Chapter 9: Singing
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Derek left after about half an hour later for rowing. It was as though he was waiting for the perfect timing, because as soon as Derek left Luke rocked up.
“You didn’t wait for me today,” he said sadly.
“Sorry, I had some pretty important things to tell Derek. Where’s Michael?”
“Dunno. Maybe he went somewhere after school. You have any food?”
“In the fridge, I told Derek,” I said, as I sat down at the kitchen island.
“Told him what?” Luke asked through a mouthful of ice-cream.
“I told him the truth.”
“About us?”
“Yeah.”
Luke nodded slowly. “It was about time anyway.”
“You took that awfully well.”
“It’s only fair. Ashton knows so one of your friends should know too.”
“Don’t worry, I really only have two friends I could actually tell this to.”
“Hoorah to socially awkward people,” Luke said sarcastically. “So what are you doing over the weekend?”
“Nothing much.”
“You wanna go to the movies then?”
“Sure.”
*
“Watching Rise of the Guardians has made me believe," I announced as I stepped through the door.
"Santa, The Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny... they're all true!"
"See I told you it would've been a good movie. You owe me that," I said.
"Okay fine. It's one for El and zero for Luke," said Luke.
Luke pretended to cheer. The other guys suddenly appeared from nowhere and bombarded us with random questions. We didn’t even really get the chance to answer any of them when Luke was literally dragged off by the arms into Michael’s room. They claimed they were ‘filming a new video’ but to me it sounded more like they were killing cats in there. Don't get me wrong, when I did hear singing it was absolutely fantastic, but the majority of their time seemed to be spent mucking about.
After what felt like an eternity of painful death to my ears, Ashton, Calum and Michael came storming out.
“Oh good, is the torture finally over?”
“Nope, we’re getting lunch; we’ll be back really soon,” Ashton said.
“Goodie.”
They laughed and then ambled out the house. I realised Luke wasn’t part of the ‘lunch’ party. I went over to Michael’s room and found him playing his guitar.
“Why aren’t you going with the guys?”
“I already had some before at the cinema."
I gasped sarcastically. "Luke Hemmings saying no to a chance of food? What is this?!" Luke grinned. “So um... you guys are getting pretty busy aren’t you?”
“Yeah, we’ve been working for basically half this year on the EP. You wanna hear one of the songs?”
“Really? I get to have the honour of hearing one of the songs before any other fan?”
“Yeah, but you’re way more special because well… you’re Michael’s sister and you’re my supposed girlfriend and Calum's to-be-girlfriend…”
I grinned. “We don’t know that yet.”
“Haven’t you heard what Ashton’s been saying? He likes you and it’s really just a matter of time before he asks you out.”
“But the thing is, if he thinks that we went out, he’s not going to ask out his friend’s girlfriend.”
Luke opened his mouth to answer back but then he started cracking up laughing.
“We are such fucking idiots, how did we not think of that?”
“Maybe because we’re idiots?” I suggested, smiling too.
Luke calmed down reasonably quickly. “Don’t worry, we’ll tell him when it’s time.”
“And when will that be?”
“We’ll know once the time comes. So anyway, you wanna hear the song?”
“Yeah okay." I went iin and sat down Michael’s bed next to him.
“Within a minute I was all packed up
I’ve got a ticket to another world
I don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go
Sudden words are hard to speak
When your thoughts are all I see
Don’t ever leave, she said to me
When we both fall asleep underneath the same sky.
To the beat of our hearts at the same time.
So close but so far away.
She sleeps alone.
My heart wants to come home.
I wish I was, I wish I was beside you.
She lies awake.
I'm trying to find the words to say.
I wish I was, I wish I was beside you…”
He was incredibly good, his voice was that of an angel. The way he could sing every note perfectly without missing any notes on the guitar, the way his long fingers moved and the little grin plastered on his face as he sung told me just how much he enjoyed singing. It was taking all my willpower not to lean in and-
What the?! Where did all of this come from? Snap out of it Elaine!
Luke stopped.
“That was beautiful,” I breathed.
“Thanks,” Luke smiled. “I won’t sing the whole song coz I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you.”
“Please?” I begged. “I will die because of the suspense like this!”
Luke smirked. “No!”
“Ugh, that’s what it felt like waiting for One Direction’s new album!”
“Exactly! It just came out, so you’re already fulfilled! You don’t need to hear the whole song!”
“But I really want to hear the end of it now that you’ve already sung the first half!”
“Nope!” Luke put the guitar down and then stood up from the bed.
“Pretty please?” I asked, standing up too.
Unfortunately I stood up too fast and lost my balance. I accidentally pushed Luke over too and landed on top of him. Awkward. I was momentarily stunned and didn’t stand up. Instead, my lips parted slightly and I continued to stare into Luke’s extremely blue eyes. Only then did I really notice just how angelic the blonde boy was. His hair was so blonde, but not overly blonde and his eyes were an amazing crystal blue that were just absolutely hypnotising. His pink lips were full and so... kissable. It took me a few more seconds to realise where I was so I hastily tried to stand up but Luke caught me around the waist and pulled me back down again.
We were so close, our lips barely ten centimetres apart. Butterflies were fluttering all over my stomach, this was going to be my first kiss ever. Luke and I leaned in at the same time. Our lips had barely touched when a big crash came from the stairs. It appeared that Ashton, Calum and Michael had returned.
I scrambled up from him and he quickly stood up too.
“Caught in the act!”
Michael looked mentally scarred.
“You guys go back to your cat killing,” I said hurriedly.
I quickly went downstairs to hide my burning face. Could that even be counted as a kiss? Our lips had barely touched. Someone else came and joined me downstairs.
“I thought you liked Calum?” Ashton asked.
“I do. That was just an accident.”
“How do you accidentally kiss someone?”
“I lost my balance and I fell on top of him.” Ashton raised an eyebrow at me. “Stop looking at me like that!”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Fine. I think I totally like Luke now because of all this time we’ve been spending together and I don’t know what to do anymore because I know I still like Calum as well and now I’m torn in two because I don’t know which one of them I like more and what’s even worse is that I don’t even know if either of them like me back,” I said all in one go.
Ashton gaped at me. “That was really hard to understand, but let me just say one thing. Luke almost kissed you just then – well based on what I say – and Calum looked really jealous. I think it’s pretty obvious whether they like you or not. Just remember that.”
~*~
Another day, and I’m somewhere new.
I made a promise that I’ll come home soon.
Bring me back, bring me back to you.
When we both wake up underneath the same sun,
Time stops, I wish that I could rewind.
So close but so far away.
She sleeps alone.
My heart wants to come home.
I wish I was, I wish I was beside you.
She lies awake.
I'm trying to find the words to say.
I wish I was, I wish I was beside you.
The pieces of us both
Under every city light
And they're shining as we fade into the night
She sleeps alone.
My heart wants to come home.
I wish I was, I wish I was...
She sleeps alone.
My heart wants to come home.
I wish I was, I wish I was beside you.
She lies awake.
I'm trying to find the words to say.
I wish I was, I wish I was beside you.
She lies awake.
Beside you.
I wish I was, I wish I was...
She sleeps alone.
My heart wants to come home.
I wish I was, I wish I was...
“Finally! IT’S ABOUT TIME!” I yelled. “That took forever to be released!”
Ashton and Calum laughed. “You’re pretty impatient, you know that?” Ashton asked.
“Michael’s been telling me that since I could remember,” I said. “I’m going to go buy another drink.”
I went over to the vending machines and unfortunately bumped into Luke. Ever since our almost kiss the other day I’d been avoiding him. I had no idea what to say to him. Except for school times, I avoided him.
“Hi. I’ve barely seen you this week.”
“Yeah, well you guys have been busy and I had a lot of assignments due,” I said, looking anywhere but him.
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
“No…” I could feel his eyes on me.
I tried to walk passed him but Luke grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him and forcing me to look into his hypnotising blue eyes. Without a split second warning, our lips met again. Properly this time. No one interrupted us. His lips moved against mine and I had no idea what to do. My brain was completely frozen and stopped completely. This was nothing like how I’d imagined my first kiss. I’d always imagined it to be sloppy and awkward, but this was perfect and almost magical. He pulled away after a few seconds.
“I really like you,” he whispered before walking off.
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Beside You is my favourite song on the EP so I had to incorporate it, and then story name is Beside You too so....