"It's Not Love If It Hurts" //5sos

/29/

  When Calum finished his part of the interview, he walked out and rejoined Annie. Ashton had waited with her, knowing they couldn't let Mikey get to her.

  But he hadn't even shown up, and Annie was starting to feel better. The building they were in was huge, and Calum led Annie to a flight of stairs and then down a level and through a few hallways until they got to a cafeteria.

  "We usually just eat lunch here, because in this building, no one is anyone. No one cares who we are as long as we don't take too long getting our food." Calum narrated for Annie, sending her a reassuring smile.

  They grabbed plates and went through one of the lines, but Annie was too nervous to have much of an appetite so she just grabbed a few scoops of random food, not paying a ton of attention.

  The sat at a table that Luke was sat at already, closely followed by Ashton. They started talking, the discussion pretty light, until the last member of the band sat down, directly across from Annie.

  "I swear, the food gets worse every day." Mikey gripes, ignoring Annie and spearing some vegetables with his fork.

  "I don't mind. Salads are good." Luke said, partially sarcastic, partially not.

  Mikey slammed his fists down on the table, making Annie jump. Calum set a hand on her thigh reassuringly.

  Mikey leaned close, looking Luke right in the eyes. "That's. Because. You're. A. Rabbit!"

  The boys all laughed, except for Mikey, who was trying not to crack a smile. Annie tried to fake it, pretend she was laughing.

  "Hey Annie, how was your interview?" Luke asked, and Annie's heart sank. Thanks Luke for making me talk.

  She set her fork down. "They're crazy."

  Ashton smiled, shaking his head. "I swear the two of them are each others half, it's insane. Sometimes they finish each others thoughts, or each others sentences."

  "Or each other," Luke added, making Annie snort.

  Ashton smirked. "Only speculation, but the entire building thinks so. And by the entire building, I mean just the four of us."

  Annie smiled and shook her head in disbelief, taking a bite from her food.

  "Annie." Mikey said in a steely voice, making Annie want to wince, almost in pain.

  "Yeah?" She asked, feeling like she was about to throw up.

  "Did they see how you'd respond to hate yet?"

  She tried to stop her hands from shaking. He was across the table from her, his feet nearly touching her, and he was talking to her. She was going to panic.

  "Um, no, I don't think so." She answered, refusing to look at him.

  Calum visably shuddered next to Annie, him not liking the two talking. He didn't care when Luke talked to Annie, or Ashton, or even John, but he couldn't stand Mikey talking to her. He couldn't stand it because he knew firsthand how awful he was to her.

  That, and he knew what the next part of the interview was. Seeing how Annie would respond to hate, please. It was a nice way of putting it.

  "You could over there?" Mikey asked Calum sarcastically, in response to his shuddering. Calum tried to laugh it off, but it was about as unrealistic as a laugh can get.

  "I hate this next part of the interview. It's horrible, completely horrible."

  Annie raised an eyebrow. "Who else had gone through the interviews?"

  "A few girlfriends. One of mine, one of Luke's, a few others." Ashton answered. "Only one or two even got past the hate stage- it's probably the worst part."

  Annie was considering going to the bathroom to throw up, but she was doing her best to keep it down. "This sounds fun."

  "It's not." Mikey responded immediately, looking up at her. Annie made eye contact for a split second, before forcing herself to look away. "But if you make through that stage, you'll have gotten through the hard part."

  Calum's hand on Annie's legs moved up slightly, before gripping onto Annie's hand. He squeezed her sweaty palm, and Annie exhaled shakily.

  "I can't wait."