Carry On. || Calum Hood

vi.

I opened the door of the bus, nearly tripping over my own feet to safely touch the ground. I took a deep breath. Fresh air. And distance from Calum. Why did he have to be shirtless? I mean, his body wasn't bad, but really? Boys.

"How am I supposed to do this for a year?" I whispered to myself, running a hand over my face. The faint sound of clicking and a camera shutter caught my attention, and my head snapped to look around the fairly vacant parking lot. Around ten men and women with cameras were stood around twelve feet away from me, taking pictures in my directions. Paparazzi.

I sighed in relief, noticing that they had enough decency to stay a fair distance away from me. Then, they spoke.

"Who are you?"

"Why are you in the boys' bus?"

"Have you had sex with one of them yet?"

"Are you one of their girlfriends or are you just some crazy groupie?"

My jaw slightly dropped at their audacity, and I was about to turn around and head back inside the bus before a firm hand was placed onto my tailbone, pushing me to walk diagonal to the reporters.

"Keep your head low, I guess we haven't told the press about you yet," Calum's voice murmured beside me, and I almost shivered at the feel of his lips so close to my ear. I kept my head down, following his command and ignoring the random questions being shouted at us. I blocked out what they could be saying, focusing on my steps and Calum's warm hand on my back.

It was still there once we had made it inside the door. Calum took a deep breath, looking at me carefully before asking, "Are you okay?"

I raised an eyebrow, confused by his hesitance. "I'm just dandy."

A smile took his face at my recollection, but became perplexed once more. "Are you sure? It's okay if the press made you nervous or claustrophobic or anything, I get like that too someti-"

"I'm fine, Calum, really! I'm not fragile or anything, it didn't bother me much at all." I rolled my eyes. Why is he being so cautious?

He let out some sigh of relief. "That's good," he nodded. He looked down and realized that his hand was still on my body, awkwardly pulling it back and scratching the back of his head. "Maybe we should go see where the rest of the boys are," he suggested. Yet, he didn't even make an effort to move as he kept his eyes locked on the floor.

I only laughed and started walking down the hall, following the designated 5 Seconds of Summer signs. "Come on, Mr.  Awkward, they don't have all day!"

-

"Okay, there are gonna be a small amount of fans watching us from the front of the stage, so would you rather go out with them and a few security guards or watch from the back?" asked the boys' manager, whose name I learned was Jack.

Do I really want to be met with some crazy, screaming fans, even if it's only a few dozen? "I think I'll stay back here."

Jack smirked at me, "Good choice, love. You have nothing to worry about anyways, I have a lot of fun back here."

I laughed at both his accent and choice words, blushing a little when he winked at me. He turned to face the boys, who were walking up to us. More like stumbling. Luke was perched on Calum's back, almost tumbling into Michael multiple times, while Ashton was ignoring them completely, on his phone.

Michael had noticed me first, pretending to wave like a girl and fixing his hair nervously. I smiled before covering my mouth with my hand, leaning back and pretending to look him up and down. Yeah, "pretending".