Promise » [cashton] √

1.8

[23rd of July - Minneapolis]

Calum and Michael were having a smoke out by the side of the bus, trying to stand in the shadow it cast as the afternoon sun slowly moved.

They were actually fine, which surprised Calum more than it should have, considering he didn't really known Michael all that well. Sierra had spoken to him days ago, which of course made a difference, he had come and found Calum afterwards tail between his legs.

"I might have let myself get carried away with Luke," he'd confessed, "he just- he's like Ashton's big brother, and I don't know, I assumed he had the best intentions when he came and found me. I spoke to Sierra, well, Sierra spoke to me, and she made me realise Ashton's older than we act like he is, and that you're a nice person. If you two end badly, then that's just what happens, we'll be there to pick up the pieces with him," He had nodded to himself as he said it, seemingly at peace with the idea.

After that they'd been fine. Calum found It hard to hold much against people, he could honestly see himself being friends with Luke again even if only because he was so important to Ashton. Maybe that made him a sucker, but he found it was easier to just forgive people and move on.

"So... what's the plan when you get back to LA?" Michael asked, taking a long drag of his cigarette.

Calum watched him, eyes tired from his late night texting with Ashton, "I've got a backlog of work I need to catch up on, and there's a few IOU's I have a feeling people are going to cash in," he rubbed his eyes with his free hand and took a drag.

"So you dropped everything to come on this tour?" Michael did this thing where he asked a question and kept his face neutral, but his voice gave him away, he was much more interested than he would often let on.

Calum nodded, ignoring Michael's clear eagerness, he was harmless, "yeah I just knew I needed to be here," he shrugged, and he thought he had managed to fight it but there was a flush that ran up his cheeks.

Michael fixed him with a look, "you just knew?"

He laughed, "okay, I had a crush on Ashton already, nothing crazy I just loved the photos I'd taken of him. I thought if I came back, took photos of him every night it'd wear off, and then we actually met and," Calum was blushing now despite himself, he never spoke like this about anyone, "he's just so genuine and-" he stopped himself, "you really don't want to hear me go on about that," he took another drag of his cigarette to distract himself from meeting Michael's eyes.

"I think I might actually want to hear it," he laughed, but it wasn't teasingly, and he looked up to meet the others eyes, he looked surprised.

He shifted under Michael's gaze, "I-uh don't know what to say, I'm embarrassed," he confessed.

Michael shook his head, "Sierra saw this, Luke and I couldn't, but Sierra could," he was laughing happily, "embarrassed or whatever I don't care, I'm glad I got to see that. I-I I feel better about all this now," and he laughed again, "fuck- you are so gone for him,"

Calum shifted uncomfortably, and brought his cigarette to his lips again. "I think I preferred it when you thought I was out to get him," he said lowly.

And it was true to a point, there was a reason Calum didn't, usually, care about people knowing who he'd slept with or how little he knew them. Being the bad guy, or at least having a reputation that proceeded you was a lot more comfortable than having people know exactly how you felt every minute of the day.

With one last drag from his cigarette Michael rolled his eyes, "you're going to like it a lot more around here with people believing you're genuine," he stubbed out his cigarette to punctuate his sentence.