work together // cth

cinque

i wish ashton and his family the best, it makes me so sad to see this happening to such amazing people. they don't deserve it, they just want to spend the holidays together :(

"Hey, Grace" Michael greets me as I walk into the break room, a weird smile on his face. I greet him back, getting a mug for a cup of tea.

"What's up with you?" I ask curiously and he just shrugs, saying nothing. I'm about to push further when Luke enters the room. He wraps his arms around me from behind, laying his head in the crook of my neck.

"Grace, if I knew that you found pizza as such a turn on, I would've taken you out a long time ago" He teases, kissing my cheek. I turn around to hit his arm, but he steps back and laughs with Michael. By now my face is just on fire.

I grab my cup of tea, quickly leaving the break room. I walk to my cubicle, placing my mug on my desk when I reach. Only about ten minutes later, Michael pops his head into my cubicle. I had just gotten off the phone with an intern who I asked to come around to pick up some papers.

"Hey, love" he says, hopping up on my desk. I don't understand why these boys think they can just invade my workspace at freewill.

"Don't talk to me, I hate you." I click on the 'print' button on my computer screen, then roll over to the printer. He giggles, putting his large hand on my head to ruffle my hair. I swat his hand away, flipping him the bird.

"So, Gracie, the boys and I are having a party at the house tonight. You're coming right?" Michael asks, picking up a picture frame with a picture of Lauren and I last year. back home in Hawaii. "Woah, who is this?"

"Yeah, Calum invited me" I mumble, getting the papers that came out the printer and put a paper clip on it.

Calum did ask me when we reached my house, he said it was a party at their house and that I should come. I was reluctant after what had occurred moments before, but I accepted. An intern comes around to pick up the papers and I thank him. He goes away quickly to deliver the papers.

"Oh, okay. That makes sense. I guess." I look at him, confused, but he doesn't look back because he is still staring at the picture.

"For fuck's sake, Mike, it's my best friend. Why does it make sense that Calum would tell me?" Finally he looks at me, smiling.

"He usually invites the girls he likes to his parties. Great way to hook up" He says, absentmindedly. "Does she have a name?"

"Nope, there is a blank space on her birth certificate." I turn back to the computer, looking at the document I printed.

"Shit" I swear when I realize I printed the wrong papers, "Michael you're distracting me."

He hops down from my desk, "sorry, Grace, but can you do me a favor? Bring your friend tonight." He winks at me before leaving me to my messed up work.

//

"They have a shit ton of fans" Lauren yells at me, looking up from her laptop. I finally told Lauren that the people that I work with and my friends are part of band. I also told her the name of the band, so for the past 15 minutes she's been searching them up and feeding me unwanted facts.

"Okay" I mumur.

"Calum is nineteen!"

"I know."

"Calum has mm fuk-nes-nudes!" Lauren screeched, throwing a pillow at the coffee, knocking a majority of the shit off of it.

"I know-wait what? Nudes?" I run from my place in the kitchen to Lauren's place on the couch. She nods, "it's actually a video." She shows me a video of Calum pulling down his boxers then exposing himself. He looks awfully young in the video, which makes me frown.

"Fuck. Well at least you know what it looks like now" Lauren mutters, exiting out of the tab, "and there are a ton of pictures of his ass. He loves undressing himself on camera. Kinky."

"Lauren!" I slap her arm.

"They're all hot though" She comments, clicking on a picture of Michael. "Oh, yeah, that's Mike. He invited us to his party tonight. If you want to go? It starts in an hour."

"Do I want to go to a party with whole bunch of hot, possibly rich teenage boys? Are you fucking kidding me-give me half an hour and I'll be ready" She removes the laptop from her lap, which I keep warning her about. I heard that it kills off eggs which will make it difficult to have babies in the future, I don't know if she wants any, but it's always good to have the option.

I nod, watching her go to her room. I follow, going to my room and picking out an outfit before going into the shower. I try to take a really quick shower, and am successful for once. Once finished, I leave the bathroom to change into a pair of jean shorts and a white shirt that splits in the back, showing my black bralette with a caged back.

I walk over to my desk, pulling out a mirror so I can quickly do my makeup. Lauren walks in without knocking, like always, as I'm finishing up my eyeliner.

"Let's go."

As expected, the guys' house is huge, which makes sense because they are four boys. I marvel at everything as I walk up to the door.

"Do you think I should ring the doorbell?" I ask Lauren, my finger itching to press the doorbell. It looks expensive, I want to touch the expensive doorbell.

"No, it's a party. The door should be open" She says, as mesmerized with the house as I am.

"But they're famous, they would like have to lock the doors right?" I question.

"Yeah, we do, but when we have a party, we leave it open" I hear a familiar Australian accent from behind us. I turn to see Ashton with a bottle in hand, he approaches us and wraps his arms around me. I hug him back, then introduce him to Lauren by her name.

He cringes noticeably and makes a face, then opens the door for us. As soon as we get in Lauren goes away, even without seeing her face, I can tell she's hurt by Ashton's reaction. She's a really sensitive person although she doesn't seem like it. Even if he didn't notice what facial expressions he was making, he could have at least not cringed.

I grab Ashton's arm, pulling him toward me, "what the hell was that face you made?"

"Wh-what face?" He stammers, but he knows what look I'm talking about, so he sighs. "She has...it's a little weird." I strain my ears to hear him, but to no avail because I only end up get a few words. The music is blaring in the house.

"Ash say that again, I can't hear-" I shout over the music, but someone pushes me into Ashton's chest. I turn around to tell the person off because I'm tiny and can't physically fight them, but I need to express my anger somehow. Once finished letting out a string of curses, I turn back around to finish my conversation with Ashton, but he left.

I sigh, venturing off farther into the crowd.

okay so you may know why ash has a sudden disinterest in lauren lol. anyway, i wish him and his family the best again ;( it makes me really sad that they're going through such a hard time.