English Love Affair -- 5SOS fanfic

Spinoff (EP) - Try Hard

Luke's POV

Sounds Live Feels Live. London, April 2016.

She was there.

I knew that I had to do something; I still loved her.

Mikey sauntered over to the microphone, his guitar swinging from his shoulders. "Now London, we do this thing where we make up a song about the city that we're in. So-"

I interrupted Michael quickly; it was now or never. "But today, we're gonna play an old favourite song of ours. We wrote this song when we were in London, and-"

"Mate, what song is this?" Calum asked with a smile, and the crowd laughed.

I strummed a chord on my guitar. "Try hard. This is for a very special person who is here tonight."

The crowd screamed, and I subtly looked directly at her. She'd changed since I'd last seen her; she was more mature, somehow. She'd cut her hair so it hung around her shoulders in choppy waves. Her face looked more slender and elegant and she had more of a tan. She was still every bit as stunning as I remembered her to be.

She caught me looking, and my eyes automatically glanced away at another part of the huge arena.

What are you doing Luke? Look back!

Tentatively, I turned back to her, and she was smiling at me. Her eyes held a fondness that I had never seen from her before, but it was the way I used to look at her; like I wanted her but couldn't have her.

"One-two-three-four!"

"Dropping out of school 'cause she don't need the grades,
The colours in her hair don't seem to fade,"

I pointed at Mikey, and he just laughed and rolled his eyes at me.

"I get dressed up when I go out, but she gets dressed down."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her dancing and grinning only a few steps away.

"She's seventeen I told her I'm twenty,
Couldn't take her out 'cause Mum's got no money,
It's stuff like this that makes me wish that I could change somehow."

Mikey strolled up to me and we started playing about on the stage. The crowd screamed.

"Sitting here at home," I sang into the mic.

"You're so out of reach,
And I'm finding it hard 'cause you make me feel, make me feel,
Like I try, like I try, like I'm trying too hard,"

I glanced over at her, and we made deep eye contact. Her face morphed into a wide grin when she realised that the song was about her. It was contagious, and soon I was stumbling over the words because I was laughing with her.

"'Cause I'm not being me,
And it's getting me down because you make me feel, make me feel,
Like I try, like I try, like I'm trying too hard again!"

I launched into the guitar solo, my fingers moving smoothly between chords and notes. I walked over to Ashton as he carried on rocking on the drums. He grinned at me, and I grinned back at him.

I jumped off the drummer's stage and ran back to the mic.

"She's got a rose tattoo but she keeps it covered,"

Her face went from a delighted grin to a betrayed grimace. Her slender fingers touched the inside of her wrist on her left hand, which was now stacked with bracelets.

She had kept it covered.

"I play guitar but she's into drummers,"

I scowled and stuck a thumb at Ashton behind me; the crowd screamed. Again.