Careless Whispers (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 2 ~ Bite My Tongue

"Lights are out at 11 and don't give me any reason to have to give you a chaperone. Usually you will have a driver on board, but they won't arrive until tomorrow. Remember to respect the bus. This is your home for the next two months. You have two hours until lights out so I suggest that you guys get ready for bed, you don't want to be tired for the first concert tomorrow. Good night!" Paul explained to us before finally exiting the bus and leaving us to settle in.

I sat down on my bunk, making sure that I tucked my head down to avoid bumping my head.

"Hey, bunk buddy!" A voice called above me, surprising me as I looked up suddenly causing me to hit my head on the top or I guess the bottom of Michael's bunk.

"Hey..." I grumbled as I rubbed the top of my head.

"You alright?" Michael chuckled from where he held his head over the side of the bunk so that it hung over the side, giving me an upside down view of his face.

"Yeah..." I said softly as my fingers fidgeted nervously together in my lap.

"I know we just met a couple days ago and all, but I can already tell that you fidget when you're lying. What's really bothering you?" Ashton said hopping down from his bunk and crouching in front of mine.

All four pairs of eyes were on me, waiting for an answer. The unwanted attention caused my cheeks to flush and made me even more nervous. I couldn't exactly tell them what was on my mind because what Niall and I were talking about was to be kept strictly between us.

"It's nothing. I'm just nervous about the show tomorrow." I sputtered out which wasn't exactly a lie.

"Try again." Ashton narrowed his eyes at me.

"It's personal, sorry." I admitted. The boys nodded their heads slowly, as if they understood, but I could tell some of them were disappointed that I didn't have enough faith in them yet to be open with them.

"Wait by personal, is this your way of saying you're on your...you know, period?" Calum asked, his cheeks flushing slightly.

"What? No!" I swatted his arm with my pillow. "Ok, rule one about girls that you should know is that not everytime a girl is upset its because of her period." I explained, chuckling at their bright pink cheeks.

"Oh, sorry. My sister would get moody around a certain time a month and I just assumed and yeah..." Calum's voice faded as he decided he should stop talking.

"Now that we've got the awkwardness out of the way, we should get to know each other better because we're all going to be living on this bus together for a couple of months and all." Ashton suggested.

"I already know stuff about you that I really didn't want to know." Luke added, cringing, before breaking into another smile.

"I'm talking about us getting to know her, idiot." Ashton chuckled as he sat down in the small hallway between Luke's and my bunks. Calum joined Luke on his bunk while Michael lounged on the end of mine.

"Ok, what do you want to know?" I asked, giggling nervously.

"Name, date of birth, social security number, criminal record, bank account number... You know, the usual." Michael added, laughing.

"Lauren Shepherd, July thirteenth, not happening, don't have one, and nice try." I shot back at Michael.

"Aw, Luke's still the baby on tour." Calum said in a 'baby' voice as he took Luke's head under his arm and muffled up Luke's hair.

"Hey, knock it off!" Luke's deep voice rang, but a soft chuckle lightened his tone as he finally got himself out of Calum's grasp.

"I may be the youngest, but I'm also the tallest." Luke pointed out, a small smirk on his lips as he knew he won the little arguement.

"Yeah, whatever..." Calum pouted, but tried to nonchalantly puff out his chest to make himself look more buff.

"Anyways..." Ashton continued, "You single? Not single? Ever smoked? You a drinker? Do you have like an underground celebrity black market or something? Ever gotten wasted? Do you know Johnny Depp?"

"What kind of questions are these?" Luke chimed in before I quickly answered them.

"Single. No. Never. Yeah....no, sorry to disappoint you. Once. Met him once."

"Tell us the story! What happened when you got wasted? Anything interesting happen?" Ashton urged me.

My throat tightened at the question. "Nope, nothing interesting happened. Just got home and had a killer headache in the morning."

"Lauren...?" Michael noticed how my fingers started to fidget once again in my lap.

"Let's leave that for another night, okay?" I asked.

"Ah, come on!" Calum threw his hands up.

"Guys, just drop it. She doesn't want to talk about it." Luke cut in, his eyes nervously meeting mine.

"Fine, but I'm holding you to that story, okay? We should be getting to bed anyways." Ashton picked himself off of the floor before heading into the small bathroom.

"I still want to hear the story..." Calum mumbled to himself before climbing off of Luke's bed and climbing up to his own bunk. Michael gave me a small smile before doing the same.

--

A couple hours later, I still had unsuccessfully fallen asleep. I didn't have the urge to at this point. The other boys had their curtains drawn across their bunk as they had gone asleep awhile ago. I was also able to hear the soft rumbling of Ashton's snoring. I still had my curtain open as I hadn't brought myself to close it yet. My mind was racing past other things that it couldn't focus on such a minute detail of pulling my curtain closed.

I heard ruffling in the bunk next to mine and a few seconds later, Luke's curtain was drawn and I could see his sleepy eyes trying to open. He ran his hand through his soft blonde hair as he turned to face me.

"Can't sleep?" His deep voice was raspy as he spoke, still recovering from waking up.

"I just have a lot on my mind." I said softly, trying not to wake up the other boys.

"If this is about tonight, don't worry about not telling us the story. The boys didn't mean to pester you about it." Luke tried to apologize.

"No, no it's fine. It's not about that." I assured him.

He nodded slowly, as a small silence followed as he tried to figure out what to say.

"I'm just not really an open person." I cut through the silence. "I try to be, but it just doesn't work out for me."

"Don't make yourself do something you're not comfortable with. I'm the same way. It takes me awhile to open up to someone and be comfortable around them. Most people don't understand what it's like to just keep everything inside." Luke whispered, but the deep, soft lull of his voice could still be heard.

"I know what you mean." I said softly, turning my eyes to where my fingers fumbled with the sheets on the bed. "I just...I don't know..."

"Lauren, you can tell me." Luke murmured, giving me a small reassuring smile.

"I just feel like no one would care what I have to say anyways. People always want help with their troubles, but when I need help with mine people don't really care enough. I just-" I cut myself off with a deep sigh.

"Lauren?" Luke whispered to me.

"Yeah?" I lifted my eyes to meet his.

"I know we don't know each other that well, but I just want to let you know that I care. I'm always here. Just a bunk away." Luke chuckled softly.

"Thank you. And Luke?"

"Yeah?" He raised his eyebrows at me.

"I thought you said it took you awhile to open up to people, but just now..." My voice faded as I didn't really know how to word my thoughts.

"It's easier with you. I don't know. I feel like you understand how I feel." Luke stumbled over his words.

"Yeah, I agree." I turned my eyes to the floor as my cheeks flushed once again.

"I feel a lot better, thank you." I smile, before yawning quickly.

"It's no problem. You think you can get to sleep now?" Luke asked.

"I think so. Thanks again. Goodnight, Luke." I say before leaning forward and pulling across the curtain around my bed.

"Goodnight, Lauren."