~Paige
Somewhere in the midst of crying, talking, and even more apologies, Calum and I fell asleep.
His arms are wrapped around my stomach from behind, and my back is pressed firmly into his chest. I can feel Calum's soft breaths on my neck making a small smile stretch on my lips.
This isn't the first time Calum and I have fallen asleep next to each other. We both deal with more issues that a person should have to go through, and have always had trouble sleeping. We always sleep better in each other's arms anyways. It's just always been that way.
We've never found it weird or uncomfortable to cuddle or sleep in the same bed because of the foundation we've built our relationship upon together.
I know for sure that it is morning because the curtains are open, making the hotel room bright by the sun. I just need to figure out what time it is.
Without leaving Calum's grasp around me, I carefully reach over and grab my phone from the nightstand.
The time reads; 6:30 am. I'm about to turn off my phone and snuggle back into Calum, but see that I have new text messages.
I unlock my phone and see that Michael had texted me a few minutes ago,
Mikey: Good morning. I'm up early for once which is super weird and was wondering if you are too?
Michael awake before everyone else? That's unheard of.
Paige: Hey Mikey. What's up?
Mikey: I'm hungry and can't fall back asleep. Will you get breakfast with me?
Paige: Give me 10 minutes! I'll see you in the lobby.
I turn off my phone and resist the urge to fall back asleep in Calum's warm and comforting arms.
The thoughts of what happened last night come flooding back into my memory as I remember how I practically told him everything about my traumatic childhood.
I hate talking about it, let alone talking about myself but this conversation was going to happen eventually. He had a right to know, and the timing was just right.
I'm not sure if it'll get Calum to stop smoking completely, but I know that it triggered something in him to try harder at getting over this addiction.
Carefully, I try to get myself out of his grasp without waking him up. As I try to do so, he inhales a deep breath and his arms tighten around my body even more.
"Where are you going?" He asks with his eyes still closed and voice groggy as ever.
"Breakfast with Michael." I whisper not wanting to fully wake him up.
"No, stay here. You're warm and I'm tired." He says snuggling his head into the crook of my neck.
I giggle at his action, "Can't, he's already waiting for me." I don't give Calum the opportunity to protest any longer, and slip out his arms and off the bed quickly so that he has no time to stop me.
"You're mean." He groans and stuffs his face closer into the pillows.
"I'm sorry." I respond walking over to my suitcase. I grab my outfit for the day and head inside of the bathroom to change out of the clothes I was still wearing from last night. On a regular night, sleeping in jeans would have been the most uncomfortable thing ever, but last night was not a regular night.
I can feel the sweat from being pressed up to Calum all night, stick to my body and I immediately cringe at the feeling. Michael can wait a few minutes longer for me, I make my choice and strip from last nights concert attire. I place my clothes on the counter next to the sink, turn on the water, and step into the shower.
The warm water engulfs my body, relaxing my sore muscles. I rub at my eyes to get rid of any left over mascara I haven't cried off yet, and see a stream of black fall to the shower floor. Once I've finished scrubbing any dirt and sweat off my body with the soap that the hotel has provided, I turn off the water and grab the white towel hanging on the railing.
Michael is most likely already waiting for me down at the lobby, so I decide on putting no makeup on my face. There's no use in it anyways, nothing will change the fact that I look as bad as I feel.
As soon as I've finished changing and getting ready for the day, I exit the bathroom and walk back over to the nightstand where my phone and purse lay.
Calum is still passed out on the comfortable bed, surrounded by disarranged pillows and half of the blanket on his body and the other half off the bed. Quiet snores leave through his mouth, and it doesn't seem like he'll be waking up any time soon. Nonetheless, he looks peaceful. I wish he could always feel that way.
I put my shoes on, grab my belongings, and leave the room as quietly as possible to not disturb him. Thankfully, I was given two spare keys which are now useful to Calum and I both.
The hallway is empty which isn't surprising at all since it is almost 7 am, and anyone who cares about their sleep schedule is most likely still asleep right now. I'm honestly not even sure if the hotel is open for breakfast yet or if Michael and I are going to have to find the nearest Starbucks to get our food and coffee.
Once the elevator doors open, my eyes go searching around the lobby for my dyed blonde haired friend. Due to how desolate the hotel is right now, it wasn't too difficult to see him sitting on the couch far to engaged in whatever was going on his phone.
I tug my purse tighter across my shoulder and make my way over to him. He doesn't seem to notice me standing right in front of him,
so I nudge his foot to see if that would work.
He looks up at me, wide eyes in shock and a little upset that I pulled him away from his focus. "Oh. Good morning Paige."
"Hi Michael." I say forcing the biggest smile I could manage right now.
"Wow," He laughs to himself. "You look-"
"Terrible?" I finished off for him.
"I was gonna say exhausted." He says giving me a sympathetic smile and standing up from his seat on the couch.
"Well I am." I say rubbing my eyes to try and wake up a little more. "But it's alright, I needed to get up any way."
The two of us walk in the direction of the cafe and I am very pleased to see that it is open and ready for the guests to eat.
"Why weren't you able to sleep Mike?" I ask him as we sit down at an open table.
He picks up the menu and begins skimming through it, "Thats actually what I needed to talk to you about."
My eyebrows raise in confusion and I have yet to pick up my menu, Michael has my full attention at this point, "What is it? You can tell me anything" I ask sensing that he's really nervous to say this.
He places the menu down and holds his hands in his lap, "You can tell me if this is a bad idea," He begins. "I trust you and you're a girl so I mean your view point on this will be way more accurate than mine." He rambles, seeming more nervous than ever right now.
"Michael calm down, it's just me." I reassure him, trying to get him to slow down.
He runs a shaky hand through his dyed hair and looks back to me, "I'm thinking about proposing to Crystal when we get to America." He finally says with a small smile tugging at his lips.
"Oh my God!" I say raising my voice a little too loud. "Are you serious Michael?" I ask excitedly.
He nods his head, letting his smile grow even wider now that he knows he has my support.
Crystal Leigh is one of my best friends in the entire world. She is 5 Seconds of Summers event and tour manager and is the sole reason these tours are such a success. Her and Michael have been in a relationship for 3 years and are the picture perfect couple everyone wants to be.
I have never seen purer love than what they have for each other. When we get to the American leg of the tour, she will be joining us for the rest of it.
"I think you should do it Michael." I encourage. "The two of you have a love so strong for each other and I really think the timing is right."
"You think so?" He asks still nervous, rightfully so.
"I do, and you have my full support on this." I say nodding my head and smiling so wide at him I can feel my eyes crinkle.
"Thank you Paige." The nervous boy says exhaling a sigh of relief.
"Of course." I say sincerely to the boy I've known since he was 17. Time is flying by faster than I wish it would.
I won't admit it now, but it makes me sort of sad. I've grown up with these dorks for 5 years now and everything seems to be changing so fast.
Michaels deciding on whether or not he should propose to his girlfriend of 3 years, Calum's addicted to smoking and still waiting for me, Ashton is constantly off and on with his relationships, and Luke finally has a steady girlfriend after all these years.
But amidst all of the complications these boys have, there has been a lot of growth that I have gotten to watch happen.
It makes me emotional which is something I don't allow myself to feel often. Accepting the job as the band photographer never entailed that I would be so attached to the boys I was taking the pictures for.
I love them with everything in me and they have all become family to me. They are more of a family to me than my blood family. No action or gesture in the world will ever prove just how much I care for the four of them.
"I haven't told the guys yet." He admits, and I feel myself get even more emotional at the fact that out of all the people Michael is close to, he chose me to be the first to talk to about this.
"I won't tell them anything." I promise him. He gives me a smile and nod as to say thank you. I can tell he appreciated that.
If Michael hasn't told the others yet, I certainly will not be the first to, especially if he is trusting me with something as special as this.
"Are you two ready to order?"
—
"It's really nice being home." Michael says as the two of us walk down the familiar streets of our childhood.
"It is." I agree with him.
No matter where we travel or live for long periods of time, Australia will always be our home.
"Can you believe that our schools sports teams used to be rivals?" He asks as both of us laugh at the memory.
"I remember going to the football games and seeing Calum play. He stuck out the most to me on the team because of how good he was." I share thinking about our old high school days.
"Yeah, I was always envious of how good he was. I'm glad he stuck with the band though." Michael says as we cross the street.
"So am I."
After we finished breakfast, we checked to see if the boys and Vanessa were still sleeping, and they were. So we decided a walk around our city would be a good idea.
With all the craziness that comes with touring, I hardly get one on one time with the boys. I'm really grateful for this time I get to spend catching up with Michael.
"Favorite ice cream, go!" Michael spurts out a random question.
"Sherbet, but you already knew that Mikey." I giggle looking at him confused.
"Why don't you ask more thorough questions like...what's the most embarrassing moment you've ever had?" I ask awaiting his answer. I'm honestly prepared for the worst.
"Oh God, there's too many. Let's see..." I cross my arms over my chest and pull my jacket tighter around myself, the cold Sydney air was making it impossible to stay warm.
I guess the iced coffee I had with breakfast didn't help much with that either.
"Oh I know!" Michael snickers. "Back in 2014, Luke and I were running back and forth across the stage battling each other with our guitars and I accidentally split my jeans straight down the crotch area all the way to the back."
"No way." I say throwing my hands over my mouth in shock. How do I not remember that?
"That's not even the worst part." He shakes his head. "I was wearing rainbow unicorn boxers and all the fans took pictures, posting them all over instagram and twitter."
"That's terrible. I'm so sorry." I say patting him on the shoulder.
"It's fine now," He shrugs. "Just super embarrassing at the time."
"I can imagine."
"Alright, your turn." He says passing the question onto me.
"Okay," I say looking at Michael. "I'm only telling you this story because I trust you." I give him a warning look through my eyes.
He grabs onto my arm and shakes it, "Just tell me already!"
I really don't wanna say this out loud, but I was the one that asked the question in the first place.
So I shrug him off and begin, "Back in college, Vanessa and I decided to go to one of the parties they were having. The two of us didn't really get to drink much because of how swarmed we constantly were with homework. So we started off with a White Claw then got involved in some of the drinking games, but because of how bad we were at them we had to take a shot every few minutes."
Michael looks down at me already suspecting where this story is going.
"At this point we were completely hammered, dancing stupidly to the loud music, talking to anyone and everyone. We basically had no control over ourselves." I take a break as we cross the street again before continuing. I hate thinking about this particular memory, let alone talking about it out loud.
I've never talked about this night with anyone but Vanessa because of how humiliated I am that it happened.
"At some point, Vanessa asked if I wanted to go back to our dorm and do something fun. I had no idea what she had in mind, but I was too drunk to care. So she dragged me out of the party and we helped each other back to our building."
"And what did you guys do?" Michael asks, too engaged in this story.
I bite my lip trying with everything in me to just say it.
"Come on, it can't be that bad."
I raise my eyebrows giving him a look.
"I won't tell anyone." He says raising his hands in defense.
Giving in, I look face forward and avoid looking at him, "Vanessa thought it would be funny to strip naked and streak through the building." I say hiding my face in the palm of my hands. I can feel the heat of my cheeks burn all the way down to my neck from embarrassment.
"I was too drunk to protest this idea and since she's my best friend I went along with it." I shake my head and laugh at the complete stupidity of it all. "The fact that other students could be in the hallways didn't even cross my mind."
"So let me guess," Michael says pausing his movement and turning to fully look at me. "There were people outside and they saw you and Vanessa running around naked?"
"Yes!" I yell, wanting the feeling of pure humiliation to go away. "It was terrible. These three girls heading to their dorm rooms saw us and quickly helped us to our rooms before any other people could see us."
"Sounds like a great memory." Michael says sarcastically.
"Definitely a core memory for sure, but great? More like mortifying." I shake my head, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind my ear.
My phone begins ringing in my pocket distracting me from our conversation, I pull it out and see that I have an incoming call from Calum.
"We should probably head back." Michael says, noticing the caller ID on my phone.
I nod my head agreeing with him and we turn down the street to continue the walk back to the hotel.
"Thank you for being my friend Michael." I say looking up at him gratefully as we walk.
"Thank you for being mine." He responds, wrapping a friendly arm around my shoulder, tucking me into his side.
A/N
Hi everyone :)
Just a quick disclaimer! Crystal and KayKay will be featured in this story but not everything about their relationship with Ashton and Michael will be true or accurate.
Thank you for reading. Don't forget to vote and comment <3