Ghost Of You | cth

Prologue

We're the best of friends and it wasn't a secret to anyone that she was my person.

Despite all the good moments, being on tour came with its struggles. Over time, the stress got to me and I developed a habit of smoking.

Smoking is bad in general, but being a singer, bass player, and someone who relied on their lungs to keep them going made it even worse.

I started smoking in 2015 a little after our first album sky rocketed. 'She Looks So Perfect' was everyone's song of the summer and our band had the entire spotlight to ourselves.

Everyone was just waiting for the next press release to come out talking about what we did next. It was a lot of pressure to be put on teenage boys.

I remember one night a news article came out about us and talked about how we were apparently sleeping with another girl every night.

This traumatized me and upset me beyond measures. I remember freaking myself out so much one night because of it that I couldn't sleep for three days straight.

My image is something that I care about a lot. It's important to me the way people perceive me, and when they're thinking of me as a man who is careless and sleeps around like it's nothing, that obviously won't settle well with me.

Especially when the rumors aren't true.

Before signing off into the music industry, I was warned that news outlets were going to do whatever it takes to make themselves money, no matter how badly they're hurting the people they are writing about.

However, what I wasn't warned about is how badly it would affect me in the long run.

Turns out, I can't take rumors being spread about me. I need the truth to be told, always.

Paige has always been the person to talk me out of any negative thoughts I had. She always knew that when something bad happened that I would result to smoking.

She would say, "You're killing yourself Calum." and, "Think about the boys, think about how they would feel if you had to drop out of the band because you developed a chronic lung disease."

No matter how many times she would talk me out of it, that would only last a few weeks and I'd be back to doing it again.

Paige was right, she was always right and I knew that she was only telling me this for my own good.

But as I sit on the side of the hospital bed, clutching onto her hand as if my life depends upon it, I feel every urge she helped me overcome return.

My head rests against her as I sob and refuse to let her go. Her weak and frail hand runs through my hair and I have no doubt that I soaked the ripped up shirt she's wearing.

Paige is barely alive right now and somehow she's still the one comforting me. She's always been the one to comfort me when I'm going through shit.

She is too good of a person to deserve this, especially so young. She has so much more life to live.

Paige was going to move to New York and become a world famous photographer.

We were going to dance through our house until our feet couldn't dance anymore.

It's all falling apart, why is everything falling apart?!

"Calum, shh." She says trying to stop my loud sobs that can most likely be heard a mile away.

I try to calm my breathing but this is all too much for me. I need to be strong for her, but I'm finding it impossible.

"You can't leave me." I say lifting my head up and looking right at her beautiful face.

Despite the cuts and bruises that cover her face, she's still the most beautiful person I've ever laid my eyes on.

"I'll never leave you." She says doing her best to wipe the tears from my face.

She's so weak that it makes the pain in my chest hurt ten times worse.

"But you're leaving me right now." I say biting my lip to try and suppress even more sobs from escaping, but am failing miserably.

"I'll never truly leave you Cal," She looks into my eyes with so much comfort that I wish I would allow myself to embrace.

How am I supposed to go on without her? We're almost to the end of our Meet You There tour, the best one we've been on yet.

The band and Paige traveled the world together, made memories, played to remarkable crowds. Our single Youngblood has 1 billion streams.

At the end of day, none of this would have been possible without Paige. She kept the band going.

I don't think the four of us have ever loved a human being more.

"Promise me you'll be fine?" She said as the two of us held onto each other's hands for dear life.

It took me a second to bring myself to promise her. I knew that for a long time, I won't be fine but for her sake, I need to say it back. I know how stubborn she is and that she'll live with the pain for as long as it takes for me to say it back.

That's how good of a person Paige Evans is.

"I'll be just fine." I said kissing her hand and reassured her through my tears.

A/N
Hi loves welcome to the first chapter of Ghost of you!

I'm so sorry for making you cry and if it makes you feel any better, I'm crying with you.

Follow my twitter and tiktok for updates and so we can chat about the fanfic together @calsluver and @hannahkhoury__

Book cover credit to my beautiful bestie overandovercal

Love you all thank you for reading <3