1:00 PM
"What the hell are you doing?" Michael yelled through the speaker of Luke's phone, not even giving him time to say hello.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Luke mocked him, now frustrated with Michael. He was having such an important conversation with Skylar and of course Michael had to call and ruin things.
"Have you even looked at your phone in the past hour? You're everywhere, Luke, everywhere." Michael said, practically shouting.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Luke lowered his voice, in case Skylar was able to overhear him.
"The girl, that's what I'm talking about. You're supposed to be on a fucking flight to Sydney right now and you're cuddling up to some girl in the airport." Michael snapped.
This is why Luke and Michael hardly ever got along, because it seemed like with every bad thing that happened to the band, Luke was to blame. Michael didn't like any of the publicity they got, and Luke was only bringing more attention to them by hanging out with Skylar.
"She's not just 'some girl', you prick. She's my friend. We're friends, we met this morning." Luke said blankly, wondering if Michael was going to believe him or not.
"'Friend' my ass, Luke, I saw the pictures of the two of you sitting in the middle of the airport, and holding hands in that sandwich place. Your face looked like the heart-eyes emoji." Michael let out a mean chuckle, making Luke cringe.
"I really don't like it when you compare me to emojis." Luke sighed, because Michael had done this before.
"Not my fault that you're like a walking, talking emoticon." Michael laughed meanly again and Luke pouted, even though Michael wouldn't be able to see him.
"Just fuck off, I'm not hurting anyone." Luke snapped.
"You're hurting us, Luke, the band." Michael argued, sounding tense. Knowing Michael, he had been watching twitter blow up about Luke and Skylar all morning, and probably waited until now to yell at Luke about it.
"I am not. What's your deal, Mike? Why do you care about this so much?" Luke asked.
"I care because you were sent home for a reason, and now you're fucking up things even more." Michael groaned, "You will not believe some of the rumors that are going around. Who is this girl, anyway? Because I just read something that said she was your new sex slave."
"She's just a girl that I met on the plane, we're hanging out with each other until tomorrow morning when our next flight comes." Luke huffed, wishing that Michael would just leave him alone.
"Then you're going to leave her, aren't you?" Michael asked. Luke hated how Michael just assumed that he would leave Skylar, when he didn't know what the two of them had been through together. Luke didn't want to leave.
"I told her that I wouldn't." Luke shrugged. He really wanted to keep in contact with Skylar after they got back home, but he wasn't sure how they would make that work. Luke had his career to think about, and Skylar had her mum.
"Lies." Michael snickered, able to see right through Luke.
Luke sighed, balling his hand up into a fist and rubbing his eyes with it. "I know."
"You'll just end up hurting her, you know." Michael let out a sigh along with Luke, who's heart had begun pounding hard in his chest, because he hadn't meant to start thinking about this until much later.
"Mike..." Luke trailed off, no longer wanting to talk about this.
Thankfully Michael got the message, and changed the subject. "So did you miss your flight? Luke, I swear if you were having sex with someone in the airport bathroom again - "
"I didn't miss my flight! The plane broke and we're waiting for a new one to come in." Luke yelled, more annoyed with Michael than before. Why was it Michael that had to call him about this, why not Calum or Ashton? They were sensible, at least, they wouldn't jump to conclusions the way Michael did.
"So you're just going to sit in the airport all day?" Michael scoffed.
"Put Calum on the phone." Luke demanded, suddenly not wanting to talk to Michael any longer. He just couldn't take it anymore.
"I'm talking to you." Michael said, "Luke, we're having a conversation."
"Not anymore. Put Calum on the phone or I'm hanging up and I won't answer any of your calls ever again." Luke ordered, and without saying anything else, he heard Michael shuffling around on the other end of the phone to get Calum.
"Luke," Calum said, his voice sounding more calm than Michael's had.
"Why is Michael yelling at me?" He asked, hoping that Calum would believe Luke when he said that Michael was actually acting a lot worse than he was.
"He doesn't like the attention we're getting for you spending all day with a girl. And the fans on twitter are freaking out, especially after that picture you posted." Calum explained.
"That picture was harmless." Luke said sternly, though he knew that the picture was going to upset some fans.
"It was a picture of a girl... and you were holding hands with her." Calum said, sarcastically adding, "Yeah, Luke, harmless."
"Have you seen the things your fans are saying about her? They're awful." Luke said, trying to change the subject.
"My fans?" Calum stressed, clearly not understanding what Luke meant by that.
"Well, my fans wouldn't say something like that." Luke said a matter of fact-ly, glancing back over to Skylar. She was patiently waiting for him to return, biting at her fingernails again.
"They always do! Luke, they say things like that to every girl we ever associate ourselves with, that's just what happens. Deal with it." Calum sighed, having experience with something like this himself.
"I can't deal with it. I care about her, I'm not going to let your dumb fans pick on her like that." Luke said, shaking his head.
"You care about her, huh? Why don't you tell me that tomorrow, when you two leave each other and never speak again." Calum scoffed, sounding almost as upset as Michael had, which made like feel even worse.
"I'm not going to intentionally leave her." Luke mumbled.
"So you'll 'accidentally' leave her, I get it." Calum laughed.
"Cal, knock it off." Luke groaned.
"You're going to hurt her, Lucas Hemmings, and I don't like it." Calum said slowly, just trying to warn Luke. He knew that Calum was right, and Michael too. They were always right.
"Put Ashton on the phone." Luke said, no longer wanting to speak with Calum, even though it was usually Calum that he could speak to about anything.
"But, Luke, we were - " Calum started, and Luke cut him off again.
"Put Ashton on the phone!" He shouted.
More shuffling sounds followed, and seconds later Ashton's voice was in Luke's ear.
"What is wrong with you?" Ashton questioned loudly, making Luke wince.
"I'm not doing anything wrong." Luke whined.
"You were supposed to be going home to help stop the drama for a while, not create more." Ashton groaned, and Luke already felt that he wasn't going to be taking his side.
"Michael and Calum yelled at me." Luke said softly, knowing that he had the ability to make Ashton feel bad for him.
"Good. You deserve it, because you really messed up this time, buddy. This is your punishment for everything you've done." Ashton said, letting out a small sigh. "And now you're hanging around with some girl, and you know she's only going to cause more trouble."
"She won't cause any trouble." Luke said warily, wondering himself if he was telling the truth or not.
"She already has, twitter is going insane. I'm getting dm's left and right asking about you and your new girlfriend, and I don't know how to answer any of them." Ashton complained.
"Good, don't answer any. Have you seen the things that some fans are saying?" Luke asked, shaking his head. "Disgusting."
"They've said the same thing about every other girl you've done this with." Ashton said nonchalantly, like it shouldn't have upset Luke nearly as much as it did.
"Skylar isn't just any girl, she's special to me."
Ashton groaned loudly on his side of the phone, probably not believing that Luke was doing this. "No she's not, Luke, she's no different than the rest and you know that."
"I think I like her." Luke said quietly, another blush creeping into his cheeks at the thought.
"You're only saying that because she has boobs, Luke, you don't know what you're talking about." Ashton shot him down, once again, not believing Luke.
"Nice boobs." Luke suggested, shrugging to himself again.
"This is what I'm talking about. She's just one of the girls you take home for the night." Ashton said quietly, not allowing Luke to say anything else.
"She isn't, I promise." Luke said, and turned around to look at Skylar again. She was so adorable, chewing at her nails while she looked on at Luke, giving him a small smile.
"Luke, I want to believe you, I really do, but I can't. You've done this too many times, especially with girls that you meet in airports." Ashton said, and Luke rolled his eyes. "You find a girl going to the same city that you are, you fuck her, and then you leave."
"Ash, stop. That's not going to happen!" Luke snapped loudly, making an old woman standing near him look over to him.
Ashton sighed again and Luke could picture him tugging at the ends of his hair, like he always did when he was frustrated. "You say you aren't going to let that happen, and you probably think that this whole thing is going to work out perfectly in the end, but it's not. You can't possibly make this work. Just give it up now, you know that you're just going to hurt her."