More Than a Moment

Five

Luke laid in his bunk with his headphones on, tapping the side of the bed incessantly.

"Will you please knock that off?!" Michael yelled from the other room. Luke had been in a funk all day. It's their last day before a three-day break; usually everyone is super pumped.

Usually. Unfortunately for Luke, this break just means flying to LA to start working on a duet with Magnolia. Sure, he'll get to be back in his own bed and see his girlfriend, but he has to start working on a duet with Magnolia. A really feely, in-the-moment song. 

Luke rubbed his hands up and down his face, sighing heavily. He turned his music off, a playlist he created just of duets his favorite bands have done, and swung his legs off the side of the bed, jumping down with a thud. 

They have a show in a few hours, but Luke and Michael haven't left the bus yet today so he's still in his boxers. He plopped down next to Michael, scrolling through his Twitter feed. 

"Everyone seems really excited about the surprise," Luke informed Michael. The band announced that they have a surprise for the fans the night Magnolia agreed to work with them. They're planning on telling the venue tonight and having someone tweet it for them while they're performing. 

"Good. They should be," Michael responded, highly invested in his video game. "Aren't you?" He asked, pausing his game because he suddenly became aware of Luke's flat tone.

"Yeah, totally. Of course." Luke argued. He's been wanting to do an acoustic album forever! 

"But..." Michael caught on.

"But I'm nervous for the duet.." Luke mumbled, barely audible. 

"Sorry, what was that?" Michael cupped his hand around his ear. He understood Luke perfectly, it's just more fun to torture him.

"I'm nervous about the duet." Luke stately clearly. He rolled his eyes, knowing he didn't need to repeat himself. Even so, he could use some comfort from Michael.

"It's no big deal, dude. It's just a song," Michael clapped a hand on Luke's shoulder and went to return to his game. 

"It's never just a song, Michael. You know that." They wouldn't be successful if their songs were just songs. All of their songs mean something and come from somewhere real. The song Distance, in particular, has a special meaning to Luke, and much to her dismay, it's not about Ali. 

Back in California Magnolia is having struggles of her own. John has been in contact with her all day, explaining how tomorrow will go. He's wanting just Luke and Magnolia tomorrow because Magnolia is fresh to the process, and this is the song she'll be most heavily featured on, meaning it'll need the most work. 

They'll go through it a bunch of times, take some rough cuts, see which places need the most work and practice, and that'll be it for the day. But then the next day, the rest of the band will join and listen to the song objectively, giving their suggestions. 

Magnolia can handle that; she just doesn't know about tomorrow. Just her and Luke. Alone. Singing an emotional song. She can only imagine how upset Ali is going to be when she finds out Luke is spending his whole day with Magnolia instead of her-- she probably already knows which means she's probably already mad. 

When Magnolia told her roommate, Bree, about the concert and Luke, Bree just said she was being conceited and that whatever happened between her and Luke probably wasn't as big of a deal as she thought it was. Magnolia showed Bree a video of her and Luke singing Outer Space, but she couldn't get a read from Bree.

Bree saw the connection too, though. She just figured she shouldn't say anything because Magnolia is already amped up on the idea of having the fandom's attention for the wrong reasons. The two just looked so genuine on stage, it's hard for Bree to accept that that would be getting attention for the wrong reason. If Luke didn't have a girlfriend, none of this would matter. 

"I don't know if you're thinking about tomorrow as much as I am--" Magnolia began a text to Luke, but decided against it after sitting idly for 30 seconds, trying to decide what to write next. 

"Ready for tomorrow?" Luke had typed out. He deleted the message to Magnolia and began one to Ali instead, telling her he can't wait to see her tomorrow. 

Luke really likes Ali, like he could be falling in love with her. It's hard to have so many opinions about his love life being thrown around, and yeah, some of them are true, but no one knows what it's like when it's just the two of them. It's especially hard when Luke's own friends don't like Ali. They don't even try to pretend to anymore. Ali is fun, and she's a consistent source of happiness for Luke. Touring gets hard, but Ali brightens things up when she's around. 

When Luke and Ali met, Luke didn't expect it to go anywhere between them, but Ali kept at it, and before he knew it, he started spending a lot of his free time with her, and they'd go places together, and he was enjoying himself and her company. 

When Luke met Magnolia, however, all she had to do was say hi and look up at him like he's been looked at a million times, and he forgot about Ali for a minute. That's where the guilt is coming from. Those few introductory moments when he looked into Magnolia's fresh, green eyes and perfectly flushed cheek and he forgot he had a girlfriend-- that's what worries him about spending time with Magnolia. He doesn't like how she makes him feel because he likes how she makes him feel. 

"Luke... LUKE!" Michael yelled, snapping his fingers next to Luke's ear. 

Luke broke out of thought and looked around. Michael is already dressed, and they're supposed to be to the venue in a half an hour. 

"Sorry," Luke muttered, hopping up to go put some clothes on and maybe eat something.