With music in his ears to drown out the surroundings, I watched Luke pace the small room that was the backstage area for bands performing as The Ink.
He'd been pacing for ages now. Wearing himself into the concrete floor. "Is he always like this?" I asked Calum, who was sitting next to my on the lounge. He was practically a stranger to me but Michael had disappeared and Ashton was still at the bar talking to a random girl.
"Yep," Calum nodded. "Not to this extent, but this will probably be our biggest show yet. He'll calm down once we're on stage. He always does."
I nodded slowly. I guessed like superheroes, rockstars have their weaknesses and The Ink was arguably one of the biggest venues in town. It was the old stomping ground of many well-known bands and 5 Seconds of Summer were playing to a sold-out venue tonight.
The fact that I was hanging out back stage with the boys felt a little strange to me. I wondered if Luke often invited girls to hang out here before a show, or if I was one of the rare few. Both thoughts weren't entirely comfortable.
I wondered if he'd asked me here to distract him. His nerves had kicked in the day before and he'd been a jittery mess since; a far cry from the cocky boy who I met when he first walked into the store.
When I told Luke that Harry wasn't coming to the show, I'd expected him to be disappointed. It was his idea to invite him after all. His reaction was exactly the opposite though; his delicate features had softened with relief.
So I didn't even mention that Clark from Pilot Records was actually coming in place of Harry. The less Luke knew at this stage, the better. His pacing showed no signs of slowing. In fact, I think his movements were becoming faster.
I grabbed an unopened bottle of water and walked over to Luke. He didn't even notice me, only taking out his earphones when I tapped him on the shoulder.
"Here, have a drink. It's not vodka," I laughed a little, "but it might help."
"Thanks," he said curtly, taking a sip and screwing the lid back on. Through his black t-shirt, I could see the harsh rise and fall of his chest.
"Hey," I placed a hand on his chest. "Relax, okay? You've got a whole crowd of girls out there who think you guys are going to be this decades version of Blink-182."
He didn't even smile at my reference to one of his favourite bands, and I was starting to feel nervous for him. Michael and Ashton better get there butts back in here soon, I thought. Luke still hadn't said anything when I realised my hand was still resting on his chest, his heart beating forcefully into my palm.
"What if everyone hates the new song?" he said, just as I put my hand back into my jeans pocket. "What if I forget the lyrics? What if - " Luke's attention moved behind me to where Calum was still sitting, tapping away on his phone. "Where's the other two?"
"They're..." I looked at Calum, waiting for him to answer and save the situation. He knew Luke far better than I did.
"I'm here," Michael walked in, his newly bleached blonde hair now partially dipped with shades of blue. He was going to end up bald one day.
"Where's Ashton?"
"I'll go find him," I offered, hoping that he hadn't moved from the bar. At this point, I needed some vodka. Luke's nervousness was contagious.
"No, Calum can go."
The dark haired boy was still occupied with his phone, not showing any inclination that he'd been listening to the conversations around him.
"Calum!" Michael barked, and he finally looked up. "Get your ass up. We're going to find Ash."
The room felt uncomfortably silent once Michael and Calum left. Luke was leaning against the wall, turning the bottle of water over in his hands with deep concentration. He was obviously lost in his nerves, and I was surprised to find myself lost in what Michael had said to me at work last week.
Luke has a crush on me.
It seemed so childish to put it like that. A crush. Yet the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I had a slight crush on Luke too.
"How about that backstage quickie?" I joked, laughing to myself as I thought back to our very first conversation. Luke looked up and finally, there was a small smile on his lips.
"That wasn't supposed to happen until after the show, if I remember correctly," he said softly. "And we go on stage in five minutes."
I shrugged, taking a few steps towards him. "I'm sure that's more than enough time for you."
He half-laughed, "Are you insinuating that I'm a premature ejaculator? Because that is simply untrue."
Now that I was close enough to him, my hand involuntarily found it's way to his heart again. It was almost back to beating at a regular pace.
"Thank you," he said softly. I looked up at him to see him watching me intently, his tongue playing with his lip ring. The last time our faces had been this close to one another was the day at the store where I thought he was going to kiss me.
"What are you thanking me for?"
"For calming my nerves, and making me laugh."
Luke placed his hand over mine, his fingertips slightly colder than I expected them to be. I was happy that he didn't have his hand on my chest otherwise it might have gave away how much my body tensed up. How much my heart sped up.
Standing up onto my toes slowly, I leaned closer towards him until there was barely any space to breathe between our lips. His mouth parted just as we could hear the other boys voices. I didn't move my lips before I spoke, letting Luke's breath fan my face softly.
"It's show time, Quiff boy."
-
Calum was right.
Once the boys took to the stage, you wouldn't have even known Luke was nervous. His voice was flawless, his performance energetic. Even on stage, all four boys bonded and interacted in a way that was captivating to watch.
As predicted, the crowd was large and crammed into every spare space of The Ink.
Squeezed between a couple and a group of three girls, I was as close to the stage as I could get - it was entirely different to the previous two times I'd watched the boys perform. I could almost see the beads of sweat forming on Michael's forehead, producing blue streaks that ran down his face.
There were a few times in between songs that I found myself looking past the screaming girls and the (severely outnumbered) punk-looking boys, trying to spot someone that looked like they might be from a record company.
I wasn't sure what I was looking for. Harry was the only music scout I'd ever met. With a name like Clark, though, I couldn't picture him to be long-haired and revealing a torso full of tattoos through an opened button shirt. Then again, I couldn't picture anyone else like Harry - ever. He was so unique and different to everyone else.
There was a small part of me that had developed a dislike for Clark. It was irrational and uncalled for, but he'd seemed to have swooped in and taken over interactions that I'd been hoping to have with Harry.
As for Harry, the more I thought about him, the more annoyed with him I felt. The first time we met, he was the one who initiated the conversation. And he'd showed up at the second 5 Seconds of Summer show on his night off, and even admitted that he went because he thought I would be there.
Then, he walked into my store, and propositioned a business deal and then what? Nothing. I hadn't heard a single thing from him since. I couldn't even call him rude because he was always so annoyingly polite. And annoyingly good looking.
And now, annoyingly silent.
During Amnesia, Michael and Luke did some silly synchronised dance thing, and I watched on with a smile that took up most of my face. The boys had absolutely owned the stage and stolen the hearts of every person in the building tonight. I wasn't sure if Clark had showed up, but I was really hoping he did.
Ashton's long hair was now also dripping with sweat, sending the three girls beside me into hormonal hysteria. "Thank you all for coming out tonight. You guys rock."
With his hand clutched around the microphone, Luke closed the set with confidence. "This last song is a new song we've wrote, so uh, we hope you like it. It's called Kiss Me Kiss Me."
"Here's to teenage memories."
hella shippers get ready because harry is coming