~Calum
Regardless of everything that happened leading up to right now, the concert was going amazing.
Paige was in front of the barricade in my section, where she belongs. She looks like she's trying her best to be happy and have fun, but I know its hard for her after all she's been through emotionally these past two days.
A part of me feels that if it weren't for her job she wouldn't be here right now. She's given us, me specifically, too many chances and I feel like I've been blowing it every time.
With Luke leading, the fans dance and sing the lyrics of Empty Wallets back to us. Vanessa stands in front of him for the majority of the show and I'm sure the two are excited to actually get the full concert experience instead of her being pulled away without getting to congratulate her boyfriend first.
That part was also my fault.
The rest of the concert was a blur, as every one tends to be. That's the great part about performing live. You get this rush of adrenaline that blinds your mind from reality and its just you and the music.
"Amazing as always," Paige wraps her arms around my neck as mine find her waist to pull us closer together. "Don't tell anyone this, but you're my favorite bassist."
I pull back slightly to look at her face, "Over John Paul Jones?"
She purses her lips playfully, "On second thought..." She giggles trying to remove herself from my grasp only causing me to hold her tighter.
"Hang on! Hang on! You would pick John Paul Jones over me?" I pretend to be offended, pinching her side just to hear her laugh again.
"Oh come on Cal! So would you." She laughs louder at the sensation of my pinching at her side. She successfully squirms out of my grasp and stands dumfounded in front of me.
"Why are we fighting over this?" I shake my head.
"You're the one who brought it up." Paige raises her hands up in defense and is about to walk away.
I quickly grab her wrist and pull her to me once more, "Are you doing anything tonight?" I whisper in her ear so that our nosey friends won't hear.
"Just packing, why?" She looks up at me.
"Let's do something fun." I pull back slightly to look her in the eyes. "Just me and you. I feel like we need it." I shrug nonchalantly trying not to put too much emphasis on the fact that the past two days have been hard.
She nods her head and quietly responds, "Okay." But I can see a smile tugging at her lips. I let go of her so she can go congratulate the rest of the boys, but smirk as I watch her do so.
Paige is the definition of charming. She's polite, friendly, and overall a pleasant person to be around. She's been like a breath of fresh air since the moment she joined this group.
I stand back and watch her interact with each of them. It makes my heart hurt in the best way seeing how utterly adored she is by my brothers.
"What are the plans for tonight?" Michael asks the same question one of us asks after every show we perform.
Vanessa steps forward and locks arms with Luke, "I don't know about you guys, but this ones mine tonight." Luke smirks making it blatantly obvious what she meant by that.
"Its been a long day," Ashton cuts in. "To each their own."
God bless Ashton Irwin.
Paige smiles at me from across the group circle we've made and I smile back, both of us sharing the same thought.
No attention will be on us tonight. Just you and me.
The group begins to go their separate ways. Around us, crew members swiftly clean the venue and pack up our equipment onto the tour bus.
Paige walks up to me bouncing on the balls of her feet, "You ready to go?" I ask.
"Where to?" She asks, shaking with excitement over the fact that I have something planned. Another trait I love about Paige. Did I say love? Too soon Cal.
Another trait I like about Paige is that behind the mature exterior she holds, she will always be a kid at heart who can't hide her excitement of being invited to nights out with her childhood best friend.
"Wherever the streets take us." I suggest. Paige and I grew up in Sydney and know these streets by heart. When the band first started out we spent a majority of our time here before moving to London.
This wouldn't be the first time Paige and I had a late night walk down these familiar streets.
"Its nice out." She says holding one hand to her camera and the other arm brushing mine as we walk.
"It is," I agree and breath in the cold air, taking in the feeling of how refreshing it is after sweating my ass off on stage. "I have a question."
"Shoot."
"Do you remember when we were sixteen and got into our first argument?" I laugh reminiscing the absurdity of it.
She clutches onto her camera and laughs loudly, "Oh my God yeah! Wasn't it over the fact that I was trying to study and you wouldn't stop screaming at the video game you were playing?"
I shake my head thinking back to teenage us, "In my defense, we were living in a small house and I had nothing better to do."
"You are not still trying to defend yourself, Hood?!" She gapes at me, eyes widened in horror.
"Oh but I am." I say doubling over in laughter, earning a slap to the chest.
"I have no idea how I passed all my classes with the constant loud noises in that house." She pulls her jacket tighter around her body. Every muscle in my body is telling me to wrap my arm around her, but I'm still being careful not to cross any boundaries with everything that has happened recently. "Whats this?" She says stopping in front of an unfamiliar store.
"Must be new," I shrug. "Wanna check it out?" I ask but she's already ahead of me. The front of the store is lined with cameras of all sorts giving me the impression that this may be a photography equipment store.
While I slowly take my time walking around feeling somewhat out of place, Paige eagerly goes up to every section looking at each individual camera as if they all hold some sort of sentimental value only she can see.
I watch as her eyes grow wide in delight, how she delicately traces the lenses, I feel as though no thought the two of us could ever share would be accurate enough to describe how she feels right now.
Soon enough, Paige is out of sight buried deep between Nikon cameras and format cards. I turn around and walk towards the front of the store to busy myself and give her as much time as she needs in here.
The shelf next to the cashier holds disposable cameras for $15. Then it hits me. Paige is always the one to take pictures of me, why not I take pictures of her for a change?
I grab one off the shelf and quickly pay for it before Paige comes back to reality and finds me up here. The cashier hands me the bag that he placed the camera in and I thank him before turning to find my dear friend who I am afraid has lost her mind by now.
In the very back of the shop where no regular customer would ever care to look, is Paige standing up on her toes to get a better look at more cameras. I use this moment as my first chance at taking a candid picture of her with my new disposable camera.
I fish through the plastic bag and grab the box out, opening it up and holding the camera up to my eye. Once I get the perfect angle, I snap the photo. 26 pictures left.
I am no where near as good a picture taker as Paige, but it's the memory that counts. I want to make this up to her and I think the first step is showing that her words don't go in one ear and out the other.
The pictures that I take on this camera should be a secret that I'll show her when it hits 0 and luckily the pockets of my pants are big enough to hide it. I dispose of the box and plastic bag and place the camera into my pocket.
I turn my attention back to her and she that she is still in the same place as I last saw.
As much as I don't want to disturb her, it is getting late and we have more to do before heading back to the hotel. I walk up to her as calmly as I can so that she can remain in this state of bliss. She's been happy so far and I don't want anything to ruin that for her.
"Isn't it amazing in here?" She says feeling my presence beside her but not looking away from the cameras.
"It is," I sigh.
"But we have to go now don't we?" She says softly, finally looking at me.
I feel bad having to tear her away from a place that she seems genuinely happy in, "We do." I notice that she's holding a few items. "You gonna buy some stuff?"
"Just these." She gestures to the items in her hand. "I realized that I needed to upgrade some of my equipment and this place was pretty convenient."
I allow her to lead the way, with occasional stops for checking out even more cameras, before making it to the cashier.
"Your total comes out to $256 and 63 cents." The cashier informs Paige. She pulls her wallet out and is about to pay the man when I beat her to it. I hand him my credit card receiving an unsatisfied look from her.
I can tell by the way she grasps the counter so tight that her knuckles turn white, that she is preparing to yell at me once we're outside for paying.
The man hands me my credit card back and gives Paige the bag full of new camera equipment. She follows reluctantly behind me, clearly not ready to leave this magical store yet.
"Why did you do that?" She says angrily once we're far from ear shot.
"Do what?" I ask knowing exactly what she's talking about.
"Pay for me!" She yells, lifting the bag up with her big gesture. "I am fully capable of paying for myself."
"I know you are." I say keeping my tone calm while hers is far from it.
"Then why did you pay?" She asks still not letting this go.
I shrug not really having one answer towards this, "Because I wanted to." Her face softens at my words. She shakes her head and tries to calm herself.
"I'm still mad at you, but thank you." Paige links one arm with mine to bring us closer together. My heart warms at the gesture despite her having done this many times before.
"Anything for you Pae." I respond truthfully. Paying two hundred something dollars for this girl is not the most extreme I would go for her.
She opens her mouth to respond but no words come out. Instead she looks straight across from us at something, "No way."
"What?" I ask, turning my head to see what she's looking at. "No way." I repeat the same words with the same tone.
We separate ourselves from one another and run towards the familiar area that the five of us spent almost every day at back in 2012.
"How long has it been since we've been to this park?" Paige asks as she eagerly sets her stuff down and begins climbing on the play sets.
"Six years, I believe." I say copying her actions. We're lucky that it's the middle of the night or else we would be receiving strange looks from parents that two grown adults are getting excited over a playground.
Ashton, Luke, Michael, Paige, and I used to come to this park every day after writing or recording at the studio. It's right down the street from where we used to live and where our families still live today.
Because of how young we were and how fast our careers took off, this park was a safe haven for us to be kids and have fun.
"Paige come over here," I wave her over to sit down on the swing. She quickly slides down the play set and skips over to the swing in front of me. Once she's fully situated I begin gently pushing her forwards. "This is so nostalgic."
"I missed this." She admits out loud.
"Me too," I sigh starting to push her higher. "Its unreal being back here as adults." She nods her head agreeing.
"So much has happened these past years, it's amazing to think about all that you have accomplished." I continue pushing her on the swing, thankful for how quiet and peaceful it is out here with just the two of us.
Maybe its just me or maybe its the fact that this park is so eerily quiet, but I hear Paige sniffle.
Not a sick sniffle, but as if she's trying to hide the fact that she's crying. I watch as she lifts a hand away from the handle of the swing and quickly wipes it across her cheek.
The observing part of me wants to ask what's wrong, but the best friend part of me knows that if she wanted to tell me she would.
Paige needs a distraction from whatever it is she's thinking about, "I still believe I didn't do anything wrong with how loud I was yelling at my video game while you were trying to study."
Her posture stiffens and I can tell she's ready to fight, "How can you even think for a second that you were in the right on this? I was trying to fucking study Calum!"
There's my girl.
"You could have easily gone outside or something."
"You are a menace Calum Hood." She shakes her head, causing her ponytail to follow through with it.
"Maybe," I agree. "But you are a control freak and an annoying one at that." I say only half joking. She laughs knowing the argument we started at sixteen is going no where.
I won't admit this to her now, but I totally could have shut that video game off and let her study. I just wanted an excuse for her to keep coming downstairs to yell at me.
The more she did, the more I got to see her pretty face.
A/N
I am in love with this chapter.
Just a little side note: It makes me feel really motivated when I see more comments and votes on chapters because it shows me that you guys are enjoying this story. So I encourage you all to do that as much as you can and feel like :)
Thank you for reading. Love you all <3