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

/61/

It seemed as though three was the magic number.

Three days until they found Calum. Three days until they let him out of the hospital. And now, three days until he deemed his stomach healed enough to be able to walk on his own again.

Maybe he wasn't ready. But Annie couldn't read his mind, couldn't feel his pain. Besides, it was just some cuts on this stomach, bad cuts, but nothing more. They needed time to heal so he didn't make them worse. But now, if he said he was healed, Annie had no choice but to believe him.

She'd been taking care of his the past few days, as he was mostly confined to his bed. She helped him to the bathroom a few times a day, cooked for him, and spent most of her time by his side, texting him or, a few times when he requested it, telling him stories. One day, Annie had come into his room to find he was watching some of the bands old covers on YouTube. She saw the way he looked, staring at his former self with such an intensity Annie was almost scared. It was clear to see how afraid Calum was, that maybe he'd never get his voice back. He tried talking every day. So far, he could just make unintelligible rasping noises.

One day, Annie was sitting besides him, and he asked her if she thought he'd ever even be able to play bass again. Of course, she had told him. It was just a small fracture, easily healable.

No, he'd insisted. But what if I forget.

She'd reassured him that everything would be fine. No matter what, they would find a way.

But now, Calum was up and walking again, and Annie felt she wasn't as needed anymore. So she grabbed a box of cookies she had bought at the grocery store (she and Calum had snuck over there without Johanna knowing, a day or two before he went missing), and took Calum's car, driving it to Johanna's house.

She opened the door, and looked blankly at Annie. "Obviously you want something, otherwise you wouldn't be bribing me with cookies. Won't you tell me first, and we can just skip the chase?"

But Annie didn't want anything, not really. She wanted to thank Johanna for letting her stay there when Calum was gone. And, more importantly, she wanted to go online with Johanna and decide what the next step was. No doubt the entire internet was blowing up over the news that Calum was hurt. They needed to decide what to do next.

When they sat down at Johanna's desk- Annie didn't have to pull over a chair, there was now own that sat permanently for her- and Johanna logged into one of her fan accounts. Her eyes widened. "I'd been avoiding looking at the videos. But this is going to be miserable."

Her subscription box had over 100 new video, from the past week. When Calum was missing, she didn't look online because she knew that no one would know, and if there was anything huge the boys would text her. And then, she hadn't looked online in the past few days because she had to come up with as many plans and backup plans as possible for what would happen to Calum and the band, and couldn't let the videos get in the way of that. So basically, it had been a week without her checking her subscriptions, and it had been an eventful week at that.

  So they started on the videos. Slowly, one by one, they got through. They did skip some- ones that weren't solely about 5sos, when the same gossip channel released a full video on him- along with skipping past some of the ones. When they declared themselves done, there was still at least 50 videos to go, but they weren't going to watch them. They had a good enough idea.

  Basically, people were freaking out. The idea that their baby Calum had hurt his wrist was terrifying to them. "It's a good thing we didn't tell them about his voice," Johanna muttered at one point.

  After the videos, they scrolled through some Twitter comments before turning off Johanna's computer and leaning back.

  "So many tears."

  "So much drama."

  Annie sighed. "Why isn't John helping you with this? Are you two going too meet up later to figure it out?"

  Johanna tensed up, only slightly, and quickly forced herself to relax. Annie almost didn't notice. "John is um," she stalled. "He, um, he got a promotion. In New York. Without me."

  Annie opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it. Johanna and John were the perfect pair, finishing each other's sentences, sharing ideas in a way that no one else could understand. When Annie had stayed with Johanna for a few days, she have offhandedly mentioned how she and John had been best friends in high school.

  Annie couldn't imagine it. Being best friends all throughout high school, inseparable through the ups and downs, and then growing apart. They went to different colleges, and stopped talking to each other. Then, when Johanna was looking for a job in California, she found John, who'd already gotten a job as a handler for a small band. Johanna applied, and got in. Together, she and John had grown 5 Seconds of Summer into a huge band, a household name.

  And now, John was leaving her. He was going to the other side of the country, and leaving the band in the hands of Johanna.