thin white lines | l. hemmings

24

The next two days seemed to flash by painfully quickly. Delaney was woken up by rough knocking on her door from Ashton, rushing to tell her they'd be back in time to grab her before the concert.

She found herself wondering what they had to do. If it was a job for the side of them that their fans saw, or the side that only she seemed to see even when she didn't want to. 

It didn't stay on her mind for too long, she was too tired to care after just waking up. Nothing special happened while she got ready. She finally showered because she didn't feel like it after getting back to her own room the night before. All she did then was wash her face, brush her teeth and change out of her clothes and into comfortable and clean pyjamas.

After checking the clock to see that it was noon, she stayed in bed knowing she had plenty of time to rest. But fell asleep after assuring herself that she would stay awake. Even so, she still woke up with enough time to get herself ready before the boys came to get her from her room.

"Successful day on the job?" she asked once she saw them all, still looking put together after whatever they had done. 

"You could say that I guess," Ashton answered simply, looking to her with a shrug and giving her no clues about what they were doing, so she gave up trying to figure it out. 

"I'm not gonna question it," she said simply, honestly not wanting to know any details that might bring her down. They didn't say anything about it as they walked to the venue.

They settled into Ashton's dressing room, and Delaney offered to make them a drink she never went to a party without when she was home. Most of them liked it, except Ashton was open about it being too sweet even though he finished it entirely. From observations, she thought maybe Luke agreed with him but he drank it without a word.

"Oh my god, Luke—" Calum started out of nowhere, turning to face Luke as Delaney cleaned up her ingredients. "—I completely forgot to ask you. When did you go back to talk to the waitress?"

He furrowed his brows, taking a slow sip from his drink as he wondered what Calum was talking about. Delaney's interested piqued from the other side of the room, but all of the boys were listening just as intently. "You went back?" Ashton asked.

"No," Luke cut in, still clearly confused as Delaney settled crisscrossed on the floor between the seats that were occupied by Calum on one side and Ashton on the other. Luke was almost directly across from her which made for some awkward eye contact that he did his best to avoid.

"Yes you did, mate! I heard her in your room last night!" Calum insisted. Delaney, who was in the midst of swallowing her drink, choked suddenly on it as she heard him speak. "Oh, sorry Lane. Probably don't wanna hear about that," he said out of politeness since she was a girl. But even if the circumstances were as Calum thought, she really wouldn't have cared.

"It's alright." She did her best not to laugh at the irony of the situation as she used a napkin to dab her quickly flushing face. "Why the hell were you listening?"

"Are you kidding? I left as soon as I heard that cheeky bastard," he explained casually, scrunching his face as he lazily pointed to Luke, who squirmed in his seat choosing not to contribute yet to the conversation.

"Sorry," he said with a shrug, trying to break the three intense gazes that the boys shot at him and not knowing how to respond.

"And after that shit show," Ashton said, shaking his head in wonder. "See, I don't know how you do it."

"Don't know what you want me to say," Luke said, pressing his lips into a line.

"She just must've really been into guys in bands," Delaney joked with a shrug, making them all chuckle.