Forever and Always

Chapter 19:

I walk through all the streets of LA asking myself questions, they're racing through my head, 'How did they find me?' 'How did they find out I'd be there?' 'I blocked them for so long! And so did my friends and Calum and the boys! But HOW?!?!' I breakdown in the middle of the sidewalk where everyone is walking. A few people tripped over me, others saw me and walked around me. I had my head in my hands and I was crying my eyes out. The world around me crumbled. I didn't know where to go from here! I was lost, and no one would ever be willing to help me out. Especially since I'm a total mess!

I tried picking myself up, but I was to weak. I just sat there, I was so confused. If I were to go back to Calum and everyone else, what would they do? And if I stayed out here then I'll never see them again and they'll either forget about me or worry themselves to death. I speak to myself, "C'mon El. You can do this! They're in your past and they can't get to you. Now get up-" I was interrupted by someone who I didn't know.

"Are you okay. Do you need help?" a girl looks at me and has a confused yet worried look in her eyes. Which is exactly how I felt. She's wearing a Pierce the Veil band tee, ripped skinny jeans, and teal hair dye on the tips of her hair, and has bangs that mostly cover her eyes.

"Um... Not exactly... I have no clue where I am. I'm lost and don't really know what to do." I just dumped my thoughts on her, "I'm sorry, you probably don't care."

"If I didn't care, then I would've passed by you like all the other assholes in this world!" she said and offered me her hand and I took it, "And it's totally okay, I've been where you are right now. Lost, confused, terrified. I'm Blade by the way."

"Elizabeth. Everyone calls me Ellie or El though. It's your choice!" I said while taking her hand.

"Well Ellie, I'm not from around here, but I'm acquainted enough with my GPS to help you get where you need to go... If you know where that is anyway." she says and mutters the last part.

"Thanks. But, I have no idea where I'm staying and my phone died." I say holding up my dead phone.

"You can borrow mine if you want."

"That'd be great if it's not a bother to you?"

"It's not a problem at all! Here." she hands me her phone and I dial in Calum's number. His number is the only one I know by heart, only because I usually just call through my contacts.

Blade's phone rings for a really long time, but finally there's a whimpering voice on the other end that picks up, "Who the hell is this?!"

"You need a new pick up line Calum, that's the second time in two weeks that you've picked up to that line!"

"Ellie! Where the hell are you? Why'd you leave like that? What happened? Whose phone is this? We've been looking all over for you." he gave me a thousand questions that I didn't want to answer in front of Blade. Especially since I just met her.

"Cal can we talk about this later? I'm borrowing someone's phone and that's why you didn't recognize the number. I have no clue where I am. But, the person that's helping me is driving me to where our hotel is. One problem is, what hotel is that?"

"Double Tree on the edge of LA! Please hurry back I'm worried sick!"

"I can tell you are Calum, it's not hard to figure through your whimpering."

"Hey, you did this to me!"

"I know and I'll explain later, but right now I gotta go. Bye. I love you Cal."

"I love you too El. See you soon." I hang up the phone and turn to Blade who's looking at me weirdly.

"Who was that? They sounded extremely worried!"

"Oh my boyfriend, I kind of freaked when I saw something in the crowd at his concert and ran. You might know them, ever heard of 5 Seconds of Summer?" I ask with a hopeful look on my face as we talk over the car as we get in.

"Sorry no. What genre of music are they? Are they big around here?"

"They're Punk-Rock. And they're kind of big world wide not just here." I was kind of disappointed she hadn't heard of them.

"That's why I haven't heard of them!" she said as she started the car. "I listen to screamo and stuff like that. So where are we headed?"

"Hmm... I haven't tried that music before. And it's the Doubletree hotel on the edge of LA he said."

"Oh lucky for you I know where that is without my GPS! It's like five or ten minutes from here."

We arrived and Calum was waiting by the front doors of the lobby when we pulled up to the hotel. "Do you want to come meet him. He'll probably be happy to know I didn't go with some creepy person."

"Okay. Sure." Blade says awkwardly and gets out with me.

"Oh my god Ellie, where the hell did you go? You had us all freaked out!" Calum says as he runs up to me and hugs me tightly. I didn't want to let him go. I missed him so much to since I was in LA for 2-3 hours hopelessly lost and confused.

"I don't know I got lost. But anyway, this is Blade, she helped when I'd fallen and I was freaking out." I explained to Calum.

"I don't know how I could repay you! You saved my girlfriend, and without you she'd still be lost in the streets."

"Damn Cal, you're making me sound like a lost cat or something!"

"You practically were!" Cal argues with me, but Blade joins in.

"There's no need to repay me. I've been where she was before and it hurts when no one was there for me, until my best friend picked me up. It's just what I do."

"I still need to repay you somehow. How about dinner on me. I hope you don't mind having a bunch of people because we basically all eat together." Calum says to Blade.

"That sounds great when?"

"How about tonight. We haven't eaten yet, you can join us!"

"Well, sorry to ask but I came here with my best friend and I don't want to ditch her so can she come with?"

"Of course!" I say, "I kind of wanna get to know the person who was able to pick you up when you were down like I was!"

"When do we leave then?" Blade questions.

"Now!" Cal says, "C'mon lets go get the others first!" he waves Blade to follow us when he and I turn around together cause he's still clinging onto me as tight as I am to him. We get up the elevator and enter the room where everyone is all hanging out watching Family Guy. "Meet Blade, she found El on the streets. Now let's go get something to eat!"

They all turn and stare at me, Blade, and Cal. I noticed that Luke stares at Blade with wide eyes. "So Blade meet the gang. That's Jessie, Sarah, Michael, Ashton, and Luke, which is the one who is staring at you widely!" Luke glares at me as I smile and laugh, "Hey you know me! You knew it was coming sooner or later!"

"I know, but I was hoping it would be later!" Luke says, while Blade looks uncomfortable as we all walk out of the hotel. We went into the tour bus and I remember, "Oh where are we picking up your friend? You said she would come along?"

"Yea she's at the mall right now I'll text her to meet us out front." Blade explained.

---

We got to the mall and Blade's friend got into the tour bus. "This is Susanna." Susanna enters the bus and says 'hi'. We went to a pizza place called Filippi's Pizza and got three pizzas. It was amazing!

We had a great night getting to know each other very well especially Blade and Susanna, our new friends. We all exchanged numbers when my phone would barely turn on. We went back to the hotel and left Blade and Susanna to their car. We said our goodbyes and I can tell Luke was sad that they were leaving, mainly Blade.

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A/N: I love this really long chapter, it kid of sets up the sequel just little itty bitsy bit. 1 more chapter, are you excited?! I am!
-Baylie <3
P.S. The next chapter, even though it's the last one, isn't very long like some of these past few chapters.