𝙼𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚕𝚞𝚘𝚞𝚜|| 𝙲𝚊𝚕𝚞𝚖 𝙷𝚘𝚘𝚍

t e n

13th October: Amsterdam

Being in Amsterdam was surreal. The city was a masterpiece with all its intricate architecture. Luckily for everyone, they had spent two days in the city looking around and taking boat rides down the canal. The bus wasn't due to leave until ten tonight and that's when Andrea and the others would be on the way to another beautiful place.

Currently, everyone was just relaxing in the park. It was a nice day, the sun was shining and it wasn't extremely cold.

Calum wasn't doing anything, he was just watching everyone do their own thing. Michael was talking with the photographer Ryan about a couple of photoshoot ideas. Calum was convinced Luke was asleep, he had his sunglasses on and was lying back on the blanket. Ashton, as usual, was in the moment, and from past experiences, Calum knew not to disturb him. Arthur and Everly were huddled around a notebook with a pen in hand and Calum assumed they were writing. Nia was taking pictures on a Polaroid camera and after the pictures had been printed out she stuck them down in a book.

Finally, Calum's eyes averted to Andrea who had her head stuck in a book. Ever since their talk in Düsseldorf, Calum hadn't been able to move his mind away from what she said. He was confused and just wanted to know exactly what she was on about. As he said everyone does have their secrets, but why did she think hers were fucked up? From the past few weeks, Calum had found out that the bassist was definitely an overthinker so maybe she thought it was bad, but it wasn't actually?

Calum was knocked out of his thoughts when Ashton threw something at the back of his head. Ashton was now the only one who had finished whatever he was doing and Calum was glad it was him and no one else who had noticed his minor space out. Ashton was by far the best to talk to about anything and Calum promised himself he would share a room with the drummer later on.

"You ok mate?" Ashton moved closer to the bassist. Calum didn't respond and just subtly looked at Andrea, who was now sitting around a notebook with her bandmates. Ashton followed his gaze and nodded, "tell me about it later," he got up and patted him on the back, before walking over to Luke.

Andrea and Nia were listening to Arthur and Everly elaborately explaining a new song idea. So far Andrea loved the lyrics, but she felt as if the song didn't speak to her. They all knew this song wasn't going to be on the upcoming album, most likely on the next one but it was still good to get ahead of themselves.

"This isn't perfect," Arthur spoke, "but over the break, we can go to the studio to test stuff out." Andrea was about to agree, but Arthur's phone rang, it was John their manager.

John was nice, he kind of let everyone have free reign with what they do, but the only problem was he had to manage too many bands at once. Whilst these other bands were all experienced, Cows in Space weren't but John was too busy to help them through the things they didn't understand. This is why Andrea suggested that her old bass teacher became their manager.

"Hey, John!" Andrea and the others yelled into the phone.

"Hi guys, how's it going?" Arthur began explaining where they were right now and how being on stage was so much fun. "That's amazing to hear, I thought I'd just let you guys know that on the first of December you have a photoshoot and an interview in London and then from the twentieth up till the twenty-fourth I've booked you guys shows at the theatre in your hometown if you can't do any of those dates let me know and I'll cancel."

"I think we're fine," Nia began, "right guys?" Everyone quickly agreed to the promise to play a few shows in their local area.

"That's good, on the second of December I would like you to come and meet me at my office in London we need to talk about a lot of things that can't be done on the phone. Nothing too major just about how we need to start talking PR and photographers etcetera," the others silently groaned as this would be all the boring stuff, "I also managed to speak to Paul, but due to scheduling and things I can't get a meeting with him until April, but I am happy for him to take you under his wing, it will be good for you, especially if you already know him."

"Thanks, John, we'll see you soon," they all said their goodbyes, and Arthur hung up.

"He's a nice man," Everly mused, "I don't know why I ever doubted him."

"I think you had a right to doubt him," Andrea began, "he didn't pay that much attention to us at the beginning, but now we're getting more recognition he wants to help us so we don't do anything wrong."

Everyone spent the rest of their day in the park that was until eight o'clock as that's when they were back on the bus travelling to Rotterdam. It was only an hour's drive and Andrea was thankful for that.

Today, Andrea wasn't in her usual place with Calum and Ashton, instead, she was sitting at a table with her band trying to figure out chords for the new song. Nia sat with an acoustic in her lap and Everly was drumming to a beat on the table.

So far it wasn't going great, every chord Nia played didn't sound right and Everly couldn't concentrate meaning the drummer couldn't stick to one consistent beat. Andrea noticed Luke was watching them trying to figure this whole thing out, maybe he was trying to send some positive songwriting energy into the mix, but unfortunately, it didn't work for them.

Arthur banged his head on the table and groaned, "this is fucking me up."

"Let me look," Luke had gotten annoyed with all the complaining so he decided to help. Honestly, it wasn't because they didn't know how to write a song it was because they weren't in the proper setting as usually, they had all the instruments they needed as well as recording items, "the best thing to do is read through the lyrics again and my subtle changes. Keep trying different chords or if that doesn't work you're going to have to wait until you get your hands on other instruments."

In the back room, it was only Calum and Ashton. Calum was bored out of his mind, this drive was only supposed to be an hour-long, but it felt like ages. Ashton could tell Calum's mind was on something else and the bassist knew that. Ashton could read him like an open book, he was pretty sure Ashton knew him better than himself.

Luckily before Ashton asked him about it, Luke had screamed at Michael to get up as they were at the hotel. Calum grabbed his bags and followed Ashton off the bus. He caught a glimpse of Andrea, who was helping Everly with her luggage, she looked exhausted.

After they all checked in, Calum and Ashton went straight to their room. As soon as they got in there, Calum knew there was no escaping Ashton's questions so he dumped his luggage on the floor and sat on the dressing table stool.

"I'm confused," he finally announced after watching Ashton and his impatient expression. He motioned for him to continue, "Andrea said something and I can't stop thinking about it."

"Why can't you stop thinking about it?" Ashton sat on the bed opposite him, "is it because you're more intrigued than confused."

"I think it's both," he admitted, "she said something that gave me a whole new insight into her character, but the Andrea I know so far doesn't sound like her and that's confusing me, but then the other part of me wants to know her true personality."

"The only way that's going to happen is if she trusts you," Ashton said thoughtfully, "you haven't even known each other for a month yet there's obviously going to be some gaps, but you'll figure it out."

Calum definitely understood what Ashton was saying, everyone underestimates the drummer and Calum knew Ashton definitely deserves more credit. He was about to get up off the chair and start unpacking, but Ashton stopped him, "you'll be careful right?"

Calum scoffed, "what do you mean?" Ashton gave him a knowing look and he immediately understood what he meant. Was he insane? It was Ashton, of course, he is. As he said he hasn't even known her for a month, why would Calum think about Andrea in that way? He tried to rid himself of thoughts that were now invading his brain. In all honesty, he didn't mind some of them but he was Calum and she was, well, Andrea.

"Damn it, Ashton," Calum cursed, finally standing up, "you're the worst, stop putting ideas in my head."

He just smiled, "you'll thank me one day."

Hey guys sorry for the long
wait, this week was kinda tough
but here you go.  <3