Saving Us || l.h

T W E N T Y E I G H T

I make my way through the crowd, taking pictures with a few of the guys' fans. "How did you like the show?" A girl asks me, grinning. "It was fantastic, I missed watching Luke perform." I respond with a smile. "He's really lucky to have you." "Well I'm lucky to have him. You girls have a good rest of your night." I tell them, heading backstage. Luke was talking with Michael off to the side, Ashton carrying Anna, probably to the bus to put her to bed. I look for Cal, but don't see him.

I head to the dressing room, finding him in there. "You alright?" I ask, leaning against the doorframe. "Yeah, just tired." "Don't pull that one on me, only I could make people believe it." He laughs, laying back on the couch. "The other guys get so much love and I'm over here being criticized because I'm different than them. It's just beginning to get to me at this point." "You would not believe the number of Calum blogs, twitters and everything in between that I follow or who follow me. They love you Cal. You need to pick them out when you see the hate, they are the ones that are really there for you." He nods, spinning his phone. I go sit down on the other side of the couch, looking at him.

"Seriously, that's what I do when I get hate, and I get a lot, especially when I'm seen with a guy. Some people even thought my brother was some guy I was cheating on Luke with and I just turned to the fans who care about and love me and they helped me feel better. Yours will help you feel better as well." "Thanks Dylan." "No problem. Ellie misses you, she asked me to ask you to call when you aren't busy. She's worried, Cal. Talk to her and let her in." He nods, standing. "I'll call her when I get to the bus." "I'd wait till morning, time zones." "Right." He nods, leaving.  Michael comes in, sitting next to me.

"Howdy." I tell him, turning my body to face him. "Howdy, now, tell me about your tour, what was your favorite part?" "The screams when the lights went down. Hearing it through cement walls is the coolest thing ever." He nods, smiling. "Also, just being able to see everyone's faces light up when I look at them, touch them, anything like that. It's amazing." "Least favorite part?" "Timezone differences. It's a bitch." "You can say that again." He sighs, shaking his head. "I'm heading back to the bus but Luke was looking for you, go find him." I nod, following him out of the room and heading through the back halls, finding Luke.

"Hola." I tell him, grabbing his hand. "Hey." He smiles, pulling me in for a hug. "How'd you like the show?" "It was amazing, you guys did great." "Thanks, how were the fans?" "Sweet. Most of them finally warmed up to me last year so they got really excited when they saw me." He smiled, both of us wandering around backstage.

"We haven't really talked in a while, how are you?" He asks, swinging our hands back and forth. "I'm good. I'm not stressing about anything and I'm just kinda, rollin' through life right now. It's nice." "Good. I'm glad you're enjoying your break. Do we leave Wednesday for LA?" "Yeah, we arrive early Thursday morning then Friday we head out on the boat and we chill on the boat Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Monday we head back to LA. Tuesday we fly to Adelaide. Then you continue your tour and I should probably start writing again. But that's only if I get inspiration." "Sounds like a good plan." I nod, checking the time.

"I'm going to head to the bus to sleep, but I will see you in the morning." "Alright, I need to finish up some things here regarding my guitar. I love you." "Love you too, Luke." I smile, heading for the bus.

-

I lower my sunglasses, both Taylor and I looking up and around. My brother was doing a makeshift titanic scene with Luke at the front of the boat, the wind whipping his shirt around. "Why?" I ask, looking over at Taylor. "The amount of times I ask myself that has reached 3 million a year ago. At this point, I just go with it." She shrugs, laying back down. I copy her, letting the sun soak into my skin. "This is so nice and relaxing, I love it." I admit, taking my sunglasses off and closing my eyes.

"I could definitely get used to this." Taylor agrees. A shadow blocks the sun, making me open my eyes. "Hey, when do you want dinner?" Blake asks, looking down at us. "Doesn't matter. Let me tan." I tell him, closing my eyes. He moves, his footsteps fading. Another shadow appears over me, a small groan escaping. "Yes?" I ask impatiently, opening my eyes. Luke smiles down at me, sitting.

I watch him, waiting. "So I'm just remembering now, but we were going to ask before we left but the guys and I were wondering if you wanted to open for the rest of our tour? Hey Violet had a lot of conflicts for the last part of the tour so for the dates they're there, you'd share opening, then when they aren't, it'd just be you." He explains, watching me. "Yeah. Sounds fun!" I nod, smiling. "Awesome. I'll let you go back to tanning." He leaves and I lay back down, closing my eyes. "When does the tour end?" Taylor asks. "Like a little over a month." "That's fun, it's like an extra tour tacked onto yours!"

"Yeah, it will be nice. I can still perform but it's not the stress of being the main show." "Exactly. It's perfect for right now. You can still write, speaking of, we had discussed writing a song together and that never happened, do you want to work on that during our mini vacation?" She says. "Yeah, I have a couple ideas and I'm guessing someone has a guitar we can use."

-

"Okay, but I feel like Who Is In Control is too long, it doesn't need to be that long." Taylor offers, staring at the paper. "So I should just stick with Control?" She nods, both of us looking up at Luke. "Do what you want, I was throwing out ideas." He shrugs. "So what songs have you gotten done?" She asks. "Well, I have four done right now. But I'm almost done with two others." "Nice! Are they album worthy or just for fun?" "One isn't going on the album, I'm just writing it to write it." I explain. "What are the names?" "One is New Americana, which will be my first single. The other three are Control, Hurricane, and Castle. I'm working on one called Hold Me Down and Roman Holiday which I'm in love with." I grin. "Just by the titles they sound amazing! I can't wait to hear the album!" "Thank you! I'm just glad I have extra time to work on it." She nods, standing.

"I'm gonna check on the food." I nod, turning to Luke. "Can I please hear a song?" He asks. "You just did!" "Because hearing you speak the lyrics is definitely hearing a song." "We sang." "Yeah, to make sure it went with the instruments." I roll my eyes, shaking my head at Luke. "You'll live." He huffs, frowning at me. "Now you know how I felt." I point out, sticking my tongue out at him. "But I could be waiting a year! You only had to wait two months!" "Four months, and you'll hear it in less than a year, calm down." "Will I? Will I really?" "Yes."