Beside You - 5 Seconds of Summer Fanfiction

Chapter 1

Facts. They're what make up the truth about the crazy, mixed up little world we live in. They define everything: people, places. So different from opinions, facts are rarely used in conversations. Opinions are used mostly by someone who doesn't know the full story or someone who chooses to only add in what they think about something. Facts are what truly define our world.

As I walked into the penguin exhibit of the local zoo with my friend to finish our school project, I was very aware of two things. One was a fact and one was an opinion. Fact: There were only four other boys standing in the exhibit room. Opinion: They were all extremely cute.

My friend, Grace, sucked in a huge breath and elbowed me straight in the gut. I shot her daggers, clearly I had seen them too, since they were the only people standing in the room. They were pretty nice to look at, though.

There were three blonds and a brunette standing close to the glass of the exhibit. The one that looked the youngest out of all of the boys had his face pressed up against the glass, staring intently at the penguins as they slid from the icy rocks into the cold blue water. His hair was pushed back from his forehead to allow him to see better. It worked for him, though.

The brunette was standing next to him, one shoulder resting on the glass, amused at how immersed his friend was in watching the animals. He snickered as the blond's face grew with excitement at the passing of each moment. Someone was a fan of the penguins.

The other two blonds were sitting on a bench in the corner, clearly not as amused as the other two of their group. One of them, the curly haired one, was sprawled out with his head resting on the lap of the other one. The other had a bored expression on his face, looking at his watch every five seconds.

Just at that moment, Grace sneezed the loudest sneeze I'd ever heard in my entire existence. Never before had I heard a sneeze quite as loud as this one. It sounded more like a scream. Until that moment, we had gone completely unnoticed. If her goal was to be noticed by the group of handsome looking boys, she had achieved it.

All four boys turned their heads in our direction. I could feel my face turning bright red as they stared at us. I gave them a small smile and quickly took a seat on a bench on the other side of the room, as Grace followed me.

We pulled out our notebooks and quickly got to work studying the penguins, not paying much attention to the group of boys anymore. As I wrote another paragraph about the behavior of penguins, I felt someone sit down on my right. As I looked up, my breath caught in my throat. Sitting beside me was the curly haired blond, the one that was laying down earlier. He smiled at me, huge dimples showing, only making me blush even more than I was.

"I'm Ashton." He said in a perfect Australian accent. He smiled, his dimples and my blush growing more and more prominent.

"Jessica." I replied.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, motioning toward our notebooks.

"It's a class project." I replied, covering up my notebook with my hands.

"Sounds boring." Came another Australian voice from beside Grace. I looked over to find the boy who was previously absorbed in watching the penguins sitting beside my friend.

"It is." She laughed. "But penguins are my favorite animals, so it's okay."

"Mine too!" He exclaimed. "I'm Luke, by the way."

"So.. Instead of sitting here and working on a boring project for the rest of the weekend, how bout you come to our show tomorrow?" Ashton smiled.

"Your show? Like you're in a band?" Asked Grace.

"Of course! We're not, like, famous or anything. But we got a small gig at an all ages club night tomorrow. It'd be cool if you came." Luke smiled, looking at Grace as she started to blush furiously.

"We'd love to!" I said, smiling at Ashton.

"Perfect." He said, returning a smile with amazing dimples. "Put your numbers in our phones and we'll text you the info."

We exchanged phone numbers as Grace and I silently squealed in excitement. Australian boys were actually taking an interest in us, normal American girls. They wanted our numbers and they were inviting us to their concert! This was so perfect!

"Luke. Ashton. Seriously guys, we've been in here for an hour already. Calum and I are starving." Said the blond sitting in the corner where Ashton once was sitting.

"Calm down Michael, we're leaving now." Luke replied, standing up.

"It was really nice meeting you two. We'll see you tomorrow night?" Ashton asked, standing up and stretching his long arms.

"Of course." Grace and I said in unison. We waved goodbye to the boys as they left the penguin exhibit and then collapsed back onto the bench in excitement. Maybe doing a project on penguins wasn't so boring after all!