best friend | 5sos

before

summer of 2011

Lexi got out of the car, fixing the little cheetah print bandana she had wrapped around her head and reaching for her iced coffee before she walked over to the unfamiliar house. She rang the doorbell, straightening the Nirvana t-shirt dress she was wearing whilst waiting for somebody to answer.

"Lex!" Calum smiled broadly, opening his arms for Lexi to crash in to. "Hey Cal." She smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him. "I'm excited to meet him, see if he's any good." She laughed, showing him a playful wink as she followed her best friend to the garage.

"He just went up to his room to get something but I'm sure he'll be back soon." Calum explained whilst opening the door. "This looks so cool, really like a garage band." Lexi judged the interior of the garage. "Hey Lexi." Michael said, giving her a quick hug. "Hey Mikey." She smiled, wrapping him up in her arms. "Bestie," Luke then said from behind, making Lexi chuckle and let go of Michael, turning around to see Luke waiting for her to hug him. She let Luke wrap her up in his chest for a few seconds before he let go and she could look around some more.

 "That's a cool drum set!" She then exclaimed, walking over to behind the drum set and sitting down on the stool, playfully hitting the cymbal once or twice. A few seconds later, a boy walked in and looked at the person sitting behind his drum set.

They were both quiet for a second before Lexi smiled and got up, "so you're the new drummer? Hi, I'm Lexi, Calum's best friend." She chuckled, pointing at the three boys a few feet away. The boy laughed and looked at his feet. "Hi, I'm Ashton, Ashton Irwin." He smiled, holding out his hand for the girl to shake.

Lexi gradually took it and shook his hand, smiling in to the young and energetic boy's eyes. "So, how about you let me judge if you're actually any good?" She smirked, walking over to the bean bag chair in the front of the garage, kicking her Doc. Martens up on the one next to it whilst staring at Ashton who grabbed his drum sticks from the counter and walked over to behind his drum set.

"Let's do the one song we've been practicing." Michael said, staring at Ashton before he looked at Luke and Calum to see them nodding. "Alright," Ashton replied. He counted down from four to one and then started drumming a basic beat. Lexi softly bopped her head to the beat and smiled, he was pretty good.

When they got to the chorus he did a mini solo and Lexi's smile widened, he was actually really good. They finished the song in no time and Lexi applauded, "now you guys are actually a band!" She laughed, getting up from the bean bag chair and walking over to Calum, wrapping her arm around his waist whilst he pulled her in to his side.

Ashton nodded, smiling at the girl. "Have you guys thought about a name yet?" She furrowed her brows, "not really, but that one guy from that bar you told us about said we could send him some of our stuff once we came up with one." Michael replied, walking over to his bag to get a bottle of water out of it.

"You should really give him a demo of something, if he lets you play weekly shows there you never know what can happen. Maybe you guys get discovered!" She said excitedly, staring at the boys. "Yeah right, like we'd ever be good enough to get famous." Luke scoffed, putting his guitar back down.

Lexi had arrived around the end of band practice and the boys were pretty tired from it, so they decided to take a break, or quit, they weren't sure yet. "Well if you're being so negative you'll never get what you want." Ashton said, getting up from behind the drums and staring at Luke. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Luke said before sitting down on the bean bag chair Lexi was previously sitting on.

"Come on guys, now that you've got a drummer you're ready for the next step." Lexi said whilst following Calum and sitting down next to him on another bean bag chair. "Besides, if you do ever get famous, you could set me up on a date with one of the Jonas brothers." Lexi winked playfully, making Calum laugh loudly.

"And that is why we'll never get famous, Lexi, just to protect your dating life from it's terrible mistakes." Calum laughed, wrapping his arm around her and making her laugh even louder. "Like it hasn't made any mistakes so far, please." She laughed even louder, getting her phone out of her bag and staring at her messages.

"Do you guys want to order pizza or something?" Ashton asked, making everyone look up. Lexi smiled and nodded, "sounds pretty good." Everybody agreed with her and Ashton got up, walking out of the garage. "He's got a younger sister and brother," Luke told her, making her nod.

Everyone was quiet for a second, before Michael cleared his throat and looked at Luke. "Yeah, right, what do you think of him?" Luke then said, staring at Lexi. "I think he's really kind, he's a killer drummer too." She told him. Luke nodded, that was all he and his best friends needed. "But you guys don't need my approval, come on, it's your band. If you do ever get famous, your fans will just see me like some weird groupie." Lexi laughed, staring at Calum who shook his head and laughed louder. 

"We just want you to think he's good for us," Calum told her once he had calmed down. "He seems pretty good for you." Lexi nodded, laying her head on his chest. 

"Promise me one thing though, for if you ever do get famous." Lexi suddenly said, sitting up and staring straight in to Calum's eyes. "Anything." He replied, showing her a soft smile. "Please never forget me." She said, looking down. "I could never." Calum smiled before pulling her in for a hug.