flipped :: lh [UNDER REVISION]

23. Tigers Jaw

Luke picks up his guitar strumming his fingers loosely across the stings allowing them to vibrate lightly beneath his touch. His head is pounding but he doesn't let it get to him as he scribbles down a few note changes to his music, pencil between his parted lips and hands cradling the instrument. Luke tries to zero in on his work rather than the comments both Calum and Ashton are currently making behind him. It's hard to ignore when they keep asking for his advice about what they should be calling the band.

"Do we really need a name?" Calum keeps repeating after Ashton clarifies that they do. "But do we really need a name? I don't know what we would be called." He shrugs kicking his feet up against where Luke's sitting. Luke rolls his eyes trying his best to ignore Calum who keeps eyeing him.

"Calum for the hundredth time how lame would it be if we went up without a name?" Ashton replies. His hair is wildly curling around the edges of his face, a dark sandy colour, the aftereffect of leaving for a weeklong trip to visit a few friends and hike.

They continue to bicker back and forth while Luke finishes his work. The occasional, 'well what do you think Luke?' to which Luke only casually shrugs or replies that he doesn't know. Truth is, he really doesn't care either way. He's too busy stressing about their first performance to really think deeply about the matter of a band name. If anything he thinks Aries should choose - but only because he thinks Aries should choose a lot of things.

"Seriously Luke we're on in thirty minutes and it's now that you decide to change things around?" Michael comes up, his hair now splashed with hints of blue tinting. He only smiles vaguely but Luke has known him long enough to know that Michael is only semi-joking.

"I can't half-ass things like you can Mikey." He shrugs trying to feign arrogance. He ends up cracking a smile though when Michael snorts dramatically.

"Yeah whatever."

The room is silent for a few minutes when everyone remembers they're actually going to be playing live in a few minutes. Luke can feel the sensation creeping through his veins, the nerves getting to him, filling him to the brim with anxiety. He tries to ignore it by continuing to edit little pieces into the music they'd picked, a faster-paced song. Luke wrote the piece (Harry helping him with a few of the minor details) as Calum helped with adding vocals. It wasn't something Luke had planned to be doing, he wasn't even sure if they'd taken the idea of being a band as serious, yet here they are now.

He slumps further down into the couch he's sitting on, making sure to place his guitar to the side so as to not accidentally snap anything before they perform. He holds his breath for a count of five before exhaling, doing this a number of times only to see Michael watching him intently from the opposite side where he's decided to sit. He's got his arms pulled into the sleeves of his jacket, his feet pulled up off the side of the chair he's reclining against. Luke tries to glare his direction as though to tell him to stop staring but Michael doesn't do much other than to raise his eyebrows questioningly.

Luke rolls his eyes silently to himself as he continues to tack a few extra notes onto the paper. Luke can see Michael vaguely over the tops of the paper as Michael brings his hands up against his face to block his view of anyone. Luke does the same after finishing the final add-ons by closing his eyes, relaxing into the couch which he sits. He can still feel the constant itch of nerves, the way he can't seem but feel anything but unsettled by them. He hopes they'll go away before they hit the stage, he's never performed in front of anyone before. He doesn't know if he can do it, but he sure as hell hopes he can.

"I'm gonna go out now if anyone wants to come." Calum says to the room of three. Luke can briefly hear Michael boo Calum before Calum throws something in Michael's general direction. The noise resounding until Calum breaks it when he says: "Prick."