Heat Waves // Calum Hood 5SOS

Chapter 23

•Dionne POV•

Monday evening, I was at home trying to write one of my assignments when I suddenly received a message from Calum... It was a digital invite, to a performance he was having that weekend at the student bar. At first I was excited, remembering his little karaoke performance with Michael and how he promised to get me an invite to his next - real - gig.
Then I remembered who he told me was the singer of the band, and I immediately felt unsure. It was Alex - the girl that he seemed awfully close to, and who I shouldn't even care about.

His message beneath the digital invite read "you'll be there?x" and, even with my wondering about that girl... I said yes.
Then came the embarrassing part - when the time for the gig came around, I found myself obsessing over what I'd wear. I ended up settling on a black tube top, baggy ripped blue jeans and my oversized black leather jacket. I pulled my hair back in a low puff with two braids in front, and put on some makeup with simple eyeliner. Somehow I felt... nervous.

I don't know why I didn't think of inviting anybody else to go with me, because when I showed up I almost felt nauseous - so of course, the first thing I did was wander over to the bar and order a drink. Once Calum's band came out on the stage, I'd ordered my second drink and drank it as I watched them perform their short set. I was excited to see Calum perform - I'd never seen him on the bass and it was undeniably impressive. I could barely keep my eyes off of him... apart from when my eyes fell on the blue haired girl on the mic.

She was, of course, beautiful. And cool. She had an undercut that I could see now as her hair was tied up, and she wore an oversized flannel over a black vest and ripped black skinny jeans as well as doc martens. Her and Calum interacted on the stage, along with the other band members, but I couldn't help but notice the way they smiled at each other as he leaned into her mic to sing some of the backup vocals... I ordered a third drink.

Once the set was over, I was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol - just a little - but I ignored it. Calum came to find me at the bar, thankfully on his own at the time.

"You came." He grinned as he approached me, unexpectedly opening his arms and pulling me into a quick hug.

"Of course I did." I nodded as he stepped back, feeling his hands rest momentarily on my waist. "You were amazing."

"Shit, thank you. I was freaking out a little." He let out a nervous chuckle, and my eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Are you kidding? You were literally incredible, what's there to freak out about?" I basically gawped at him, seeing him smile bashfully.

"I dunno, I was scared to fuck up. Especially because I'm being graded, y'know?"

"Okay that's fair- you completely killed it though." I said confidently, gently placing my hand on his upper arm as he nodded in appreciation.

"Thank you, really. The rest of the band is still in the back, if you wanna meet them, by the way." I almost felt like cringing at those words, but I hid my discomfort.

"Oh, sure." I said, allowing him to lead me over to the room where I was sure things would get awkward...

In the back room, the other three band members were all talking, along with other groups of people - either friends who'd come to see the performance or other students from Calum's course that performed before I arrived. They had drinks and snacks and the room was full of energy.

"Calum!" A girls voice perked up, and I turned and saw none other than Alex excitedly striding towards us with a beer in each hand. She held one out to Calum. "For you, sir." She grinned, and Calum smiled back as he took the open drink.
"Are you gonna introduce us to your friend?" She raised an eyebrow, glancing at me with a polite smile whilst I pursed my lips awkwardly. Friend.