Song for the chapter: Doubt by Twenty One Pilots
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I lose my breath at the thought of Luke seeing the picture, him freaking out just as much as me, most likely even more. His heart would be crushed, right before a show. How the hell could this have happened? I'm an idiot. I hadn't even thought about telling Luke until I saw him later tonight. I didn't want him to think about me seeing Ben while he was trying to practice and actually play tonight's show, but now he's going to be looking at a picture of me and Ben kissing, and that will be so much worse. God I am so stupid.
Little does the nice driver know that as he is casually driving me back to the hotel, I am having a panic attack in his back seat. I try my hardest to contain my tears as I immediately dial Linley's number on my phone and pray she is awake by now.
"Hey babe," she says after the second ring.
"Oh thank God," I breathe a small sigh of relief. "I'm in huge trouble," I say before spitting out every detail about what just happened as fast as I can, not giving my breath a chance to catch up.
"Okay okay, you have to slow down Allis," she says through the phone and I wish nothing but to be next to her. I stop talking and allow myself to breathe. "All we have to do is go to the venue, find the boys, and explain to Luke what really happened. Even if he has already seen the picture, I'm sure he will still hear you out. I mean come on, you guys have been through a shit ton." Her voice is calming and I am glad to have her to reassure me.
"You're right, okay. I'll be at the hotel soon and we can go from there," I say quietly.
"Perfect, just come to my room when you get here. I'll see you soon."
We hang up the phone and only a few minutes later the car pulls up to the hotel. I thank the driver once again and let him know we'll be needing to head to the venue soon. He smiles and nods and tells me that he will be waiting for us out here. I practically run into the hotel and straight to the elevator. Sweat drips down my forehead as I ride up to our floor and I know that it's not just from the heat.
When the doors open, I sprint down the hallway and bang on Linley's door. She opens it within seconds and takes me in her arms. I am thankful for her embrace and it slows my heart rate at least a little. As she pulls away, I notice that she is already ready and I thank her endlessly.
"Let's go," she says as she grabs what she needs and leads us out the door.
We rush back downstairs and get back into the car to head to the venue. I didn't really plan on going to the concert looking like this, but I didn't have time to waste on fixing myself up to possibly get dumped.
"He's not gonna break up with you," Linley says as if reading my mind. "It's going to be fine, I promise Allis."
I sigh and grip her hand as we ride down the street. I lean back and close my eyes and pray that she is right.
Just when I am almost asleep, I feel the car come to a stop. I open my eyes to find us sitting in a huge line of traffic leading into the city.
"Oh no," I sigh in panic. "We don't have time for this Lin!"
"Relax, we still have plenty of time before the show starts. We'll be able to find them before they go on stage, it'll be fine. I'll text Michael and tell him we're coming. Just lay back and try to take a little nap."
I sigh once again and try to calm myself as I lay back and attempt to relax. Luckily I do end up dozing off, and when I wake up, we are closer to the venue. Unfortunately, a lot of time has passed.
When we finally arrive, people are already lined up and going inside. Since they're doing an earlier show tonight, of course, we only have about 45 minutes before they have to get ready to take the stage.
"I'll call Michael," Linley says as we thank the driver and get out of the car. We already tried to call the boys' security guard that usually gets us backstage, but he didn't answer. Michael was really our only hope at this point.
Since we don't have any special way to get inside, we have to wait in line which takes away quite a bit of time. Linley finally reaches Michael after the fourth try, and he attempts to navigate us toward their location once we finally get inside. This venue is huge and unfortunately Michael isn't very good at giving directions so we end up lost about three times.
When we reach the dressing room that he leads us to, only him and Calum are in there.
"Michael!" Linley yells. "Where the hell is Luke?" She asks angrily.
"Him and Ashton already went to get ready to go out, we were just about to go. Sorry, I didn't know you guys were looking for him," he says innocently.
"Did he seem off or anything?" I ask impatiently.
"He disappeared for a while and when he came back he looked pretty rough, he wouldn't tell us what was wrong though. Why, what's up?" Calum asks. "You guys look very...frazzled."
I sigh. "I don't have time to explain."
"I'll take care of it, you go find Luke," Linley says and pushes me towards the door.
The boys yell the directions to me as I take off down the hall in hopes of finding him in time and not getting lost. I can't believe he wouldn't tell the boys if he actually thought that I was cheating on him with Ben...Then again, he does keep to himself when he is really upset. I can't believe this is happening. He hasn't answered any of my texts all day; I was hoping that it was just because they were busy practicing, but I think I know the real reason.
My breath almost escapes me when I turn a corner and unexpectedly see him standing with Ashton. He doesn't look good, but he doesn't look as bad as I expected.
"Luke!" I yell as I run to him. I see Ashton look from him to me, then back to him again before nodding and walking away. Luke keeps his eyes forward, not making eye contact with me once, even as I reach him. "Luke, please," I whisper as I try to catch my breath.
"What," he says sternly.
My heart hurts at the absence of happiness in his voice.
"Please just let me explain," I say with a huge gulp.
"Explain what, there's nothing to explain."
"Luke, you know that the picture is all a huge misunderstanding, right?"
"Was it also a misunderstanding that you went and hung out with him without even telling me? I mean honestly, how would you feel if you read twenty plus articles headlined 'Luke Hemming's new girlfriend already cheating on him'? You would be upset as well and would also be questioning everything!" He yells. I see the other boys walk past us, glancing over as they slowly make their way to their instruments. "It's time for you to go, I have to go play a show now, even after all of this bullshit."
I am hurt at his words, but I do understand why he's upset. I just hope that he lets me explain what really happened later on. That's all I can do as he walks away from me, without a kiss, without even a glance. I rub my eyes and head as I fight to hold back the tears and make my way to find Linley and our seats.
