Captive || 5sos AU

Epilogue

"Come on babe, we can't be late." Luke chimed, and Laurie opened the door to their bedroom.

Luke thought that she looked stunning. She was dressed in black from head to toe but her body radiated a glowing happiness. Laurie had her doubts about the outfit, but hurried out of the house with reassurance from her boyfriend.

Once the two were in the car, Laurie let out a sigh.

"I can't believe it's been a year since he's died." Laurie said, and memories of her brother washed over her all at once.

Luke shook his head and paired her sigh with one of his own.

"I know, but it's nice that Michael agreed to do this for us. He's getting pretty big." Luke said, and looked over to Laurie, who was nodding in agreement.

In the span of a year Michael went from small gigs in Los Angeles to massive audiences all across the country, and Luke and Laurie had a difficult time keeping up with him. In the light of the one year anniversary of Josh's death, Michael agreed to host a drug and alcohol awareness event in his honor, and play for free.

Luke pulled onto the lot where the event was going to be held and parked, then helped Laurie out of the car. Michael's hair was hard to miss, and he and Laurie greeted each other just as they always had - with a huge, suffocating, affectionate hug.

"Thank you so much for doing this! I know so many people are going to come for the show, and hopefully they get the message." Laurie said into Michael's shoulder.

Michael grinned and pulled his body from Laurie's grip.

"I know how important this is to you." He said, then excused himself to finish setting up booths.

Everything looked great, and Laurie could just imagine all of the people walking around in Josh's honor. She hoped that she had made him proud over the past year, and worked as hard as she could to do things she thought he would be proud of.

Laurie's relationship with her parents had been mended and she began spending a lot more time with them. Usually she would bring Luke, and even though her father tried his hardest to intimidate the boy - which he was successful at at first - Laurie could tell that her parents loved him almost as much as she did.

Her fixed relationship with her parents also meant that they would assist her monetarily again, but Laurie insisted that she only need help getting on her feet, then she and Luke could do the rest on their own.

After a childhood of dreaming, Laurie was finally able to begin school at UCLA and had almost completed her second semester so far. Her whole life she had planned on majoring in business economics, but had decided against it and just took her general studies to allow herself time to decide.

It may not seem important, but her whole life was changing. She had new and unexpected relationships with people she never imagined herself meeting. Naturally, as her life began shifting before her eyes, Laurie began to worry that the plans she had for herself would no longer work, so she changed them.

From the corner of Laurie's eye she spotted a small silver car circle into the lot, and smiled at the dark haired driver.

"Hey guys!" He chimed cheerily as he stepped out of his car.

"Hey Calum." Luke said, waving at his finely dressed friend.

Though it had taken quite a bit of time, Calum had managed to get a real job in Los Angeles, and it required him to be gone often. He loved it though, because he got to travel to all kinds of places and see things he had only dreamed of.