Promise » [cashton] √

2.9

[7th of September - London]

Calum had spent a fair amount of time in London. He'd never been on holiday there or anything like that, but he had made the cut for an international tour here once or twice. That being said, none of those tours had ever had the luxury of being in London for almost an entire week. Michael told him he knew a pub they could park themselves at after they'd looked at the few things he'd wanted to see. Which is where they were wandering to when Michael brought up Luke. Calum needed it on record that he hadn't started the conversation about Luke.

"It's nice being able to go out with someone on tour and not get fucking noticed every other block," Michael laughed, as they passed another group of teenage girls who seemed to want nothing to do with them.

Calum exhaled a laugh, "yeah, going anywhere with Ashton is interesting," their trip to Sacramento was Calum's first real taste of what things were like for Ashton; before that they'd never really hung out in public for more than an hour.

Michael pointed across them toward the front door of a pub, directing them across the threshold, "I meant Luke; I never try and go out with Ashton; I literally don't know how you do it. Luke gets noticed a lot too, not quite as much as Ashton but still so much, takes forever to get anywhere,"

"Oh yeah," was what Calum chose to say, not being able to comment on Luke without his exasperation coming through.

Michael was silent as they made their way to the bar, and Calum could sense even without saying much he had still managed to make it awkward. He got the impression Michael would say something once he'd ordered their beers, but they stayed silent until they had walked them to a table at the back of the pub, well away from the two large windows in front.

"There's something I wasn't sure if I should tell you or not," Michael said quietly, eyes flicking up from his beer to gauge Calum's reaction.

"So, are you going to tell me?" Calum wasn't actually all that worried; something told him that anything Luke had said to Michael about him behind his back, he probably would have said to his face anyway.

Michael was tapping his finger against the splintering table, eyes watching it, and Calum wondered if maybe whatever it was was more than Luke talking behind his back. Then again, Michael had only recently learnt that Luke had this side to him; maybe it was all just too conflicting with the idea he had of his friend in his mind.

"I overheard Luke and Ashton fighting again yesterday about you," he confessed.

Maybe it had been naive to think that Ashton would tell him if Luke kept up the attitude, but he had thought that Ashton not mentioning it meant that it hadn't been happening, or at the most, it was snide comments and not actual arguments. The comments from the museum and Ashton's dressing room came back to him, and he wanted to groan. Of course, it wasn't that Ashton didn't trust him; Luke had obviously just decided to undermine him in the moments Calum wasn't there to refute him.

His fingers played with the small amount of condensation forming on his glass, "he have any interesting points?" and he made himself laugh, but it sounded false even before it began.

"It was before the show last night, I just walked past and heard raised voices, nothing crazy you know? Like I had to get close to the door to hear anything. But I wasn't sure who it was, I knew it was probably Ashton and someone cause it was his dressing room, but I didn't know if it was you or Luke." his eyes met Calum's as he spoke, and he could see how worried Michael still was, What could they have possibly fought about that would have Michael still this worried? 

Calum nodded slowly, "what did he have to say?"

The older man swallowed and started to recount the story in detail.

Michael was standing at the door, ear all but pressed to it, having no interest in hiding his concern from passersby or anyone inside.