Masterpieces {Book 2}

Circus Act

Credit; coltnposey

Thanks for 1k again yall (:

Mini rant that has to do with this one shot -I'm absolutely 1234557% done with people calling Calum problematic bc he's a human being and i will not have him pulling a zayn thx. But seriously, lay off him. He's not an asshole, he just is tired of the media's bullshit just like everyone else adios-

Enjoy ;p

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Calum's never been a picky person. He never argued with the rest of the band over where they should eat out. He never threw a fit when Mali got the blue lollipop and he got the green one. He never sucked his teeth at someone else's movie choice (unless the movie sucked). And he's never really wanted things by certain conditions and only those conditions. That just wasn't him. He was, for the most part, pretty damn go-with-the-flow. At least, he liked to think so.

But lately he's been thinking maybe not. Because he knows for a fact he'd set a few ground rules right about now. Like banning the rest of the world from taking a million and one pictures of him as he walked down the street. And he'd love to do away with the blinding camera lights every time he got out of a car. And he'd sure as hell rather live without every move he makes being analyzed for this reason and that reason.

He thinks what he'd like is the success without the fame, but that's just not how it goes. You can't get one without the other. That's what he's learned. They're a package deal.

When he lets himself think about it long enough he gets mad at himself. Because it starts to make him sound ungrateful for everything he's had happen to him. Aw look at me on a world tour, playing for millions of people, doing what I always wanted. Poor me. Sad face. At least, he thinks that's how the world would see it. Just another teen star complaining about the luxury life. But that's not even the half of it. Not even half of the half of it, and he doesn't know how to properly express that. So he sucks it up, smiles when he has to, flips the camera off when he doesn't, and stays to himself. It worked for a while, but now it's starting to feel like he's tail spinning and he's not sure what else he can do to make this feeling go away.

They were all going to go out tonight. That was the plan when they woke up, at least. But by midday Michael had said he didn't feel up to it anymore. Sort of expected, but it still sucked. Calum really loves when he comes out with them. It's more fun when he's there. But now he's starting to see why Michael prefers the quiet, personal space of the hotel room than the overcrowded, extremely nosy space of the outside world.

So a few hours after Michael turned down the offer, Calum did the same. That was a little more shocking. Out of the four of them, he's sure he's known as the partyer. The one that acts the most like a true nineteen year old with little to no restrictions. But he likes that. He loves the feeling of being a freebird. He likes to go to different clubs and feel the different vibes of each city. But lately the vibe has gone dead and he's been feeling like a caged bird instead. It's hard to fly when you don't even have enough room to expand your wings.

And just like that, their night out turned into their night in.

With Ashton leaving their hotel hours ago and Michael across the hall up to his neck in video games, Luke had made himself comfortable on Calum's bed. The television was on and some movie about a woman trying to find a serial killer was playing. Calum thought it was pretty interesting, but Luke was only half-watching. Heavy dramas weren't usually his thing. He's always prefered something that can make him laugh or something he can learn from. His guilty pleasure was definitely the Discovery channel. He tells them all he watches it so he can have something cool to say to the crowd, but they all know he enjoys learning about the whales in the ocean and the forests in Africa. It was kind of cute, if Calum had to say so himself.