Stare At the Photograph - A.F.I.

8

ALYA

"Alya!" Michael says happily, wrapping his arms around my shoulders from behind.

"Michael!" I say, surprised. I didn't think he would be so... touchy?

I take his arms off of me and turn around to say hello.

"Baby. I'm so glad you decided to come after all." He says.

I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Old habits die hard." He says, shrugging his shoulders. "C'mon let me show you around."

I look over at Ashton and he mouths 'go'.

ASHTON

Why the fuck did I just let her go with him? She doesn't even want to go with him. I don't want her to go with him! I want to show her the stage.

I slam my trunk shut after grabbing my duffel bag and I head backstage to see the guys and I give each of them a hug. Then Kaitlyn, our stage manager, drags us to get changed meanwhile Alya talked to our stage crew.

—

Getting on stage is a different kind of high, one you could never get from drugs. The fans cheering you on and performing with your best friends in front of thousands of people who paid actual money to come watch you.

With girls throwing themselves on you, I can say I fell for it one too many times during our earlier tours, you feel like you're on top of the world.

Out of all those people watching me, I was only glad for one person who was there: Alya.

Is it wrong of me to think about her like this? She was one of my best mate's girlfriend for a year. They broke up yesterday.

When we got off stage so the fans could beg us for an encore, Alya told us how amazing we did and complemented Luke and Calum's voice a ton.

As we were getting back onto stage, I turn around to see Michael whispering something into Alya's ear and her nodding and agreeing. Then his hand slipped down her arm and squeezed her hand for a second before I called for him.

fuck.

—
[1:31 AM]
"She fucking left with him, Cal!" I say, sobbing on my bed. "I always lose!"

Calum stood there, not knowing what to say.

"Why did I get so attached? I've known her for like 2 days!" I say, screaming into my pillow. "I feel like a fucking kid!"

Then there's a knock on the door. Calum walks to the door and looks through the peephole and runs back to me.

My eyes go wide. Fuck! I look like I've been crying for the past 30 minutes. Which I have, but I don't want her to know that!

"Ash?" Alya says, knocking again.

"Go into the shower." Calum says, pointing me to the bathroom. "I'll handle this."

He grabs drinks from the mini fridge and opens them and down a couple shooters.

"Go!" He whispers.

I run into the bathroom and turn the water on, but I press my ear to the door to hear their conversation.

"Calum! I didn't expect to see you here!" Alya says.

"Hey!" Calum says. "Come in!"

"I brought wings and cupcakes for Ashton and I, but I bought plenty to share." She says.

"Perfect! Ash and I were just thinking about food." He says. "He's in the shower."

I quickly strip of my clothes and hop in the shower to get my hair and body wet. Then I do a quick pat down with my towel and wrap it around my waist.

"Cal!" I announce opening the door. "We should get wings."

Then I pretend to be surprised that Alya is here. I didn't expect her to still be wearing my jacket.

"Alya! I didn't expect you to be here." I say, holding my towel in place. I can feel her scanning my body.

"Michael wouldn't leave me alone unless I said I would have a drink with him. So I had one and called an Uber." She says, licking the frosting off the cupcake.

I stare at her in silence and she breaks it saying, "Aren't you gonna put some clothes on?"

"Right-" I stammer, turning around.

"I sense that I should leave." Calum announces, taking a box of wings and a cupcake with him.

"No! Calum-" I say to him.

"Sneaky bastard," He whispers to me with a smirk.

"Use protection!" he shouts and shuts the door behind him.

I turn around to face Alya, who was still licking her cupcake.

"Let me put some clothes on and I'll join you." I say grabbing clothes from my suitcase.

"Don't bother." She says, now standing behind me, trailing her fingers on my back. "I know what you were doing."

"This is a really bad idea." I tell her, holding myself to the wall.

"I love bad ideas." She teases, putting her arms around my neck and I turn around in her arms.

Alya squeals as I push her onto the bed.

(blah blah blah smut)

"Fuck," Alya says, laying down next to me. "What am I gonna do?"