transcendence || 5sos

twelve

"Baby, look what you've done to me."

-One Direction // Stockholm Syndrome

* * *

"Lily? How the fück did you get here?" Calum shouted.

He stood between the door frame, both hands at his sides. Luke sauntered up from behind him and let out a gasp of his own. He turned to Calum and whispered, "What the hell is she doing here?"

Calum shook his head, his eyes still not leaving Lily's. Her blonde hair was up in a messy bun and bags bulged from under her eyes; it was clear she had not slept in days.

"I need to see Michael." She said quietly yet eagerly. "Please."

Luke stepped forward. "There is no way you're stepping one foot into this room after what you did." He crossed his arms, causing Lily to shift uncomfortably in the hotel hallway.

She looked down at her shuffling feet. "I didn't mean to do it, I swear. Someone forced me to." Lily's voice was so soft she could barely hear it herself.

"What?" Calum asked, shifting weight onto one leg and rolling his eyes. "Speak up."

Lily glared at him rudely. "Someone forced me to leak Luke's number. I didn't want to."

Luke raised an unconvinced eyebrow. "And who would do that?"

Lily pursed her lips. "I can't tell you."

Laughter filled the room and echoed throughout the hallway. "Who do you think you are? Just knocking on our door and expecting us to let you in after you leaked our private information that we didn't even give to you? You're a sick joke." Luke spat and slammed the door in her face, spinning around on one heel and marching back to the couch.

Calum just stood there processing what had happened. Lily had come to talk to Michael, hoping to get him back, he presumed. But there was obviously something she was genuinely distressed about - whether it be Michael or the other thing she had said. That someone forced her to give out Luke's number and most likely posted the photo of him and Tia sitting together in the school hallway. No one else was there that day, so it would've been disturbingly easy for Lily to take advantage of the situation and put them into the spotlight.

The question, though, was why?

But he also remembered how they had acted around Lily when they first met her. Her demeanor screamed a lighthearted and fun girl who had been hurt tremendously and desperately needed to forget her past mistakes. She hid it well; it was all smiles and laughter goofing around. However, now, Calum was sure there was nothing Lily could do to reverse his image of her.

Luke had acted noticeably different as well, taking into account that the last time he saw her he was throwing her on his back and running around in fits of laughter.

Calum had made sure to check Twitter a few moments before, and rumors were still spreading like wildfire. Scrolling down his feed, he even saw the most ridiculous stories and rumors about Tia. One saying that she was some German prostitute whose name was really Natasha and was using her accent to get into his pants, and another saying that she was making Calum act more "distant" around fans. Sometimes he wondered what their fans were really doing in their spare time.

He then went on Instagram to check to see if anyone had commented on Tia's posts, but stumbled across the fact that he wasn't even following her. If he did follow her, though, the fans would definitely know they were associated and even more rumors would arouse, so he decided against it. When he saw her again later tonight, he would ask her how she was coping with the social media attention.