Promise » [cashton] √

0.7

[20th of June - Phoenix]

He thought it was best to do it early in the day, or he was going to just going to keep worrying about it. He hadn't gotten to do it the next day like Luke had suggested because most of them had spent the day at home before they took the bus to Phoenix late in the afternoon, and then, of course they were busses apart.

So he was waiting outside Ashton's dressing room; Luke was in there at the moment; he'd seen him go in as he'd approached the door and had felt a sense of relief at having the whole ordeal put off, even if it was just a few minutes longer. Rationally he knew Ashton wasn't going to curse him, fire him or anything else, but Michael had gotten in his head. Was it really so inappropriate to sleep with someone you worked with? He'd done it half a dozen times before, and no one else had batted an eye. But Michael and Ashton's reactions had thrown him off kilter.

When Luke came out, he immediately looked to Calum, who was leaning against the wall next to the door, "you going to talk to him now then?" He asked simply.

Calum nodded, "thought I better get it out of the road first chance I got," he explained, but didn't move to go inside.

He hummed, "gave it more than a day,"

"What was I supposed to do? Go to his house? I don't even know where he lives," he shrugged, and Luke just rolled his eyes and walked on.

Calum had hoped he'd stay, argue semantics with him a little longer, and he could put off knocking on the door. But no such reprieve seemed to be on the cards for him, so he knocked, waiting a few moments before he heard a reply.

"Come in," as he opened the door, Ashton spoke again, "what did you forget, Lu?"

He could see Ashton was facing away from him as so he quickly replied, "not Luke," Calum told him, and Ashton turned quickly, almost panicked in his movement but settling once he laid eyes on the other.

"Oh,"

Calum let out an amused breath, "Sorry, I meant to come and see you in Irvine, but things didn't work out that way. I wanted to apologise again for what you walked in on at Luke and Sierra's; we should have found somewhere more private. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," He wouldn't apologise for sleeping with her; they were adults they could do whatever they pleased... within reason.

Ashton shook his head, "you don't need to apologise," he assured, "that's- that- people do that sort of thing; I know that I'm in the minority. I don't expect consenting adults to change their habits just because they don't fit into what I believe. I just hope that it doesn't cause any unnecessary drama over the rest of the tour," he said far more evenly than Calum had expected.

Calum bent his head, almost in a bow as thanks for Ashton's words, "you talk like someone much older sometimes," he said it without really thinking, but it did feel as though someone decades older stood before him, who had seen all this before, despite his boyish response to it.

"I've been doing this for a long time now; suppose you start to learn what you're supposed to say," he shrugged, and suddenly the years fell from his shoulders, and he seemed more timid, waiting for Calum's next response.

"Can I buy you a coffee?" Another answer without thinking, "I still feel bad," he said in way of explanation.

Ashton eyed him, the way pretty girls did when he approached them at bars, "as long as you don't have any ulterior motives?" But he was smiling as he said it.

"I would never try something like that, or be presumptuous enough to think it would work," Calum assured him. There was a surge of guilty thoughts swelling in the back of his mind as he remembered the dozen or so times he'd dreamt about being just presumptuous enough to try, and he dream where he'd even get a little further.