Catch 22

3

"Cheers to another tour, boys!" Luke says raising his glass with Michael and Ash as I board our bus.

"Oh, there you are, Cal!" Michael calls, scrunching his face when he sees the bag in my hand. "You picked Panera over sushi?" He asks.

I shrug my shoulders, trying not to make a big deal out of it as I take out my soup and bread bowl.

"No, No, young Mikey. He picked the new sound girl over sushi." Ash says, giving me a knowing look.

"I have zero clue what you're talking about, mate." I say, keeping my voice even and trying to portray sincerity.

"We have a new sound girl?" Michael responds and I just chuckle.

"Mmhmm." Ashton hums. "And she's definitely Cal's type." He continued.

"What does that even mean, mate? I've had like two girlfriends ever and they were nothing alike." I counter.

"Okay, and all the girls you've been with, I guess they looked nothing like the new girl either. Dark hair, loads of tatts, fit as hell. You definitely have a type mate." Ash laughs and I just roll my eyes and dig into my soup hoping the topic will be changed.

"She's the one replacing David?" Michael asked.

"Yep," Luke adds joining in, "You're welcome, Cal. I hired her." He grins and I shake my head annoyed by their obvious amusement caused by my irritation, slumping in the seat of the tour bus booth table.

"I hate all three of you." I mumble as I eat.

"No, you don't! You love us!" Ash says with a giggle and I turn towards him my face fixed into a firm scowl.

"Alright, Alright, we'll let you live for now." Luke laughs.

"Thank you." I reply. "Besides, she's here to work, I'm basically her boss. Everyone knows in business you can't shit where you eat."

"Who the fuck says that?" Mikey asks.

"It's a real saying!" I defend.

"If you say so." He says, his hands up in surrender.

I stand from the table as I finish my meal, disposing of the waste in the trashcan and heading for my bunk for some peace and privacy.

The boys aren't wrong, Rowen is gorgeous. I do love dark hair and tattoos, I just don't love rewarding the idiots when they try to get involved with my personal life. They're all loved up with their girls and that's great, but I'm still young and I don't know if I'm ready for that just yet.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't mind being single. When I do find someone, I want to be the one to find them. That has proved to be challenging with my band mates constantly trying to set me up.

The motion of the bus is soothing and I slide my headphones in, picking a playlist on spotify and turning the volume up, letting the sound and gentle vibration of the highway beneath me lull me to sleep.

•

"Cal, get up. We're here and they want us to tell them what we want for setup." Luke says, sliding open the curtain on my bunk, light shining straight into my eyes.

"Geez, mate. What time is it? Fuck." I say, rubbing at my eyes.

"It's nearly noon. You slept for like fifteen hours. I don't want to hear it."

"Who pissed in your cereal, mate? It's the first day of tour, who knows when I'll get to sleep like that again. You know I need my beauty rest." I joke and he gently slaps my cheek.

"Just come on. Michael and Ashton already went inside."

"Alright, Alright. Give me a second to throw some clothes on." I say sitting up and only then realizing I've slept in my shorts and t-shirt from yesterday. Guess that saves me a few minutes.

I slip from the bunk and exit the bus, heading for the talent entrance of the venue we're playing tomorrow night, the U.S. Bank Arena. The venue is typically used for things like basketball and hockey as most of the places we're gonna play on this tour are. I'm excited but nervous about the bigger venues, and who we're on this tour with. Not exactly my ideal tour mates but it wasn't like we could turn down the opportunity to play massive shows to people who may have never heard of us. It's almost more nerve wracking to be the opener. We could totally tank on this tour. We're really just hoping for the best.

"Okay so, you guys set is obviously very different than that of the Chainsmokers. I need you to tell me where you want everything so I can tape it out and the crew can practice our transitions today so that we aren't a total shit show tomorrow night." Caleb, the stage manager says. He's mostly speaking to Luke which is fine by me. I let Luke talk, offering only nods and various noises of approval while really just letting my mind begin to drift.

My attention is drawn when I notice the girl, Rowen, in the back of the stage area unloading the equipment. For a petite girl she's hanging with the boys lifting all of our shit. Watching her move hundred pound carts I wonder why she needed my help at all with her suitcase the other day, but I let that thought go.

"Ahem." A cough to my left pulls me back to the conversation happening immediately surrounding me. "Well, welcome back, Calum. We were just wondering if you were done gawking at the sound girl and if you would be so kind as to tell us where you would like your keyboard, acoustic guitar, and mic stand placed."

I feel the tips of my ears turn bright red, my tell-tale sign of embarrassment. I'd been caught.

I cough to clear my throat and then speak.

"Right, um." I walk a few paces across the stage and point to the positions for the things they've asked of me before returning to my observational role in the conversation. I scan the arena looking for Rowen again, frowning when my search comes up empty.

•

"Here we go boys!" Ashton cheers the next night as we raise our shots up, clinking the glasses before tapping them against the table and downing them. The tequila burns its way down my throat and I savor the heat. I shake off the taste and grab my bass, all of us taking our marks side stage as Ashton heads up first to get into position.

When our cue comes we all run up the stairs, taking our spots and flying into She Looks So Perfect. I should be more focused on the set and crowd than I actually am. Instead of feeding off their energy I find my eyes being pulled towards the sound board and side stage, hoping for a glimpse of the petite girl with the marked skin and black hair.

I'm slightly disappointed when I come off stage, never having caught sight of her. I shake the feeling off and head for the green room trying to remind myself that though she is ridiculously hot, I don't even know her. 

AN: Do we have any thoughts about Calum's thoughts about Rowen, aka Sage? 

This book will flip between Sage and Calum's POV frequently!

I hope you guys are enjoying this book I'm so impressed by the response already! You all are amazing and I love you loads!

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Sav