chapter nineteen: saving the best for last
WEDNESDAY MORNING. I walked into the doors of the office about an hour earlier than I normally would. I knew today was going to be a long day with the guys and I wanted some time for myself to effectively prepare.
Only about two other people were in the office this early, and I delved into small talk with them as we passed one another.
I made it to my office and immediately started to make myself coffee. As it brewed, I sent a text to Madalyn—asking if she would be home tonight. After texting her, I went to my home screen and found myself hovering my thumb over my Twitter app.
I hadn't looked at it all night; I had gone to bed really early, so I hadn't seen any feedback for the video. I decided to let myself browse for a while, so I pressed on the app and took a deep breath in to prepare myself.
Immediately, Luke and I were everywhere.
I saw that the guys had retweeted Celebration!'s tweet about the video and I retweeted it as well. I checked all of their accounts to see if they had said anything—Michael and Ashton had sent out tweets about the video, and I liked both of them.
I went to my mentions and started reading through the chaos. The main gist was that even more people thought that I was Luke's mystery girl after the video. Many people were tweeting at me and asking me to speak out about things, but I simply scrolled past.
I saw a couple of people that were genuinely expressing excitement for my involvement with the guys and I decided to like those tweets.
I saw another one of those video edits of Luke and me—this time it was a dramatic slow-down of each time Luke touched my arm or looked at me during the video.
These people really knew what they were doing.
The sound of my coffee brewing brought me back to reality and I decided to close Twitter in hopes of clearing my brain. I grabbed my coffee and walked to my desk. I set down the mug and immediately began getting out my makeup; I hadn't given myself time to do it at home, so I brought it instead.
I set up a mirror and quietly played music as I started to get ready. About thirty minutes later, the door to my office opened and Emma peeked her head in.
"Good morning," she said, cheerily. "I was not expecting to see you here so early."
"I finally got a good night's sleep," I told Emma, smiling wide as she walked in. "You look nice today."
"Thank you," she said with an appreciative smile.
"Did you watch the video?" I asked her as I tasked myself with putting on mascara.
"Not yet, actually," she said, which got my attention. "How was it?"
I realized I hadn't told Emma anything that happened with Luke admitting to knowing me before our initial interview. Instead of answering her, I pulled up the video and fast-forwarded it to around the time Luke and Pat got into it. I motioned her over and she watched, although she seemed confused.
I let it play out and watched Emma's face as she reacted. I hadn't seen the edited video, but nearly nothing had been cut out from this part. Emma's jaw dropped when Luke mentioned no one knowing about us knowing each other and I bit my lip as I looked back at the monitor.
"Josie! You didn't tell me that happened," Emma scolded, smacking my arm gently after I paused the video. "How did you not tell me about that?"
"I was trying my best to forget about it yesterday! And plus, you were busy, so I never thought to tell you. People are going nuts about it," I told her through a sigh. "You want to watch your cameo?"
"What?" she asked. I smiled before scrolling to the part where Ashton called her. As I observed her watching it, I could tell she was both embarrassed but also pleased. "He wouldn't tell me what that was really for." I urged her to continue watching, wanting to see her reaction when Pat became interested. "Why does Pat act as if he knows me?"
"He does, Em," I reminded her and she sighed before turning around and walking to her desk. I was about to close the video when my curiosity got the best of me; I scrolled down to the comments and saw that the top comment was about me. I quickly closed out and went back to finishing my makeup. I glanced over at Emma to see her looking through some paperwork. I suddenly became aware of a thick tension in the air and became worried that Emma was upset about something.
"Everything okay?" I asked Emma which instantly got her attention.
"Yeah... of course," she said through a quiet laugh. She went back to looking at the papers in front of her and I glanced down to see her leg nervously bouncing up and down.
"Em... you're keeping something from me," I accused her which she scoffed at. "Emma, you're a horrible liar. What's going on?"
"Nothing, Jo," she said with a shake of her head. I squinted my eyes at her as I tried to figure her out and suddenly a lightbulb went off.
"Oh my god... did you sleep with Ashton?" Emma's eyes widened and she looked up at me abruptly. "Bitch! You slept with Ashton Irwin!"
"Would you quiet down? No—Josie, I did not." Emma shook her head rapidly and my eyebrows furrowed. "But... I went over to his place last night and he made us dinner." My face broke out into a smile and she began to blush.
"Sorry—I didn't mean to rush the timeline. It's really sweet that you guys had dinner, that's much better than—"
"No, don't be sorry... god, I hope we sleep together soon. I haven't had sex in over a year." I laughed at Emma's sudden sense of deprivation, and she sent me a small smile. "He's amazing," Emma told me, laughing quietly to herself as she thought about something. "But I'm not kidding—we'd better hook up soon. I've only slept with two guys since Pat... can you believe that?" Just as the words left Emma's mouth, there was a soft knock on our door—our open door. I looked over to see Pat peeking in and my eyes widened. Emma audibly coughed in surprise and I tried to think of something to say.
"Hey, you!" I said, deciding to make small talk as Emma pulled herself together. Pat looked over at me and sent a small smile.
"You're here early," Pat observed. "I wasn't expecting you both to be here."
"I wanted to make sure I had enough time to prepare for today... since it'll be so busy." Pat nodded, clearly understanding what I meant.
"You'll kill it out there today," Pat said, sending me a sweet smile—it was genuine, and I was sort of confused as to why he seemed to be in such a pleasant mood. "What're you up to today, Emma?" Pat asked as he looked over at Emma who was red in the face, most likely embarrassed at the thought of Pat overhearing her words from before.
"You know... just typing away," she said with a forced smile.
"You're doing good?" he asked her, which confused me and I could tell Emma was confused, too. Not because it was a weird question, but because I couldn't remember the last time Pat asked Emma how she was doing.
"Uh... yeah," she said with a nod. "I'm doing really well... thanks." Pat nodded slowly and kicked his foot at the ground as he glanced over his shoulder.
"You're seeing someone?" Pat finally asked and I looked over at Emma, to observe her reaction.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," she told him. Pat nodded his head and looked down as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
"That's exciting," he told her, forcing a smile onto his face. "I really hope things go well for you."
"Thanks, Pat," Emma told him, sincerely.
"Well, I'll see you two later." He sent a singular wave before turning around and walking out of the room. I waited about five seconds, just to make sure he was no longer close to the door, before saying anything.
"What was that?" I asked Emma and she simply shrugged as she continued to look toward the door, nearly zoned out.
"It was weird... I don't want to think about it." Emma got up from her chair and walked over to the coffee maker, dropping the conversation. I decided to respect her wishes and finished my makeup.
As I was putting away my things and Emma was adding sugar to her coffee, there was another soft knock on our door. I looked up to see Tony and my heart instantly began to pound.
"Hey, ladies," she greeted with a smile. "Josie, you got any updates on that article?"
"I'm still deciding," I informed her, not wanting to get into a conversation about it.
"Okay... just let me know," she said, continuing to wear the same smile. "You're gonna kick ass out there today, Culley. I'll see you two around." Tony left just as quickly as she had appeared and I let out a frustrated groan.
"I swear she doesn't make any sense. How can she sit there and sleazily bribe me with promotional rewards while also hyping me up? I don't understand her." I rolled my eyes as I thought about her and Emma sighed quietly as she walked over to my desk, taking a seat on the corner.
"I don't know what's going on with her," Emma said, clearly agreeing that her behavior was strange. "I am so fucking sorry, Jo."
"You can't do anything about it, Em... try not to worry about it, okay?" Emma nodded slowly and looked down at her coffee. "I'll figure it out and then everything will be fine... just make sure she doesn't find out about you and Ashton." Emma's eyes widened and I laughed quietly before placing my hand on her knee to assure her everything would be fine.
Just as I had opened my mouth to subside her nerves, our door fully opened and all four of the boys stormed in. They nearly gave me a heart attack.
"Good morning!" They all shouted as they took a seat on the couch, Ashton lying on top of the other three.
"Is there a reason you're all in here?" I asked them but made sure to express a playful smile.
"We're excited!" Ashton exclaimed before pushing off of the boys and standing up. "We don't know what to do with ourselves."
I glanced at Luke to see him looking back at me, and his eye contact alone caused a chill to run through my body. I looked away from him and tried to compose myself.
"We're not starting for another hour," I reminded them, but they didn't seem to care. Emma got up and walked to her desk. Ashton followed her like a lost puppy and they started to have their own separate conversation.
"It's okay if we sit in here, right?" Michael asked me and I sent a nod in his direction. I decided to look through my emails, just to give me something to do, but suddenly someone was standing in front of my desk. I looked up to see Calum and he smiled sweetly.
"What?" I asked him as I let out a quiet laugh.
"Can I make myself coffee?" I nodded at his question and he thanked me before walking away. Just ten seconds later, Luke took his place.
"Did you get a good night's sleep?"
"Yes, I did," I told him matter-of-factly. "Thank god you left when you did." I glanced over at Luke to see him playfully rolling his eyes and I let myself smile as I looked back at my screen.
"I figured you either had gotten to sleep or you actually stayed off Twitter... since you didn't call," Luke said, which piqued my interest.
"As if I would've actually called you if I had."
"I'd be sad if you didn't," he said, which surprised me. I didn't know what game Luke was playing, but I wasn't entirely appreciative of it. Everything he said to me seemed flirty, yet when I was too flirty, he seemed to shut me down.
It felt unfair.
"I caved and looked this morning," I admitted which caused him to gasp. "I didn't let myself look for more than six minutes... I saw one really great video of us, making us look really in love." Luke glanced down at his hands and I saw the corner of his lip curl, which caused my heart to skip a beat.
"They really think they're onto something," Luke said and I nodded slowly as I looked away from him. "Whose video are we filming first?"
The boys were each getting a solo video with me—which I guessed would go disastrously.
"We're filming one with everyone first and then I think Calum's first, then Michael, Ashton... and finally you."
"Saving the best for last, huh?" Luke asked as a smirk played on his lips. I simply sighed and looked at him dead-on.
"Stop," I whispered which caused his eyebrows to furrow. "You don't have to be flirty every time you speak, Luke. We are completely over, remember? So treat me like it."
. . .
We had been filming for about twenty minutes and I had barely gotten through the guidelines for what we were doing—the boys were on one, and I was about ready to scream or cry.
"Shut the fuck up, Cal," Ashton said as he tried to bring an end to his laughter. "I am so sorry, Josie." Ashton broke out into laughter for the fifth time in five minutes and I sighed quietly, hating that I was in such a mood.
"How about we take a quick break, okay? Just to get everyone back on the right page." I looked over at Molly to make sure that what I had said was okay, and Molly immediately agreed that it was a good idea. I got up and walked over to her, wanting to separate myself from the others for a little while.
"You doing okay?" Molly asked me and I nodded. "Do you think we should film the individual videos first?"
"No, I think they'll be fine," I told her, hoping it wouldn't be a big deal once we got back from the short break. "Is this messing up timing?"
"Only a little—we started early, so we're basically on track. Don't you worry, okay? Worrying is my job." I smiled at Molly and she smiled back before excusing herself to go talk to the boys. I started mindlessly wandering, just to keep myself busy, but a voice brought me back to reality.
"If it's any consolation, you look good up there." I looked over my shoulder to see Stevie behind the camera and I laughed quietly, but thanked him as I made my way over to him.
"It's kind of creepy knowing you're always pointing that thing at me."
"It's like it's my job or something," Stevie joked back. "You doing okay?"
"Yeah... just wish this was going a little smoother," I told him, but shrugged right after. "I feel like I'm a buzzkill up there."
"They're a little high energy... you're doing great," Stevie assured me. "Early shoots always start with some complication. I promise you that this isn't out of the ordinary... you're not doing anything wrong." Somehow Stevie seemed to know what I was actually worried about. I was terrified that it was something I was doing wrong.
"Thank you so much for saying that," I said as I let out a sigh of relief. "I'm freaking out a little."
"I can tell," he said. "But seriously, you have nothing to worry about."
"Thank you." We exchanged smiles before Molly called us all back up to the set.
"Let's just go from the top, okay?" I nodded at Molly's words and sat back down in my seat. She counted us off and told us to go.
"What's up, you guys? Welcome back to Celebration!'s CelebNation! It's Josie here and today I'm joined with none other than One Direction!" All the boys turned their heads to me and I let out a laugh. "Just kidding! It's 5 Seconds of Summer."
"God, Josie, you are so funny," Ashton told me sarcastically, even though he was genuinely laughing himself.
"That's what the people keep telling me! So—today we're playing a game revolving around what you guys do for a living."
"Hey, what do we do for a living?" Luke asked Michael after tapping on his shoulder.
"I don't know, man, but shh—I think she's about to tell us." I sent both of the comedians one of my looks and they smiled sweetly before giving me their full attention.
"Today we're going to be playing Guess That Song! Each of you will have your own buzzers, which are right in front of you, and the first to guess what the song is will get a point. I'll play ten seconds of each song, and that's how long you have to buzz in. If no one gets it, you'll be given a hint and the process will happen all over again. Everyone got it?"
"Okay, but what kind of songs?" Ashton asked as he hovered his hand over his buzzer.
"There isn't a specific type... you could get a Disney original one round and a Skrillex song the next," I told him which caused him to chuckle. "Now—are you guys ready?"
"Can we do a practice round?" Luke asked which caused me to laugh.
"Sure," I said. "This first round doesn't count for anything, but I'll let you guys see how it works. Now, are you guys ready?" They all cheered in unison and I played the first song.
Immediately, Ashton buzzed in. I stopped the sound and he furrowed his brows.
"What is it?" I asked him and he simply shrugged his shoulders.
"I got a little excited," Ashton said which caused me to laugh—I gently laid my head down against the table and the other boys started to laugh as well. "Play it again, I won't prematurely buzz this time." I composed myself and played the song again. About two seconds later, almost all of them buzzed in, but Michael was first.
"Criminal by Britney Spears. I've always told the boys we should cover it."
. . .
Next was Calum's video—the concept was to show him various photos and he had to guess whether they were real or if they had been photoshopped. All of the pictures were fan pictures with Calum.
"If I get any of these wrong, people are going to eat me alive. Before I start—I want to remind everyone that I have taken so many photos with you all at this point. I try to remember as many people as I can, but it's not humanly possible." I thought it was cute of Calum to give a disclaimer, but I had faith in him to not get many wrong.
"Okay, the first one should be easy. Are you ready?" Calum bit his lip but nodded his head. As I showed him the picture he let out a loud laugh. I couldn't help but smile—it was a very badly photoshopped photo of myself standing next to Calum, giving a thumbs up.
"I remember taking that picture like it was yesterday," he said which sent me into a fit of giggles. "That's my favorite picture of us, I think."
"I think it should be the only picture of us. I'm going to post this for your birthday," I told him which caused him to start laughing all over again.
"Let's promise to keep this picture alive, okay?"
"I promise."
. . .
Then was Michael—his video was a finish the lyric game, and it was all 5SOS songs. Michael swore he'd be amazing at it and said that he couldn't imagine getting a single one wrong.
"Okay, Michael, you've started off strong," I congratulated him after the first two. "But I still think you won't leave this game with a perfect score."
"Hey... you should believe in me," Michael pouted which caused me to laugh. "There's no way any of these will trip me up."
"Okay... so you're ready for the next one?"
"Bring it on," he said. I started playing the next song and Michael smiled and began to dance as he heard it.
"I love that accent you have when you say hello. You relocated from New York a month ago..." The song stopped and I looked over at Michael, waiting for him to continue the song. Suddenly his eyes became wide and my jaw dropped.
"Shit, I just blanked," he said as he put his head in his hands.
"Mike!" Calum shouted from behind the camera.
"I can't remember how it goes!" Michael began to panic. "Calum, help!"
"Mini-van!" Luke yelled and suddenly Michael perked up.
"That mini-van that you drive really gets me going and if it feels like it's right then it can't be wrong." I laughed as Michael redeemed himself.
"You got lucky that time, Clifford."
. . .
Ashton's video was the one I was least excited for, but he seemed thrilled. The video concept was a FanFiction writing workshop. I was hoping they'd change the plan, but apparently, when Ashton heard the idea, he was completely on board.
"So, Ashton... you seem pretty excited about this. Is there a reason for that?" I asked Ashton after explaining to the camera what we would be doing.
"Do you know how cool I think it is that people take time out of their lives to write about me? And make me seem even cooler than I might be? They rave about how hot I am in those things... I want to write about how hot I am, too. Because I'm hot."
. . .
Luke's video was the last of the individual videos. We still had a couple of other group videos to shoot, but Luke's was the last before lunch.
Luke and I were tasked with taking online 5SOS quizzes. He was in charge of choosing the first one and even though I had suggested taking a Which 5SOS boy are you most like? quiz, he demanded to take Which 5SOS boy is your boyfriend?
"These questions are so dumb," I complained, disrupting the previous silence as Luke and I separately took the quiz. "I was hoping they'd be fun questions, but so far I'm just describing what I look like. Why does it matter what color my hair is or what color my eyes are?"
"Obviously this was made by a professional, Jos... just let them do their thing." I laughed at Luke's words and stopped once I had reached the final question.
"Let's get our results at the same time. Tell me when you're on the last question," I told Luke as I tried to peek over at his screen.
"Hey, don't look at mine," he said as he turned his body away. I laughed at him for being secretive and a minute later he told me he was ready. We submitted our quizzes at the same time and my eyes widened at my results. "Ashton! You're my boyfriend!"
"Luke—don't tell them!"
"Who'd you get, Jos?" Luke asked me after laughing at Ashton's response.
"I got... you."
a/n:
hehe ok um that was a thing
next chapter will be more fun !! i rlly hope these aren't starting to bore u guys !! i am constantly worried ......
..... maybe i should just stop being so worried
i have gained a couple new readers and i just wanna say how happy i am to have u aboard !!! it makes me very happy to see some growth :)
you all make me so happy.
i didn't think i would get to update today, but i finished in perfect timing !!!
i really really hope you all enjoy this one!!!
thank you for reading :)
jill !!