Begin Again - A.I

twenty six.

Hey guys I updated the cast list so check that out :)

Three practiced songs in and I was starving, and it didn't look like the boys were wrapping up anytime soon. In fact, it looked like they were just getting started. I should've eaten more greens at dinner. 

I don't know what else I expected when coming along to these practices, I mean, I was a regular here now, but each time I hoped maybe they wouldn't be so boring.

I look around Michael's man cave, trying to seek out some food that doesn't come in a cereal box or a bright orange foil packet. Would it kill him to have a bowl of fruit? Actually, I probably wouldn't touch any fresh produce found in here. It certainly wouldn't be fresh.

"Ella, did you hear that?"

I snap back to the dull reality before me, looking at Luke as he stands behind a microphone, guitar poised in his hands. 

"What?" 

"Did you hear it?" He repeats. I clearly fucking didn't. "Here, I'll do it again." He strums his guitar once and raises his eyebrow at me in a grin. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry." I look at him with the utmost confusion. "But what the hell are you saying to me?"

Michael sighs from beside Luke. "The difference in the strum," he says, like I have any idea what that's meant to mean. "Duh."

"Which is better?" Luke asks, strumming again. "This, or .... " another strum, that sounds exactly the same, "this?"

I just stare at them. Were they serious? I blink, they blink back. I shuffle in my seat, they shuffle their clunky boot covered feet. "Uh, the second one," I say with all the confidence I can fake.

"Yeah?" Luke lights up, and I think I've said the right answer. "That's great, we were thinking the same! Okay, guys. From the top. Listen for the new note."

The guys start playing again and I sink back further into the musty couch. They play another two songs, and I actually really like the last one they do. I've never heard it before, so I bring it up.

"What was that one?"

They don't reply, too busy packing away their things.

"That song," I repeat. "The one you just did. What was it called?"

"Vapor," Michael replies. "We just wrote it."

"Do you like it?" Calum asks, his voice a little too hopeful.

"It sounds really good. Are you guys going to play it next weekend?"

The boys just look at me, apart from Ashton; who is looking at anything but me. I quickly realise what's going on here, and how much of a freaking liar Ashton is, and that I now look like a total idiot.

"You don't have a gig, do you?"

Luke, Michael, and Calum all look at each other then, screwed up faces as they talk amongst themselves. "Do we?" Asks Michael. "I don't think ..."

"Unless I booked it high, I don't think we do," replies Luke.

I stare daggers at Ashton, who tries to hide behind his drums. Why would he lie about something like that? Just to get out of a family trip to the city? Come on, it couldn't be that bad.

"Right." I awkwardly laugh. "I was just kidding. Hey, can we order a pizza or something? I'm kind of starving." I try and shift the awkwardness off me.

"That's the best idea you've ever come up with, Stanford." Michael puts down his guitar. "Pepperoni?"

"Can we just get a cheese one as well?" I speak up, somewhat shyly. I braced myself for the snide comments that would come from the boys, squealing about how meat belonged on a pizza and that was the only option. But nothing came.