Xx Chapter 17: Lonely Walks in Crowded Halls

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(A/N) Finally getting to the next chapter lovelies! Not exactly sure how this is going to end up. Big surprise right? Anyways, ON WARD!

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I froze solid in my spot. "Guys?" The four familiar faces that once surrounded me and dissipated into a crown of unfamiliar ones.

I attempted not to freak out. I mean, it's just little old me in a crowd of unfamiliar faces that could possibly lead to me having a severe panic attack and passing out in here. I took at deep breath and allowed myself to survey the room once again. They're here somewhere, and causing myself unneeded anxiety is not something I need to do at the moment.

"I'll find them and they'll find me," I repeated under my breath for the thousandth time. I scanned the people in here, reporters, fans, stage crew; you name it, they were in here. Sudden contact on my arm caused my breath to hitch. "Hey-"

I looked over to see a girl, probably not much older then me, eyeing me cautiously. She held onto the grip she had on my arm and spoke calmly. "Are you okay?" Looking at her was truly breathtaking. She had stunning features with piercings to highlight them and bright hair that made her vibrant blue eyes pop. "Hello?"

I snapped out of the daze I was in. "Oh, um, yeah..." I trailed off, slight remembrances of my situation coming back in. "I'm okay." I managed. "Are you sure, you seemed pretty uncomfortable in here." I slightly laughed, nodding in response.

"Want to step out, get away from all this loudness?" Loudness? I hadn't even realized. I saw her nod towards a door on my left and start making her way. I followed behind, feeling refreshing breath of air once we were outside.

She adjusted her once the door was closed and gave me a look over. "You look vaguely familiar." I tried to refrain from smiling, mostly because I was sure it would make me look like a fool. "I get that a bunch." She tilted her head slightly, examining me again. "Wait a minute, aren't you-,"

The door we came out of getting flung open, cutting her off. "Ivy Paige Clifford, don't ever disappear on my like that again." I turned to see my brother, barreling towards me. "-Michael's sister." I heard her finish beside me. I gave him a small smile and watched as his attention focused on her. "Who's she?" He attempted to mouth to discretely to me.

"Lily Burns," She reached out to shake his hand. Michael nodded softly, shaking her hand without looking away from her eyes. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. "Michael?" I tapped him. "Concert. Hour or so. Get ready?" My lame attempt to refocus him worked.

"Oh, yeah, It's a pleasure to meet you." She shakily smiled and nodded. Definitely recognizes him. Michael started to pull me away. "Thanks." I was all I managed to say before I couldn't see her. Michael's tight grip was almost reassuring considering getting lost in here once again was probably not what I wanted to happen again.

He opened the door to a large room where Calum and Luke were sitting starring at Ashton pacing across the room. "Delivery." Michael stated nodding towards me. Ashton's head snapped up towards us. "Ivy, I was so worried." He came over, Michael awkwardly stepping to the side. "So scared." He mumbling pulling me into a tight hug. "Ashton, I'm fine, real-," He cut me off with a kiss. The audience in the room caused me to hesitate with a return. He slowly pulled away, looking at me.

As if in unison. the three other people in the room, yelled in disgust. "You two are disgusting." Ashton smiled and wrapped his arms around me, turning to look back at them. "I guess we like disgusting things then." Ashton mumbled in my ear, causing me to laugh.

"With as much fun as we all are having right now," Calum stated enthusiastically. "We have a concert." Ashton rolled his eyes and release me. As if Calum's voice was the cue, the door to their room flung open and their stage manager walked in. "Boys, your breaks over, that means back to busine-," He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me. "Who is this?"

He made a hand gesture towards me that almost made it seem like I was an inconvenience to his existence. "This is my sister, the one we discussed about finishing the end of this tour with us." The manger nodded and spoke quietly to whom I assume was on the other end of the headset. Once he finished he directed his attention towards me.

"Few things you're about to learn kid. I don't baby anyone. I don't play games. And I don't let anyone interfere with my stages running. This includes the siblings of artists or the 'soulmate' of artists' best friend." He narrowed his eyes slightly at me, almost putting me in a defensive state. I felt Ashton's hand run across my back. "She isn't doing anything Jason. You can relax."

I hesitated to look back at Ashton. His hand on my back was light but the tone in his voice was warning. I could hear shuffling from behind us, probably from the rest of the band hearing the same thing I heard in Ashton's voice. "Well, you know the rules Ashton, no one is permitted back stage without my permission." I tensed up once again. "Jas, man, let her stay, she isn't doing anything." Luke approached the manager quickly.

"If I let her in, then I have to let everyone one who wants to come back stage in, and if I did that I wouldn't be doing my job, now would I?" I heard Ashton let out a heavy breath. "He's just being an ass." I barely made out Ashton's mumble in all this. "I want her out, pronto. I check back in, in 15 minutes. If she isn't out, actions will follow."

With that, the stage manager turned and made his way out of the room. Once the door was shut, I turned to face the band. "What was with great and powerful manager man." Michael let out a light chuckle. "He honestly doesn't want to be here. His best mate is getting married and he requested the rest of the tour off." Calum rolled his eyes. "Michael's putting that nicely, he demanded. And then when our label, which hired him, said no, he demanded a raise."

Luke sighed. "He's just a major asshole. But honestly we don't much have to deal with him so we don't really say anything about getting a new one." Ashton's hand dropped from my back. "But, unfortunately, get did just kick you out of our concert." I looked at him and halfway frowned. Was I looking forward to watching them play? Kind of. But I didn't want them to get to wound up about me missing it, especially just before a concert.

"It's all good guys, I'll just wonder around outside on the street or something." The look on my brother's face proved that I did a terrible job at including my dry humor. "I'll be find trust me. Go enjoy your concert." Before they had a chance to protest and before I had a chance to comprehend what I just agreed to, I walked out of the room.

Not even three steps out of the room, I ran into Jason. The fixed up look on his face as I walked past gave me every urge to turn around and walk back into the room. AS if that wasn't motive enough, the realization that I just agreed to find my way through this completely unfamiliar town on my own step in. "I am so fucking stupid." I mumbled quietly to myself was I wondered around. I made my way to the familiar doorway that I had originally came through.

Near the door there was a small group of girls gathered and rather then to deal with them, I decided it was best that I keep my head down and mouth shut. My plan failed. I was about 5 steps away from the group when everything backfired.

"Ivy?" Shit, who the hell knows who I am. I looked up to see the same bright hair girl from earlier. Son of a bitch. "Yeah, hey, um, Lily?" She nodded and smiled. "I honestly didn't think I'd ever see you again." I lightly laughed, mostly in order to cover up my awkwardness. She briefly looked at her group of friends before she focused back on me.

"So, what exactly are you doing back here?" I shrugged, not sure if telling her the situation was the best plan I had. Then again, it was the only plan I had now. I sighed and looked at her. "Honestly, me going on tour with my brother was a last minute plan. So basically I have no place to be because the stage manager is an ass." She nodded slowly and looked down.

"What exactly are you doing to do now?" I bit the inside of my cheek. I hadn't really thought about that. "I don't really have any plans honestly, this just kind of happened." One of Lily's friends looked towards her. "We still have Brooke's ticket right?" I looked over at Lily slightly confused. Her expression lit up and she dug through her bag for a lanyard that had a VIP pass on the end. She extended her hand to me.

"Take this." I furrowed my eyebrows. "What?" She laughed lightly. "Take this, it's a VIP pass, basically you get front stage seats, backstage access, and the ability to go to the after concert signing." I nodded, reluctantly taking it from her hand. "You can hang with us!" The girl who suggested it to Lily the first place chimmed in. "I'm Alexandria, by the way. Just call me Alex." I nodded and put the pass around my neck, letting it hand loosely. Lily took my hand and slightly pulled me towards the door.

"But first, let's get you into something to fit in."

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(A/N) Heya lovelies. Long time no see right? Welp, here's chapter 17, ILY! More to comee! FOLLOW/<3/SHARE/and COMMENT!

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