Fame ☆ Cashton AU

Chapter Six: Small Changes and Standing-Only Crowds

Calum sighed, heading towards the arena. Although he was mad at Luke, he wasn't going to waste any of the money that Luke spent on the tickets and decided to go to the concert anyways.

He got bored within a few minutes of standing in line with a bunch of strangers, so he pulled out his phone and checked Twitter.

@AshtonIrwin: Hey guys! To anyone going to the show tonight, a small change has been made.

@AshtonIrwin: The floor is now standing only. All tickets will still work.

@AshtonIrwin: If you have a balcony seat, you can ignore my last two tweets. Thanks to anyone coming tonight!

A standing only floor?

"You've got to be kidding me," Calum mumbled to himself.

"What happened?" a girl behind him asked.

Calum turned around and stared at her familiar face for a moment. He recognized her for some strange reason.

"You're the girl who asked for a picture with me right?" Calum asked her, "Stella?"

"Yeah, that's me, except for the fact that you got my name wrong. It's Bella."

Calum blushed.

"Oh. I'm so sorry about that," he told her.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," Bella replied with a smile.

"Thanks," Calum said.

"No problem," Bella told him, "So, what's going on? Why are you so mad? Is everything okay?"

Calum saw that Bella was waiting for him to answer and knew he wasn't going to get out of it.

"I just found out that now our floor tickets are standing only," Calum explained, "I know, a lot of people would stand for the entire concert. It probably wouldn't matter whether or not the arena had seats."

"I agree with you on that," Bella said, laughing, "So what's the problem? Are you claustrophobic or something?"

"I'm not claustrophobic," Calum grumbled, rolling his eyes, "I just don't really feel comfortable in a crowd like that."

"I went to see Pierce The Veil once and some girl passed out and was being dragged out of the crowd right next to where I was standing. I also got squished in a small group of people when watching Cody Carson crowd surf during a Set It Off show," Bella said.

She was just casually talking about these experiences she has had in the past at concerts, as if she had been to so many concerts that being in a standing-only crowd that could be dangerous on any possible level was normal for her.

"How is that helping me?" Calum asked with a rude tone in his voice.

"Sorry about that," Bella said, "I got a little off track for a while. What I'm trying to say is, the crowd at this concert won't be as dangerous. You'll be fine."

Calum didn't respond.

"Weren't you here with somebody earlier?" Bella asked.

"I was, but not at the moment," Calum answered.

"Why not?" Bella asked.

"It's a long story," Calum told her, sighing.

"This is a long line, so I think we've got time to kill," Bella said.

"Fair enough, I guess," Ashton replied, "So the guy you saw with me earlier today was my friend Luke. In the nicest way possible, he's a bit crazy. Not to offend you or anyone else at this concert, but he pretty much acts like everyone else here. He's pretty much a male version of the average fangirl. The difference between him and me is that I keep to myself when it comes to getting excited about concerts and stuff. I will admit, I've had fun at every single concert I've been to in my life, but I'm not the type of person who would scream in a band member's face or buy their used tissue off of eBay or some crap like that."

The two of them stood in silence for a moment.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, Bella," Ashton said.

"It's fine. I don't feel offended. If anything, I actually agree with you. I definitely think that you just described the stereotypical fangirl. I am a huge fan of Ashton, of course, but I'm not the type of person to go to extremes for him or any other artist I like, no matter how much I like them," Bella told him with a sympathetic smile on her face.

"Anyways, Luke got mad at me because I'm not a fanboy like he is, and I got mad at him as well. I told him to find someone replace me," Ashton explained.

Calum's eyes were stinging from tears that nearly fell down his face. He wasn't going to cry. He wasn't going to cry. He just wasn't going to cry.

"Did you mean what you said?" Bella asked.

Calum put a bit of thought into what she asked.

"Actually, I did," Calum answered, "I'm tired of his selfishness. I'm tired of him wanting me to be someone I'm not. I'm tired of him not accepting the fact that I'm not going to change myself to fit his expectations. I'm honestly done with it."

"I don't know if it's too soon or not, but if you still want someone to go to this concert with, you can come with me. I have a tendency to get and keep pretty good spots at concerts with this type of crowd," Bella suggested.

Calum thought about turning down this offer and going in by himself like he was originally going to do. Well, that wasn't his original plan, but after the unexpected argument with Luke, he thought about entering the concert venue on his own - if he even decided to go at all, that is.

Did he really want to go to this concert with someone who he had just met and didn't know if he could trust? Did he really want to go to this concert with someone who was practically a stranger to him? Did he really want to go to this concert with someone he barely knew?

He made a rash decision, which is something he rarely did.

"Alright. I'll go with you."

Author's Note: Hey! So this is now the longest chapter I've ever written for this story (or any of my chaptered stories) with 1,004 words. I've got a lot of ideas for this story, and I already have the next couple chapters slightly planned out. I originally intended for this story to be 15 chapters, but now with all these ideas I have planned for it, I'm thinking it might be 20 chapters. Also, this story didn't win a Bromance Award, but it got into the semifinals, which is more than I expected. So thank you to those who voted for this story!

What are your thoughts on Calum going into a crowd like this?

What Calum said about Luke?

What Bella is like so far?

I hope you enjoyed the update!

-Megan :-)