Promise » [cashton] √

0.5

[17th of June - Los Angeles]

When Ashton had told him that everyone was going for drinks at Luke and Sierra's that night after the show, he hadn't thought much of it. Mostly because it wasn't a personal invitation, more of an 'if you haven't got something better to do, on one of your few nights home, you could come to this'. Which had seemed pretty standard to post-show drinks he'd been invited to before.

When he arrived, dressed in his worn-out blue jeans and lazily cropped top, he was mildly embarrassed when everyone else was dressed with... a higher level of care, was how he decided to put it. There also weren't nearly as many people as he'd expected.

Sierra was the one to usher him in, and she smiled warmly at him despite his feeling sloppily dressed, "do you want me to put your wine in the fridge?" she asked, leading him past the lounge room and straight into the kitchen.

Ashton, Dove and Luke were talking, circled around a bowl of punch Luke was making. The rest of Ashton's band was sitting at the dining table, which was through an archway but still really the same room, as well as two people Calum had definitely seen but didn't know by name. One was a makeup artist, and the other always seemed to have a piece of equipment in his hand. Michael had, had his head in the fridge and smiled at Calum as he withdrew, a beer in his hand.

"We were placing bets if you'd come," he smiled happily, taking the wine from Calum's hand and replacing it with the beer he'd just taken out of the fridge, then grabbed another for himself. "Thought you might have had something better to do than play board games with us," he explained.

Calum nodded as though he had known the whole time he was going to be playing board games, "thought I should come and bond with my coworkers," he reasoned, which really had been the clincher, that and he liked seeing Ashton about, even if he couldn't do anything. They barely had any interaction with one another, the younger man keeping himself in his dressing room most days.

"What a sweet boy," Michael said, pinching his cheek, and Calum had the suspicion that Michael was a few beers deep by this point, "you can be on Crystal and I's team for charades," he said happily, then seemed to remember, "you can meet Crystal!"

Sierra laugh behind him; he'd forgotten about her in Michael's excitement, "you'll like Crystal; she's got the best stories," then she was moving past him, back toward her husband.

After that, they all got themselves a drink and moved into the Hemmings' generous living room, splitting up into teams for the hand of charades Michael had promised. Crystal also appeared and gave Calum a hug, and introduced herself. She, just like the rest of them, was gorgeous, with long ashen brown hair and big eyes. She wasn't what Calum had originally imagined, thinking back to the blonde little twink he'd first imagined Michael married to. But Michael, as pretty as he was, was punching.

The three of them and Lily, the makeup artist, made up their (Crystal's) charades team. There were two other teams, Ashton, Luke, Niamh, and Gabby were 'Ashton's Team', and Sierra, Lara, Lindsay, Dove and Andy, who he had learned was a roadie, were 'Sierra's Team'.

Taking turns, they played about three rounds, each team having three attempts, and Calum used the word attempt purposefully to guess another member's randomly generated word. Crystal and Sierra's team's, as they'd been dubbed, were shocking, getting one correct answer each. Ashton's team, however, had gotten it right all three rounds; it seemed Ashton and Luke were somehow telepathically linked. Luke had guessed Ashton's in 15 seconds, who'd then guessed Luke's in 20 seconds, and together they guessed Niamh's in 45 seconds.

The room had been filled with eye-rolls as they'd jumped up and down excitedly; they were too happy of winners for anyone else to want to congratulate them.