Let's Pretend (5sos Adoption Story)

0.2

It was dark out when I woke up. Jet lag - 1. Allie - 0. I shuffled through the dark in an attempt to find a light switch. I had been so tired before that I hadn't even thought about it. In the process of feel around for the light, I tripped and slammed full force into what I could only assume to be the desk.

There was a loud crash as something fell off the desk and I stumbled, falling flat on my ass.

I heard a door slam somewhere in the house and voices. Dammit. Great, you woke them up. Nice going.

I heard footsteps coming closer. Someone opened the door and light flooded into my new room from the hallway. Luke stood in the doorway, Calum peering over his shoulder with more curiosity than worry.

"You okay?" Luke asked.

In the light from the hall, I could see that the mystery object I had knocked over was my lamp. It was in pieces on the floor, the bulb - impressively still intact - had rolled a few feet away from the majority of the mess. Beautiful. Now I had no light.

Calum frowned at me, now worried. "What happened."

I passed a hand through my hair, which had somehow come undone from the ponytail and had fallen around my shoulders loosely. With a sigh and a snort which was kind of my way of mocking myself, I admitted, "I was looking for the light and I hip checked my desk by accident. The light got knocked over."

Ashton appeared in the doorway behind Calum and Luke. "What happened?" He asked, repeating Calum's earlier question.

Luke grinned lightheartedly, with that light in his eyes I had seen earlier that I could only describe as childish. "Allie got into a fight with her desk and it appears there was a casualty."

I stuck out my tongue at him and the three of them laughed.

"It's okay," Ashton said tiredly. "We'll get you a new one."

I nodded slowly as I realized with a rush of embarrassment that I was still sitting on the floor. I stood hastily, smoothing out my shirt.

"Well, seeing as I'm up," Ashton continued. "Would you like something to eat?"

I shrugged. "I'm good. Not really hungry. I think the jet lag is messing with my appetite too." Liar.

He nodded, a little suspiciously. "Okay, night."

"Yeah."

The boys disappeared back into the hallway and I listened until their footsteps were gone. Then I slipped off my shoes - yes I was so tired I actually slept in my shoes - and padded quietly into the hall. I was kind of curious about this house and curiosity always tended to get the better of me.

The top floor was a long hallway with rooms coming off it and a landing at the end where the stairs were. I reached the landing and peered over the railing to the main floor below. The foyer was beautiful, with a big door and a high ceiling. I made my way down the staircase. The steps were steep and carpeted. The foyer had two rooms coming off of it. One was an office I could just see into and the other was an open living room.

I was right before. Everything did have the look of a museum. It all looked brilliant and priceless and untouched. The living room off the side of the foyer had leather couches set up around a coffee table in front of a fireplace, and a baby grand piano off to the side. I walked toward it. It was big and black and so shiny I could see the hazy form of my reflection in it.

I leaned over the bench and lifted the fallboard,(a/n the lid that covers the piano keys) running my fingers over the keys without pressing down. My fingers came away covered in dust. Clearly the piano was for show, nobody had played it in a while. I tested out the keys, playing middle C. My fingers pressed down. It was much too weighted for a grand piano. If the keys are too heavy you'll end up banging on them instead of really playing. I had to guess that none of the boys played piano so they really didn't know any better.