around and sticking both his palms on the pocket of his jeans.

"What?! You think he could just waltz right in front of me and expect that I could forgive him just because he and Cassie broke up?!" I yelled and he paused from his tracks. The frustration building up inside me as soon as I heard what he just had suggested.

"No." He inclined his head. "I expect you to forgive him because he's your best friend."

What Calum said had not been only a slap in the face from him, but also from reality. From how I've been treating things ever since I left. I have forgotten all the things I needed to remember just because I've been clouded by how hurt I was. I forgot I have all my friends with me, forgotten how it's not only me and Luke in the world. There were others getting so affected, and I had not think through it at all.

Going to work the next day was nothing of near bliss like how I wanted it to be, and how I conditioned it to be before starting to work here. The conversation Calum and I had, kept me up at night that I knew the bag under my eyes were too visible not even a goddamn concealer could cover it up. Even reaching the comfort of the studio didn't help one bit, not even when I'm alone and no noise could bother me at this time of day.

It could've taken thirty minutes but then, I heard a song that blared on the left side speaker of where I'm near at and my heart raced as soon as it did. It even made me stood up and hurried to find where the plug was or the source of the music is when someone clearing their throat made me turn. "That's the live acoustic version of the song we heard last night." Kira spoke and my heart began to race. "And I saw you talking to the bassist of the very band that's playing right now." I scoffed, taking a seat on the swivel chair while I try to tune out the dreading song playing on the background.

"Kira, not today." She took a seat at the other swivel chair near me and paused the music, mentally thanking her for it.

"When you told me the first day I met you that you're not good at making friends, was that because..." She paused, "Because of them?"

"It only got bad when I fell in love with one of them." I turned to her and surprise she snorted.

"Thank god I'm a girl, then?" I rolled my eyes and threw a crumpled paper at her. "Do you want to talk about it or do I have to force it out of you?" I look at her, almost pleading to let it go but she wasn't having it. And if there's one thing about Kira that I knew ever since I met her? It's that she won't let a friend, someone really dear to her, to carry problems all on their own. She wanted to be a part of it, she wanted to help work it out. But I didn't think I wanted mine to be solved... just yet.

But I did tell her everything. From the very beginning up to the very... end? And I managed not to haul out in tears as soon as I finished. "Well, shit." She muttered almost out loud as we both stared over the horizon, her taking it all in, while I reminisce every shitty little detail of my shitty little love life—that doesn't even exist because neither of us had the balls to admit what we felt for each other. It was partly my fault but I wouldn't have gone ballistic if not for that damn kiss.

Always the damn kiss. Even in the movies, in the books, in every fucking thing.

"Calum is right, Lace." She managed to breathe out after I thought what she had just learned overwhelmed her. "You don't have to give him a chance, or—or be with him. You don't have to forget. Just learn to forgive and see him as someone who had been with you all throughout the years."

"That's the thing, Kira. I can't... look at him and see him as my best friend anymore. He... betrayed me."

"The least thing you could do is forgive him, not because he asked for it, but because you need it yourself. You won't move past this as long as you have that baggage around your shoulders." She offered her hand and I took it, giving it an encouraging squeeze as she pulled me to stand with her. "Lacey, it's been how many years. The band deserves an explanation of why you left, and you deserve to be happy again." I pulled into a hug and didn't know it was just what I needed.

A push.

"Oh, and Lace?"

"Yeah?"

"I bet you a grand the songs on their up and coming album would be glass half-full of 'Lacey come back?'. You in?"

"I'm literally gonna squeeze you to death."