"Stuck In The Friend-Zone Again and Again"

"We Can Talk About Nothing Yeah Whatever Babe"

Once seated on the couches inside the bus, we just kind of looked at each other.
"Let's start with the first issue..." Calum said.
"YOU HAVE A BROTHER?!?!?!?!" Ashton yelled.
"Yeah, I told you his name's Ryan and he's 21 and he's in University," I said.
"But you didn't care to mention that you had an older brother that could possibly whip our butts for being friends with you as older guys?" Calum said.
"Oh he could totally whip your butts. He's like an inch shorter than Luke but when he's not studying or in school he's at the gym," I said nonchalantly.
"Oh, great, that reeeeeaaaaaaally helps our nerves," Calum rolled his eyes.
I shrugged. "You'll be okay. I'll save you," I giggled.
"But we're the superheroes," Michael pouted.
"Then I need a superhero name so it won't be so embarrassing," I decided.
"Um, French Toast!" Ashton tried.
"I don't even like French toast," I said.
"Fine. Uhhhh.... Captain Paris?"
"Been done," Calum put in.
"Par-Bear," Luke said suddenly.
"What?" I asked.
"Like Care Bear but, Par like the beginning of Paris. Cause you're caring and cuddly like a teddy bear," Luke explained.
"Hey lay off she's my cuddle buddy!" Calum protested.
I smiled. "That's cute Luke, I love it."
He grinned. "Our little Par-Bear saving us from her older brother, the villain: Ryan the Ruthless!"
"Ahhhhh!" All the boys let out fake terrified mini screams.
I laughed. "He's not that bad."
"Still I'm scared," Ashton said.
"Par-Bear will protect us," Luke maintained.
"You bet I will," I giggled, wrapping my arm around Luke's shoulders playfully (he was sitting on my right).
He leaned into my shoulder, nuzzling into the crook of my neck.
I giggled, "that tickles!"
Luke blew on my skin lightly.
"Hey!" I protested.
"Sorry," he chuckled.
I caught a couple of exchanged glances from the other boys, and raised my eyebrows towards Calum.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing," Michael smirked at Luke, who had peeked out from my hair, which was down for once.
I scowled.
"Hey," Luke said, putting his fingers under my chin. "Don't frown."
"They won't tell me something and I can tell it's something to do with me," I said softly.
"I'm sure it's nothing," Luke assured me. "Don't worry."
"Not worrying is not possible," I said in a quiet voice.
"What?" Luke said quietly.
"Nothing," I shook my head, eyes cast down.
Luke frowned, his forehead creased.
"Apologize to her," he growled to the boys.
"I'm sorry," they said quickly, looking more than kind of scared of Luke.
Luke drew me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me, encircling me in himself.
Luke whispered little things in my ear, things like "it's okay, it's probably nothing." He also sang little bits of songs really quietly directly in my ear.

I felt a bit silly getting so upset over something so little, but I could sense what they were smirking about was something important involving me, and I was worried.
The boys didn't know, of course, that I had an anxiety disorder (G.A.D.), causing things that aren't a big deal to affect me immensely.

After a few minutes, I sat up from my crouched position, but though Luke removed his arms from around my whole body, he circled them around my waist.
"Sorry for making this such a big deal," I said in a small voice.
"It's okay, really, we should be the ones apologizing. You don't have to apologize," Calum said sincerely.
"It's okay, don't feel bad. I- I'm more prone to getting upset over these types of things than most people."

Luke's P.O.V.

I felt so bad about the boys making Paris upset. She basically admitted she had an anxiety disorder, from the way she was talking. The boys were smirking about the fact that they think I have a crush on her.
I don't.
She's like my little sister.
But I don't like anyone hurting her.
Especially not the guys, because they're supposed to be her friends. And mine.

Paris's P.O.V.

"Let's talk about something else," I suggested, in attempt to get the spotlight off of myself.
"How about what we're going to do this week?" Calum suggested.
I lost the tension in my body that I hadn't noticed had been there since they had exchanged looks.
"Well I have exams this week, so 2 and a half days I'll be in school. We can go to the beach one day, since it's nice out, and I told Jake that we'd meet up one day if that's okay," I said, unsure.
"Sounds great," Ashton said encouragingly.
"Can't wait to meet him," Luke whispered in my ear.
I grinned at that; I was so happy he was excited to meet him; it meant a lot for him to be supportive.

Suddenly I remembered something.
"Hey, whatever happened to that special feature thing?" I asked.
"Well it was meant to go on YouTube, so let's check it out," Michael said.
Apparently the bus had Apple T.V., because he pulled up YouTube on the screen on the wall. He typed in the name of the show's YouTube channel, and quickly found the right video.
The words "5 Seconds of Summer: Behind the Scenes" flashed, and then it cut to all of us sitting in our chairs. There was the whole bit where Luke answered Raylin for me about not wearing makeup, and then of course (to my despair) the part where I accidentally sang:
"You've had it figured out since you were in school, everybody loves pretty, everybody loves cool. So overnight, you look like a 60's Queen," I sang. Then I noticed the camera focused in me. "Crap!" I looked directly at the camera. "You don't have to put that in, right?"
"Leave that bit in!" The boys chorused.
"Please don't," I begged.
"PLEASE DO!" They said in unison."
Then came the part where Luke and I sing at the same time.

They showed a bunch of other random things that I didn't even remember happening until I watched the video. There was when Ashton fell out of his chair when it was time to go on the set, and when Michael threw candy at me and scream sang "throwing rocks at your window at midniiiiiight!".
At the end it said: "Starring: Luke Hemmings, Calum Hood, Michael Clifford, Ashton Iwrin, and Paris Hadley."
"Yay I exist!" I giggled, seeing my name.
"Oh my god me too!" Michael said dramatically.
"TWINSIES!" I laughed.
"More like quintuplets!" Calum in a high voice.
"Whatever!" I sighed with a giggle.
Everyone laughed.

My phone dinged suddenly.
I took it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. New Instagram notification.
I unlocked my phone and looked at it someone with the username "lukelover223344" had commented on my picture of me and Luke on the bus from when I stayed with them over the weekend; "ugh everyone knows you just want to date Luke for the money. Get over yourself, slut."
I rolled my eyes, turning off my phone.
"What?" Calum asked.
"Nothing," I said quickly.
Luke swiftly stole my phone and unlocked it.
"Hey, how did you know the code?" I protested.
"I watched when you unlocked it the first time," he explained without a trace of guilt.
I watched helplessly as his face contorted with anger at what that random girl had written.
"This is not acceptable," he said in a low, quiet voice.
"It's fine, honestly," I told him tugging at his shirt sleeve.
"No, it's not. People shouldn't say things like that, it's not fair."
"Life isn't fair. I know not everyone can be nice and accept that we're friends and I don't want to date you for your money. Even when I wanted to marry you, before I knew you, it wasn't for the money. Not everyone sees that. I get stuff like this everyday, and it doesn't bother me," I told him.
"Everyday?" He asked.
I nodded. "Sure, maybe it's not fair. It doesn't matter."
"Still. This is unfairness I can fix," he said, a determined look on his face. He pulled out his phone.
"Luke, no!" I said, trying to grab his phone. "Please don't make a big deal out of this!" I begged.
"I'm not making it anything, it's already a big deal," Luke said, going onto Instagram.
I flopped back against his chest, defeated, and sighed.
A minute later my phone dinged again.
Upon unlocking it, I saw Luke's response to the girl in my comments;
"Paris is not trying to *date me for my money*, she's being friends with all of us, and having a good time (as far as I know). It doesn't bother her when people say things like this, but it really upsets me. So please stop."
"Luke you really didn't have to do that," I said.
"Oh I'm just getting started," Luke said, continuing to type.
"Greeeeeeeat," I said. "You know, the press is going to have a field day."
"I really don't give a shit," Luke said, not looking up.
"Alrightly then," I laughed.
A moment later my phone went off for the third time.
This time it was a notification from Twitter.
*@Luke5SOS tweeted*
I unlocked my phone and opened Twitter.
I clicked on the notification, and read Luke's latest tweets;
"So I just found out that Paris has been receiving hate everyday. Really guys? To the fans who support her and don't say *she's just in it for the money* and don't comment about her appearance and personality in a negative way, thank you."
"You guys mean so much to the band and to Paris. To those of you to think it's okay to say horrible things about Paris, especially without knowing her AT ALL, just don't. It's wrong and it hurts me more than it hurts her, to tell you the truth. She's strong. I'm not. It hurts me to see her have to have all these untrue accusations thrown at her everyday, so it would mean a lot to all of us if you would stop."
I grabbed Luke's hand, the hand that wasn't holding his phone, and gave it a squeeze.
"Thanks," I smiled.
"Anytime," he said softly, putting his chin on my shoulder.