"Stuck In The Friend-Zone Again and Again"

"And Everything Is Alright"

After taking a cab home, I begged my mom to let me go with the band. After a bit of grovelling and lots promising to be safe and reminding her that they were all legal adults, she finally said yes.
I called Luke right away.
"Lucas!" I said excitedly.
"Paris!" He said hyperly back. "What's up?"
"I CAN GO!" I exclaimed.
"YEAH!" He yelled. I heard him pull back from the phone a bit and yell to the other boys: "HEY GUYS PARIS CAN COME!" I heard a chorus of 'awesome's and 'yes's. He put the phone back to his mouth. "That's great Paris! We'll come pick you up tomorrow night around 4, okay?"
"Okay, see you soon!"
"Bye!"
I ran to my room and got my Union Jack sparkle duffel bag. I packed a bunch of clothes and pajamas and soap and everything that I might need, including a small  blanket that smelled like my favourite perfume, because I tended to get cold.
How was I going to wait until tomorrow?

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It was the next day, and it was almost 4.

I was a bit apprehensive about the trip because I stressed over everything, but I knew everything would turn out fine in the end and that I would have loads of fun.

At 4:05 I heard the tour bus pull into my driveway, and I hurriedly grabbed my purse and duffel bag and shoved my black converse on my feet. "BYE MOM!" I called.
"Bye! Have fun and be safe!"
"I will!" I yelled, running out the door.
Luke was standing in the doorway of the bus. "You dressed up," he grinned.
I wore blue jeans, a purple t shirt with daisies on it, a Grey Roots hoodie, and my forearm length dark brown hair was in a messy bun. My big ray bans were perched precariously on the bridge of my nose. "I always do!" I laughed.
I loaded my stuff into the bus and plopped down in one of the seats with my MacBook and Beats headphones. "So are we like, staying in the bus or in a hotel?" I asked.
"Hotel," Luke answered. "You're sharing with me and Calum."
"Okay good because I really don't trust you with the bus shower," I said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Luke asked.
"Oh please. Everyone knows that after you get out of the shower it's like a hurricane has torn through, and that's a small space for a hurricane," I reminded him.
Everyone laughed, not one disagreeing.
Eventually I put my headphones on, and hummed quietly along since I was surrounded by famous singers. Normally, of course, I would have been belting out the lyrics to Voodoo Doll, but things change when you're in the same room as the original artists.
I started to get hungry after 2 hours because I hadn't thought to eat, but I didn't want to bring it up and sound needy. Soon, though, my stomach growled so loud that Michael heard it and looked at me funny. "Hungry?" He asked.
"I would lie and say no, but I'm kind of too in love with food to say no."
"Food." He stated, pointing to a cabinet.
I got up and opened the door, practically salivating at the selection of food. I grabbed the box of cookies, the jar of Nutella, a spoon, and the box of crackers. I sat back down in my chair to find all of the boys looking at me with amused looks on their faces.
"What?" I asked incredulously. "I really love food!"
"Just don't eat all of the Nutella!" Ashton warned.
"Okay 1. Everyone knows you prefer Vegemite and 2. No promises!" I said, cracking open the jar, spoon ready.
They all just laughed and let me eat my food.

2 hours later we arrived at the hotel.
"We have a meet and greet tomorrow at one and a gig on Sunday at two," Calum said. "Which should each last two hours so the rest of the time we just get to hang out."
"Am I invited to said meet and greet and gig?" I asked curiously.
"No. You have to wait in the tour bus," Michael said sarcastically.
I didn't say anything, just raised my eyebrows amusedly.
"You're coming," Luke assured me.
"Awesome. So what are we gonna do tonight?" I said.
"I don't know. We usually play video games and watch movies and talk and stuff," Ashton said, shrugging. "But you might not like that kind of thing."
I gave him a strange look before we they hadn't really gotten to know me yet. "I would say 'do you even know me' but you don't really yet, do you?"
"No, I guess we don't," Ashton admitted.
"I know!" Luke shouted childishly. "We should play truth or dare!"
A chorus of 'yeah!'s and 'yes!'s followed.
"Let's hurry up and get to the hotel room so we can play!" Luke said impatiently.
We all grabbed our bags and headed out of the bus. We took the back alley so no fans would mob us, which was good because I thought that would be pretty scary. We checked in and took the elevator to the top floor and entered our adjoining rooms.
Upon entering the room, I noticed there were only 2 queen beds. I stopped dead in my tracks, turning to see Luke and Calum survey the situation as well.
"Well," Luke said. "You can either share a bed with either me or Calum, or Calum or I can sleep on the couch. I'm not sharing a bed with Calum, and you're not sleeping on the couch."
"Well..." I said nervously, surveying the couch. It didn't look very comfortable. "I would hate to make one of you guys sleep on that, so I guess you can decide amongst the two of you who gets the shortest straw and has to share."
"Well when you sleep, are you all restless and kicking or snuggle up to the first thing you see?" Luke asked.
"Definitely the latter. I'm kind of just a cuddly person in general," I told them.
"Cuddle all night or just until you fall asleep?" Calum added.
"Definitely all night. Because then if I wake up I'm still all warm and cozy," I said. "But what does this have to do with anything?"
"It means that I'm your guy," Calum said.
I cocked my head to the side, so he explained.
"Well I love to cuddle too, and if you're looking for someone to cuddle all night with that would be me."
My eyes widened. "Oh I didn't mean you had to cuddle me, I was just-"
"I know that's not what you meant, but regardless, we are going to cuddle."
"I'm not going to argue," I laughed.
Luke perked up. "Guys we're supposed to play truth or dare!"
"Right! Okay just let me change because I'm practically dying of sweat," I said, grabbing my duffel and retreating to the bathroom.
I changed into a grey tank top and black cotton shorts. I emerged to find all of the boys sitting in a circle on the floor, staring at me.
"What?" I asked, hands on my hips.
"We're just not used to having a girl around," Michael said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I said.
"Well normally we don't change in the bathroom, and none of us really have pajamas anyway, and it's just different for it to not be all guys," Michael explained.
"Hey," I said, sitting between Calum and Luke. "You invited me."
"Not bad," Luke said. "Just different."
"I get that a lot," I joked.
"I'm sure you do, now let's play!" Luke said. "I'll go first. Ashton: truth or dare?"
"Dare," said Ashton confidently.
"I dare you to... Let Paris do your hair!" Luke challenged.
"Yay!" I squealed, running to get my hair elastics and some of Luke's hair gel.
"I'm borrowing this, Luke!" I exclaimed. I sat down behind Ashton and put some gel on my fingers, doing his hair in a massive Mohawk. I then spilt it up with hair elastics so there were a bunch of little pigtails sticking up right down the center of his head.
The boys hooted with laughter, and Ashton went to inspect it in the mirror. "I think I'm going to wear my hair like this all of the time," Ashton said mock-seriously.
"Oh you totally should," I responded, also pretending to be seriously. "You'll have to bring me on tour so I can do it like that everyday."
"Oh definitely," he said.
He took out his phone and snapped a picture of the two of us, and posted it on Instagram with the caption '@Paris_Hadley is an expert hairstylist'. I took out my phone and commented '@ashtonirwin you're just jealous of my mad skills!' and all of the boys continued to laugh when they got the notification of the post.
We all sat back down in the circle and it was Ashton's turn. "Michael!" he exclaimed. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare, because I'm punk rock," Michael said.
"No you're not," we all said in unison.
Michael pouted. "Whatever."
"I dare you to die your hair bright pink tomorrow morning," Ashton said.
"No problem!" Michael said. He looked around the room. "Paris!" He cried. "Truth or dare?!"
"Truth," I said.
"On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your first kiss?" Michael asked.
I blushed. "I haven't had my first kiss yet." They all gaped at me. "What? How are you surprised? You have eyes, you've seen me. Not everyone can have their first kiss at 13," I said, shooting a pointed look at Calum.
"That's why we're surprised," Luke said, wide eyed. "You're all adorable and nice and cute. Guys like that."
"Not guys in my school," I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, let's move on."
I liked to pretend that I didn't care, but it kind of hurt how badly I wanted to experience my first kiss. I had just always dreamed about it and about having a awesome boyfriend that was all chivalrous and cuddly.
"Lucas: truth or dare?"
"Dare."
I furrowed up my brow and put my finger on my chin. "Hmmmm... I'm so bad at dares. Um... I dare you to call the twentieth person on your contacts list and tell them that you got a girl pregnant."
My Everyone laughed and Luke took out his phone, and the twentieth person ended up being Zayn Malik, the One Direction dropout. He clicked on the name to call Zayn.
"Wassup me?" Zayn asked.
"Hey man, so listen I've got a problem. I think I'm in love with this girl..."
"How is that an issue?" His British tone inquired.
"I got her pregnant." He did his best to sound sheepish and scared.
"Oh. Well. Uh. I'm not quite sure what to tell you mate, best of luck, I suppose..." Zayn said, eye brow raising evident.
"Okay thanks anyway, mate." Luke hung up. He buried his face in his hands. "That was humiliating!"
"Meh," I shrugged. Everyone laughed at my reaction, including Luke.
"You're heartless!" He cried.
"I think you'll find I'm about the least heartless person ever," I told him.
"Okay yeah you are," Luke admitted. "CALUM'S TURN! Calum: truth or dare?"
"Truth!" Calum exclaimed.
"What is the cutest quality in a girl?" Luke asked.
"Lucas you're a sap!" I laughed. He just shrugged and grinned.
"Hmmmmm..." Calum thought. "When a girl doesn't always dress up but she does really nice when she wants to, or when a girl bites her lip."
The others nodded assent.
"There needs to be more guys that like things like that in a girl," I said, rolling my eyes.
"What would most guys say?" Michael asked.
"Her butt, when she's forward and dominant,etc. etc." I said, annoyed just thinking about it.
"My qualities are much better," Calum said.
I nodded. "Definitely."
"It's my turn again!" Luke said. "Michael truth or dare?"

We played for another round, and then decided to watch a movie.
"What are we watching?" I asked.
"MEAN GIRLS!" Luke cheered.
"Yesssss," I said.
Luke put the DVD in the player and sat down on the floor with a blanket. Calum claimed the couch, Michael took the chair, and Ashton and I both crashed on the floor too.

About half way through the movie, I started to shiver. Calum noticed and beckoned my over to him. I sat down beside him and he folded me into the blanket, pulling me close. I rested my head on his chest and we continued watching. "You are a good cuddler," I whispered.
"You're not so bad yourself," he whispered back.

After the movie, which was full of all of us randomly saying the people's lines with them ("YOU GO GLEN COCO!"), we all decided to head to bed.
I brushed my teeth and climbed into the right side of the bed (side closer to middle table between the two beds), burrowing down under the thick covers. Calum climbed in beside me a few minutes later, and cuddled up to me again. We fell asleep all warm and cuddly.
(A/N: I know that this sounds like a Calum fic, but let's be honest: Calum is such a cuddly puppy. He's the best cuddler. Be patient! It will happen!)