"Ashton's house? .. Yeah, that'd be fine .. What do you mean bring food? We can just order pizza," Luke laughed, nodding over to Michael who responded with a smile.
"We'll be over in a few," Luke confirmed, hitting 'end call' on his phone and slipping it back in his pocket.
He walked over to the key basket that his family had beside the door and grabbed his car keys, then checked his hair in the mirror conveniently locatated above the key basket. "You guys up to hang with Cal and Ash?" He asked Michael and I.
I scrunched my eyebrows, "We're not just gonna stay in your house without you, ya goof."
Michael laughed and Luke sarcastically rolled his eyes as he was walking over to me. I was standing comfortably against the wall beside the front door. Michael was sitting on the floor next to me because he was getting tired of standing, which was okay, but he'd started to play with my shoelaces and lean against my leg so I lightly tapped him on the head and he stopped. Luke still didn't like it very much when other guys- not just Michael- touched any part of me, and I didn't want Luke to see what he was doing and get all pissy again. You'd think that Luke being constantly jealous would get annoying, and it did, trust me. But honestly, most of the time I liked it. I liked Luke being protective over me, because he was so cute about it.
I flinched as Luke poked my belly making him laugh quietly as he grabbed my hand, and used the other hand to pull Michael up to a standing position. We headed towards the front door and I could hear Luke's car keys dangling in his hand.
"Want me to drive?" Michael offered.
I've only recently discovered that Michael has a small obsession with driving, and I've never asked him why. My guess is that he only recently got his license, which is also why Luke won't let him drive. At least not with himself and I in the car.
"No, I'm driving. And Jas gets shotgun-"
"Again?" Michael whined.
No one said anything else after what Michael said, there was just a small burst of giggles and we were out the front door. The drive to Ashton's house isn't the longest, so we didn't get to play a lot of songs on the way there. I didn't mind a whole lot. I just liked watching Luke tap his fingers on the steering wheel, and watching him mouth the lyrics as he drove.
Michael sighed as soon as we pulled up into Ashton's driveway and got out quickly. Luke got out soon after and walked to my side to wrap an arm around me as I got out of the car.
"You guys are disgusting." Michael sarcastically grimaced, earning a chuckle from Luke. Jealousy at its finest.
Ashton answered Michael's loud knocks on his wooden door and politely invited us in. As soon as I crossed the threshold of the door, I was greeted with a hug even though Luke's arm was around me.
"I've missed you so much! We should really hang out more." Emma said, as cheery as ever.
Luke's arm was no longer around my waist, but instead he was hugging Annabelle. At first, I was confused. Then I remembered that Luke knew Annabelle from when he was enrolled in Canyon Ridge. They were asking each other how things were going, and I could tell that Annabelle was still in the institution from her facial expressions. I looked to Ashton who was looking at her with one of the most endearing looks I've ever seen him give but I couldn't help think 'poor Ashton'. He has to deal with the one he loves in a place much colder and unwelcoming than his arms, and he could only see her every so often. It's hard to believe that was me at one point.
I saw Ashton snap out of the trance that his girlfriend put him in and look around at the rest of us. "Anyone want anything to eat?"
"I thought we were going to order pizza," Michael reminded us.
Ashton nodded and walked off to the kitchen to order a pizza, and in that time all of us moved to Ashton's living room.
"Where're Ashton's parents?" I whispered to Luke.
"His mom? Probably working or something, she works a lot," He answered.
"Yeah, she's working at the moment. I have the house to myself most days, if my brother and sister are at a friend's house. It's great for when I can bring Belle over here." Ashton answered too, making the small girl holding his hand blush.
Michael groaned, "I can't believe I'm the only one without a girlfriend, this room is too relationship-y."
For the first time since I got to Ashton's, I heard Calum chuckle. Then, he cleared his throat and said a droned out, 'so'.
"I think we should probably release the EP. Y'know, our band thing."
I watched Luke's eyes widen and I could tell he forgot all about the EP. I looked over to Michael and Ashton and they also had the same expression on their face.
"Wait, so like, just release it? Without having a countdown to a date or something?" Ashton asked.
Calum groaned while shrugging, "I've been wanting to release this thing for so long, plus, we don't have like, a shit ton of fans anyway-"
"Well," I said quickly, getting everyone's attention, "I was asked the other day if I was 'actually dating Luke Hemmings', because apparently they're pretty popular around school or something."
Luke laughed loudly beside me and then stopped immediately when he saw my face. "You're serious?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, so you better keep some of those girls off of you and remind them that you have me." I joked.
Luke let out a quick chuckle and kissed me on the cheek, "No worries, love."
"Love? Jesus," Michael complained. He's probably going to do that more often than not.
"Anyway..." Calum said, getting everyone back on track. "It doesn't really matter if we actually do have a following, or whatever. Let's just do it."
Everyone was silent for only a moment, and then Calum looked to Ashton. "You have the CD right? How do we upload it to iTunes and shit?"
The only person who really knew how to do that was Ashton, so he went to get a laptop and brought the EP with it. We kept talking as he was working on that, but Calum got up and went to help Ashton. Emma followed close behind.
"Don't we have like, a band twitter or something.. if not, we should probably make one like, now.." Michael said.
"We should make it together, because y'know.. we're a band." Luke suggested.
The rest of them nodded, and Michael pulled out his phone. In the time it took Michael to log out of his twitter, Calum came back with Emma's hand in his. Michael looked to the rest of us. "What should the username be?"
"Probably 5sos, if it's not taken." Emma suggested.
Calum looked over to the girl beside him and smiled with crinkley eyes, "You're not in the band." He said sarcastically. She simply play-punched his arm and then kissed the side of his head.
"But yeah, 5sos. Or 5SOS because you're always yelling." Calum laughed to Michael.
Michael chuckled and quickly made the twitter. He tweeted something Michael-like, and then put his phone down. I looked to Luke and he looked like he was thinking.
"I think that, maybe since I have some subs on youtube.. that we should post a quick video saying to follow our twitter. So that some people know we released the EP."
The rest of the guys thought it was a great idea, so Luke took out his phone and held it at selfie-angle. He just quickly said his apologies for not posting a cover in a while, and then told the viewers to follow their band twitters. It wasn't long before it was on youtube.
"Ashton! How's the EP-uploading-whatever going?" Michael yelled, seeing as Ashton wasn't in the same room.
"It's gonna take like, a day at least guys." He shouted back.
Everyone groaned and then, collectively laughed. I watched Calum shrug. "Well, we can just tweet that it'll be on iTunes tomorrow."
I couldn't help but feel proud and amazed and just, so many emotions at once. There was a point where Luke believed he couldn't and wouldn't be able to do any of this, and now he's doing it. I couldn't help the very subtle, small smile that made it's way on my face.
"Shit," Michael laughed, "we already have close to a thousand followers, what the fuck."
I watched everyone's face light up at once and I'm sure mine looked about the same. Michael continued to tweet that the album would be out soon, and the rest of the group was talking individually. I turned to Luke and felt the butterflies in my stomach seeing his smile.
"What?" He said softly, when he saw me smiling.
"You still give me butterflies," I laughed, "it feels weird."
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders again and squeezed me into his side, kissing against the side of my head.
"We should celebrate," Michael said, obviously sick of us, "let's go for ice cream. I'm not paying." He lauged.
"I will!" Ashton chirped from the room he was in.
He came walking back out with Annabelle who, and I'm not exaggerating whenever I say this, was the cutest girl Ashton could've ever dated. He was so tall and she only came up to the middle of his upper arm, and when they held hands, he put his arm all the way around her shoulders as she held her arm up to hold his hand. It was adorable.
I leaned in to Luke's ear. "Ashton and Annabelle are so cute.."
He chuckled and slipped his hand in mine as he whispered back, "Not as cute as us."
I blushed, of course.
"Butterflies?" He whispered, a small laugh escaping his lips.
-
Luke took a bite (is it considered a bite?) of ice cream and looked around the table.
"Thanks, Ashton," He said, looking around at everyone else, expecting us to say the same. And we did, of course.. minus Michael, who was talking to the cashier.
"It's not a problem, guys. Don't worry about it." Ashton said with a smile.
I continued eating my ice cream with a smile on my face, and a lot was going on in the back of my mind of course. But the one thing on the forefront of my mind was the way the cashier was still talking to Michael. It didn't bother me, but it intrigued me.
"Hey, does anyone know the cashier?" I whispered to everyone.
Several of them turned their head to look behind them and shrugged. She wasn't tall, but wasn't short either. Her hair was a black that you know was dyed that way, and she was wearing a tank that looked like she'd cut the sleeves right off. That, of course, under her uniform which was just a dirty-looking apron. Michael was definitely flirting with her, and she was definitely into him.
A useless conversation about nothing important ended abruptly as Michael came back to the table obviously giddy about the cashier. Loads of questions from all of us hit Michael like a train, questions like; "Who's she?", "What's her name?", "Is that her phone number scribbled on your hand?"
From what I'd gathered, her name is Birdy and she's around the same age as Michael. It was her phone number and yes, Michael was planning to see her again.
Towards the end of Michael's quiet jabbering about Birdy, most of us realized we'd finished our ice creams. We left soon after that, not really sure of what to do with ourselves. The rest of the day consisted of all of us riding around in a car, listening to the music playing and just talking. We drove all over the city, and yeah, we wasted a lot of gas, but it was the best night I'd had in weeks.
//
that's ... that's it. wow
thank you guys so so much for reading, honestly it means so much to me. i have over one hundred THOUSAND reads and it's all thanks to you guys.
i'm sorry for posting late, not just this time but all of the times that i have. it wasn't easy writing this fic but.. i did it. it's finally come to a close.
this isn't the last of me, though, i'll be focusing so much more on my michael fic and an upcoming ash fic soon! stay around for those (-:
thanks again, guys. i love you all so much (-: you've been great and i hope to have you all read my other fics. fairwinds!!
- riss 🚀