45" ▪︎ a.i.

17"

I ended up staying the night, cuddled up, both of us sleeping better than we have for the longest time. I woke up the next morning to an empty bed. Wondering if I had dreamed all of that, I got up, pulled a sweatshirt that was lying around over my head, and walked downstairs, following the smell of coffee. 

"Oh, good morning, I was just about to come back upstairs. We still have some time before rehearsal.", Ashton greeted, walking over to me. He pulled me into him, kissing the top of my head and it felt all so natural to do, like we had done it for years. We didn't go back upstairs, but instead grabbed a blanket from the couch and sat down outside, putting it over us, steaming coffee cups in our hands. I watched the sun rise further and felt the cool breeze and fresh air a new morning always brings. I closed my eyes, breathing deeply and tried to relax my always tense shoulders. I opened my eyes again to find Ashton watching me. 

"Ready for rehearsal?", I asked, nudging him with my shoulder to ease the worried look on his face. 

"Not really. I'm scared we're gonna mess up again, well mostly I'm worried I'll mess up. They depend on me holding the beat, I can't mess up.", he rambled on, and I let him for a short while, before interrupting him, placing my hand on his leg, that was bouncing up and down. 

"Ash, you're going to be fine, all of you. Everyone has bad days, no one thinks it was your fault. Luke himself said all of you messed up, he forgot lyrics, missed notes, Michael and Calum weren't the best either. Who knows what was up, just move on and do the best you can today.", I said, and saw him smiling a bit, telling me he was somewhat over it. 

"And if it doesn't work, you'll just let me play the drums, I'm a natural, aren't I?", I added, laughing and he joined in. 

"Thanks, we'll see how it goes. You ready? I think we have to go." 

"Yeah, brought my camera with me yesterday." 

"Great, let's go."

---

We arrived at rehearsal, the rest of the boys already there, looking deep in thought. They looked up when we walked into the room, greeting us shortly and went back to what they were doing. I sighed. I hoped today would be better. Ashton turned to me, kissed my temple quickly and walked over to his drums. I was surprised by this small gesture, because of the other boy's presence but figured he didn't care if they knew that we weren't only friends anymore and neither did I. I looked at Luke and was met with his eyes staring at me. He raised one eyebrow but didn't say anything about it. 

They continued plugging in their instruments and soon started with the first song 'Red Desert'. They didn't get the harmonies right at the start, and I didn't dare to start taking pictures, not wanting to distract them. I saw Luke's worried face when they tried the beginning for the 5th time. It didn't work again, and I quickly walked over to him before they could start another time. 

"Luke, what's the matter? Maybe break it down, try it without the start or just acoustically?", I suggested quietly, and he nodded. 

"Ash, get the cajon, Michael acoustic guitar.", he said, and both of them obliged, not questioning his tone. 

"You get one as well, please. It's Bm, A, E, except for the pre-chorus, G, Em. We'll leave out the bridge.", he instructed, and I nodded, not knowing where to go with this. He showed me the strumming and we all stood in a circle. 

"I'm counting in, the harmonies at the start, maybe strum down once on the Bm, but besides that no instruments." All of us nodded, and Luke counted in and my smile grew wider when I noticed that it actually worked. I started strumming together with Michael, looking at his guitar to copy him. Ash started a quiet beat on the cajon, but I didn't feel it was necessary, he could just as well take my part on the guitar. They got through the whole song without a problem. I felt the weight that was lifted off their shoulders. Luke smiled at me thankfully.