(A/N: okay so i actually already finished writing this story and just need to post the chapters... So yeah. I think theres three more after this one. I'll probably update the whole thing/finish the story this week)
I woke up pressed against Luke's chest, his arms wrapped tightly around my body, and my arms around his. I shifted slightly to get into a more comfortable position. Our legs lay tangled together under the sheets. I was on fire, I swear it was a thousand degrees under those blankets, but it was worth it. The moment was timeless. I could stay in Luke's loving embrace for the rest of the day honestly.
I heard a sharp inhale come from Luke, and he opened his eyes into mine.
"Hey, babe," he leaned his forehead against my forehead. The amount of space between our lips was rapidly decreasing. They never touched. He was teasing me.
"Morning," I smiled back. I leaned closer to him, trying to make our lips meet, but Luke pulled his head away.
He buried his face in my neck, pressing his lips gently right beneath my ear. Then he pulled away from my neck to look me in the eyes.
"Sometimes I forget how hot you are," Luke bit his lip, and looked around my face. "Look at you, you're like a punk rock queen. You're like my punk rock queen."
I blushed and tried to hide my face underneath the blankets, but Luke pulled the blankets away.
"Why are you hiding? I just called you hot," Luke chuckled.
"I don't know," I breathed. "I don't always feel hot."
"You're beautiful Jaylene," He shook his head. "Why can't you see that?"
He leans in and kisses me softly, and smoothly.
"You guys are like an alarm clock," Ashton complained from his bunk. "Next time can you wake me up closer to ten? Thanks."
We pulled apart, and Luke gave Ashton the death stare.
"Oh I'm sorry Ashton. I'm sorry I have a girlfriend to wake up to," Luke spoke sarcastically.
"Hey, no need to be bitter," Ashton snapped back.
"Guys," I tried to break apart the little cat fight they had going on.
"It's not like management forced a girl to date me," Ash hopped out of his bunk, and made his way to the front of the bus, dismissing himself from the conversation.
Luke sat up so quick, he hit his head on the bunk above him.
"Ow," he spoke softly and started rubbing his head. A red mark showed that he would soon have a bruise on his forehead. His face was turning red, possibly with anger, and possibly because he just hit his head pretty hard. He then placed his head on his hands, remaining like that for a solid minute.
"I'm gonna go make some coffee. You need anything?" I asked Luke. He didn't speak, but he shook his head slightly in response.
"Okay," I got out of the bed, and went to the kitchen area, where Ashton was sitting on a bar stool on his phone. He had a piece of bread with some peanut butter on it in front of him, untouched. I began to make my coffee, and after I got it just how I liked it, I sat on the stool next to Ashton.
"Hey Ash," I smiled at him.
"Hey," he sighed.
"I'm sorry about what went down in there," I apologized on behalf of Luke, but mainly because I was hoping Ashton would apologize to Luke.
"No, it's fine. It's not your fault. I just... I think it's just because Luke's afraid of losing you. You know? He's afraid of the truth. The truth is, if it weren't for management, you'd probably be traveling around on this tour in Harry's bus, not ours. He's afraid that you'd never think twice about him. I admit, you two are adorable together, but that's besides the point. You're here partially because of management's wants, and partially because Luke's wants. Trust me, there's more than one reason you're here. One's for Luke, and the other's for this whole band's sake. You probably don't understand, but we're all scared right now. You'll never understand." Ashton shook his head.
"I feel horrible to say this, but that made no sense," I frowned at Ashton.
"I know," Ashton sighed, and he pulled me into a hug. "If we weren't famous, everything would be a lot less complicated right now."
"I know," The hug was long, but needed. It was so comforting to hold someone at this time.
"Can I tell you something?" Ashton asked me.
"Depends," I responded.
"It might change your opinions on Luke, so I wouldn't bring it up to him. Okay?" Ashton pulled away from the hug so he could look at me.
"Okay?" I responded uncertainly.
"Well you know that Luke's liked you since forever now, right?" Ashton spoke softly so Luke couldn't hear. "He was desperate to spend time with you after you reunited. You know that when you woke up with amnesia, you'd been asleep for six months? We thought you were dead. When we learned you were back, he thought you could restart. As soon as you and Angel left the tour bus, he called over Paul and he told him about it. He told him to get you to date Luke. He set himself up with you, and made it seem like it was managements idea. Little did he know, you'd remember almost everything within the same night. That's the only reason he felt guilt."
It was an understatement to say that I was shocked. Luke had lied to me when he had said he had nothing to do with it. He was the reason that I was being forced to date him. It's disgusting.
"What are you thinking right now?" Ashton asked me, his face almost in a grimace.
"I'm disgusted with him right now, to be honest," I took a sip of my coffee.
"I didn't mean to ruin anything between the two of you, you just deserved to know the truth. You know what I'm saying?" Ashton searched my eyes. "I don't want Luke to be mad at me."
"I mean, it definitely alters the way I look at this 'relationship' we have going on," I frowned.
"I understand what you're saying," Ashton nodded.
"I'll probably try to distance myself a bit from him," I informed Ashton.
"Don't be too obvious about it though, and if he asks, just say you can't deny what your heart says," Ashton suggested.
"You are like Shakespeare in the mornings," I laughed at him.
Suddenly, Luke made his way slowly into the kitchen area. Ashton and I immediately fell into an awkward silence.
Luke fidgeted with the coffee machine until he managed to get a vanilla coffee to fall into his penguin shaped coffee mug. He came and sat on the stool that was next to me, but away from Ashton. His face was still a little red, and I couldn't tell if his eyes were red because he was crying over what Ashton said, or the bruise that was now noticeable on his forehead. I noticed, to my dismay and probably Luke's as well, that I leaned slightly away from him when he sat down next to me.
"What happened?" Ashton sounded genuinely concerned at the bruise forming on his forehead.
"Banged my head on the bunk above Jaylene's," Luke cringed.
"Does it hurt?" Ash questioned. "I can get the ice."
"What do you think you prick?" Luke lashed out at Ashton. I shifted uneasily at his sudden outburst, and Luke's eyes widened in realization. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.... I'm sorry."
"I'm just gonna go.... Yeah," I pushed my stool back with a painful screeching sound from the tile and the metal on the chair.
"Jaylene, don't walk away. I'm sorry. It's been a rough start," Luke turned to face me.
"Don't talk to me right now Luke, please," I waved Luke away, and made my way back to my now messy bunk.
We were on the road again, the bus driving us to Georgia. We were going to reach the stop by midnight tonight, so naturally, the boys weren't playing a show tonight. Angel was going to be joining us at the Georgia gig, and she was going to stay for a week after that before going back home. Shockingly, it was already the middle of November at this point. My birthday was next month. I'd only been with the boys for a few days, and I already feel like part of the team. Sure, we had alreayd had drama, but we were like, as close as family.
I got out my phone, and began to shuffle my songs, and scroll through my Twitter feed. It was shocking how popular my Twitter account had become in the past few weeks. I literally made my Twitter a few months ago, and I already had more followers than all my school friends combined, and multiplied by two.
A demo that One Direction made for their next album, which I'd already heard most of, called 18 has attracted my attention the past few days. The track was happy, and slow, and I happened to know that at least part of it was about me, which made it even more addicting.
A text flashed across my screen from Michael, and I opened it quickly.
From Mikey: *New picture message*
I opened the text to see a photo I'd never seen before. It was of us. Me and Michael together. I was only a little bit shorter than him in the photo. His hair was a chestnut color of brown, and it was styled with a long fringe in the front. My hair was long, and it wasn't dyed like it is now. A pure shade of blonde. Curled, and in a ponytail. No tattoos appeared on my arms. I looked like a completely different person. Michael had his arm slung over my shoulder, and we were both smiling like carefree idiots.
From Mikey: found this photo of us and thought you should see it
To Mikey: this is awesome! When did we take this?
From Mikey: it was after your sweet 16 lol. I have more, want to see them?
To Mikey: sure!
And that's how Michael and I ended up texting back and forth for an hour. He kept sending me photos from our younger years, and it meant a lot. It wasn't bringing back anything, not yet at least, but I have faith in the system. He sent me some humiliating photos of Luke and the other boys, which caused me to laugh uncontrollably. Periodically, either Luke or Ashton would come in and stare at me like I was crazy, but all I would do is laugh harder because all I could see out of their face was the photo.
To Mikey: do you have any photos of me and harry? Or me and my mom by any chance?
From Mikey: i can check :/
A few minutes began to pass. The little dots on the corner of the screen showed that he was indeed searching his phone for photos. Finally, a text came through.
A photo of me and an obviously young Harry filled the screen. He were hugging tightly, and I smiled.
I began to smile even more when I was hit with the realization. I remember taking this photo. I remember Michael taking it.
To Mikey: miCHAEL
From Mikey: whUT
To Mikey: youLL NEVER GUESS
From Mikey: teLL MeEeE
To Mikey: I remember something!!!!!!!!
From Mikey: whaT ARE YOU WAITING FOR ENLIGHTEN ME
To Mikey: okay, so you know the photo of Harry and I? I remember you taking it. Wasnt it at mom's birthday?
From Mikey: holy....
To Mikey: what
From Mikey: i didnt think youd actually remember something. I didnt think itd work
To Mikey: well it diiidddddd
From Mikey: the screen cant convey my excitement right now.
I jolted up from my spot on my bed and skipped into the kitchen area as fast as I could.
"Guys!" I startled both Luke and Ashton, both of them jolting suddenly.
"What?" Ashton asked. "Are you hurt? What's going on? Good or bad?"
"Okay you need to take a chill pill," I first addressed Ashton," but guess what? I actually have a memory of Michael!"
"Really?" Luke hopped up suddenly, and gripped my shoulders. "Does he know this? What is it? Did you tell him?"
"He knows, he knows. I remember him taking this picture." I held out my phone with the picture of me and Harry.
"Oh," Ashton frowned slightly, as if the picture brought back bad memories for him.
Luke looked solemn as well.
"What?" I looked between the both of them.
"Jaylene, this was the last time your mother celebrated her birthday. She...committed...a week after this. The last thing she wanted to be assured of was your safety." Ashton informed me.
"Oh," I frowned, sitting down on one of the stools again. "Why is it I only remember the bad things? Why can't I remember Michael? He's obviously important, right?"
"Of course." Luke sat down next to me. Suddenly remembering what I'd learned about him earlier, I flinched. "Are you okay, Jaylene? Why do you keep flinching?"
"I'm not...It's just... It's nothing. Don't worry about it," I pushed Luke away. I stood up again from the chair.
"Where are you going?" He questioned me for what felt like the thousandth time.
"I'm going back to my bunk. Gonna text...someone," I walked away, but Ashton actually followed me. I plopped down on my bunk, and so did Ashton next to me.
"You're off Lenes," Ashton shrugged. "Are you okay? Can I help?"
"I want someone to tell me exactly who Michael was in my life. Exactly. Not to leave out a single detail. I want them to tell me exactly what, because then I know I'll remember it all. If they could just tell me." I spat out. "Why is that so hard?"
"It's not my tale to tell, Jaylene. I don't think Michael's ready to say, because he wants you to remember him on your own. He wants your mind to care enough."
"I do care enough. Why can't he understand?" I put my head in my hands.
Why is this all so complicated?