Friction || Luke Hemmings

Luke- 39

"He's not going to listen."

"I agree with you."

"Then why are we here?"

"Because you promised Alli you would try."

I groaned, staring at the door of the coffee shop that Calum finally agreed to meet us at. Actually, I wouldn't say agreed, I would say we didn't give him a choice. Once he heard the entirety of the gig that was coming up he just had to be a part of it... well that and we told him we needed him. Which, unfortunately we do.

"Guys come on." I watched as Mikey pushed past us, Ashton almost falling off the curb as Michael rushed into the little coffee shop. Michael was the most excited out of the three of us to actually see him, but I have a feeling that has to do more with the fact that both Ashton and I have been preoccupied with girlfriends and he was feeling left out without Calum.

"Here goes nothing." I mumbled, nodding at Ash before we were following in Mikey's steps. I wasn't surprised to see Michael wrapped around Calum, Calum even smiling for a moment before he locked eyes with me. I guess he wouldn't be mad at Mikey, seeing as he didn't do anything. But I didn't either. And all Ashton did was kick him out of his apartment... which has been done before so I still don't understand the big deal. 

"Calum." Ashton says calmly, his hands folded behind his back. If I'm being completely honest, the only one who actually wants to be here is probably Michael. We've only been friends for a year, I can live without him. 

"Ashton. Luke." He spits out my name like it's venom, like just the sound of it is burning the back of his throat. 

"Look, I know you don't want to be here, and quite frankly I don't either. So lets just make this easy on everyone." I start, Mikey sitting down at the table Calum had gotten, Ashton standing next to me as we both looked at the annoyed boy in front of us. "We're sorry we kicked you out of the house, I'm sorry I let a girl come between us. But she is my girlfriend and you will have to deal with her being around. If you don't like her, fine, but you will tolerate her. You don't have to talk to her, but you will not be pushing her around anymore. Understand?"

He looks at me for what feels like forever, brown eyes burning into my blue ones. I'm not sure what I'm expecting him to say, and if I'm being completely honest I'm fully expecting him to roll his eyes and push passed us to storm out of this place. But instead, his eyes soften, he nods his head, and he opens his mouth to speak. "Fine. Now let's talk about this gig."

*    *    *

"He just agreed like that. He didn't argue or anything. It didn't feel right."

"Maybe he's just over all the drama." Alli says softly, her eyes struggling to stay open. 

"But... he literally avoided us for weeks. Why did he just give in so easily?"

She doesn't say anything for a few moments. Her eyes slowly reopening as she rearranges herself in my bed. She's clad in one of my t-shirts, the blankets pulled up to her chin. I had been laying with her, but I had to get up, I had been restless and really needed to move- AKA pace around my room. 

"Maybe he's more concerned with the gig so he's trying to put everything behind him."

"Maybe." I shrugged. My mind was still swimming but I could tell all she wanted to do was sleep. I forced myself to walk back over to the bed, settling myself back under my covers as I was before. She immediately crawled over and curled into me, one of her legs coming up to rest across my hips, her hand settling on my chest. 

"Don't worry about it too much. He has his reasons, all that really matters is you guys are talking again and you are going to kill at your gig."

"I guess so."

"When is your gig again?"

"Saturday." 

"A week from today?"

"A week from today."

"Okay."

"You'll be there, right?"

"Yeah, my dad's wedding thing, whatever, is on Sunday."

"Did you tell him you were going?"

She sighed, hot breath fanning across my neck. "Yeah, he was ecstatic. My mom, though, doesn't understand why I'm doing it if I don't want to. And we all know I don't want to."

I paused before answering, not sure if she wanted to hear what I was going to say. "I'm glad you're doing it." I waited for her to say something, but she didn't. And soon after her breathing evened out and I knew she was asleep. 

I laid as still as I could, not tired one bit. My mind was racing. One, I still can not, for the life of me, figure out why Calum gave in so easily. He avoided us for weeks, came to basically threat Alli, but now he's fine with everything, he's fine with us. As soon as we got off topic of why he was so mad at us, he went back to normal. Like nothing had changed. Like he didn't storm out of the house and not talk to us for weeks on end. He was laughing and smiling and cracking jokes like nothing had changed. Except it felt like everything had changed. 

"Lexi keeps calling me, asking about you." He had said, a wide smile on his face like he thought it was funny, not extremely annoying. But she was, she was oh so extremely annoying. 

"Oh?"

"Yeah, awhile ago I just told her to shove it. That nothing you did was any of her business. She didn't like that very much." He laughed again, Mikey joining in with him, meanwhile Ashton was shoving a burger in his face. 

"She's crazy."

"That she is." Everyone nodded at that, Ashton chuckling with a mouth full of meat. "But she is good in bed."

"She's experienced." Michael piped up, shaking his head slightly. I'm pretty sure all four of us have ended up in bed with her at some point. Which, thinking about that now, is very disgusting. 

"Yeah, I think she's coming to the gig to try and get Luke back, though."

"She never had me."

"She doesn't think that."

"Great." I muttered, already annoyed again. 

"I'm just trying to warn you, man. She doesn't like being told no and you practically screamed it in her face. She isn't happy, and if I'm being completely honest she might try going after your girlfriend next."

I just can't get that out of my head. If he hated Alli so much, why would he try to help. Why would he care that Lexi might go to her? I mean, what could Lexi possibly do? She's 5'4 and 125 pounds. She's nothing. She might be mean, but she would never get physical. So what was the significance of that? Why would he even bring Lexi up when we had been talking about getting ready for the gig? We were coming up with a set list before he brought her up, but why? 

I didn't sleep at all that night, my mind running on all these questions. But the one that bothered me the most, was why Calum seemed to give in so easily? If it was that easy, shouldn't he have given in to us weeks ago? He's hiding something, I just have to figure out his next move.

_______

A/N

I AM SO SORRY I MEANT TO HAVE THIS UP YESTERDAY I'M SORRY. I'M ALSO SORRY THIS IS SO BAD BUT I PROMISE IT WILL GET BETTER, IT'S JUST STARTING TO PICK UP.