Never Be (A 5 Seconds Of Summer Fan-Fiction)

Chapter 14

"Oh yeah and you're coming on tour with us." I told her, whilst the others were close to tears. "I'll have to teach you how to swim too."

"No, that won't be necessary." She said.

"Yes it will be necessary." I fired back.

"Are you even adequate to teach people how to swim?" She raised her eyebrow at me and looked at me in the way that could only say I-bet-my-ass-that-you-can't-even-swim-yourself.

"Excuse me, I am a very good swimmer, hun." I sassily replied.

"Wow okay, thanks for the offer, but still no thank you."

"Yes thank you, I'm teaching you how to swim and that's final." She huffed in defeat, knowing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with saying 'no thanks' any further. "Merry Christmas by the way." I said, suddenly feeling very festive.

"What?" She asked, I assumed she didn't hear me.

"Merry Christmas." I said once again. "Oh my god you don't know what Christmas is." I came to a conclusion, seeing how confused she was whenever I mentioned it. She just shrugged and shyly smiled at me."How can you not know what Christmas is? What do you think that big ass tree is for?" I pointed at the tree in the corner of the room, which was in fact pretty big ass.

"I don't know, I just don't." She looked down at the floor, clearly embarrassed of her lack of knowledge on the topic.

"Have you never celebrated?" I cautiously asked, remembering what I know about her family, also remembering that she still needs to tell us about her past, but deciding not to remind her as she was clearly in quite a good mood right now despite being almost drowned.

"Not that I remember." She shrugged.

"Guys!" I shouted out of nowhere, their heads immediately snapping towards us. "Riley's never celebrated Christmas! She doesn't even know what it is!"

"What?!" They all screamed in unison.

"What?" She asked them, as if it was no big deal.

"We are making this the best Christmas ever!" Michael shouted and suddenly picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder and running around like an idiot, making her laugh hysterically.

"That statement doesn't have any meaning since I don't even know what the hell that is!" She yelled back, still laughing.

"Basically it's a time before New Year where every one of you family or close friends gather together and give each other presents and hugs and kisses." He explained whilst still running around with her slung over his shoulder.

"Okay." She simply said. "Wait where are you taking me?"

"I don't even know I just felt like carrying you." He shrugged and made a face that could only say I-don't-really-know-how-to-answer-that-question-so-I'm-gonna-continue-acting-like-a-psychopath-just-because-I-can-and-this-is-a-non-judging-community.

"We could watch Christmas movies." I suggested.

"Sounds good." The rest agreed.

"God damn it!" Riley screamed getting playfully frustrated with Michael. "Luke, help me!"

"I don't feel like it, sorry." He chuckled and continued to watch Michael playfully torture her.

"Fuck you!" She screamed, her laugh filling my ears. Her laugh was one of my favourite things about her - you didn't get to hear it often, but when you did the sound was beautiful. "Calum?" She pleaded.

"As I recall this morning you said something along the lines of 'fuck off'."

"Oh what you got famous now you're all assholes?!" She continued to yell. "Ashton?" She looked at me with puppy eyes and did a pouty face for as long as she could since Michael was still running around with her like an idiot.

"I'll save you!" I shouted and did a Superman pose before launching in their direction and wrestling to get Riley out of Michael's grip, making us fall on the floor - me somehow ending up lying on top of her.

"Thank you." She whispered to me, a rosy colour filling her cheeks.

"I'm picking out the movies!" Calum called.

"Anytime." I whispered back to her.

"Come on, guys! I want to start!" Calum called again, his excitement filling the room within seconds.

"We should go." We said at the same time, making us both laugh slightly. I stood up and offered her my hand to help her. She hesitated at first but took it anyway. We made out way to the couch and sat down next to each other.

"What the fuck is a Grinch?" She asked after reading the movie title which was The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The rest of us shrugged and Luke immediately pressed play.

About four movies and the fifth one rolling later half of our squad was asleep, the only ones left were Me, Riley and Luke who were sitting on the other end of the couch. We were now watching The Fault In Our Stars, not exactly a Christmas movie but we just wanted to watch it. Michael fell asleep during the first few minutes of it because he had already seen it and Calum was out cold when the second one ended, I guess all that excitement drained all his energy.

Out of pure curiosity I looked at the clock. It was ten thirty at night. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Riley's eyes dropping every so often. We were nearing the end of the movie and Luke had tears streaming down his face and I admit, so did I. But Riley didn't shed a single one - mainly because she had fallen asleep on my lap without me even noticing. I took the opportunity to play with her amazingly soft hair.

"She's absolutely gorgeous, isn't she?" Luke asked, observing my actions a look in his eyes that I couldn't describe, mainly because I ha never seen it before. Except it wasn't a question, it was more like a statement.

"Yeah." I agreed. "I just wish she would see it herself." Continuing to stroke her hair I gently placed my nose to it and inhaled it's scent. I always said it smelled like vanilla, but she never believed me.

He didn't say anything, he just continued to look at her, admiring her natural beauty just as I was doing the same thing, but from a much closer angle.

I didn't know how much time passed, but when I looked back up Luke had fallen asleep on Michael, Mike would surely tease him about it when he woke up. When I decided to look back at the clock again it was almost eleven.

"God, why did I ever let you go?" I whispered to nobody in particular before passing out.