The boy next door (Calum Hood fic)

Chapter 8

Ashton and I walked hand in hand to his house. His friends, a tall blonde with a lip piercing, and another tall guy, but with hair that was similar to a skunk, were play fighting on his lawn. They stopped immediately when they saw me and their expressions lowered to a serious one.

"Hey boys, this is my friend Sarah from school. She's having a bit of a rough day so could you go easy on her?" Ashton said with a low voice but I could still hear.

"Hi Sarah, I'm Michael. " The boy with the skunk hair said.

"And I'm Luke. Nice to meet you Sarah." the tall blonde exclaimed.

"Let's go inside shall we?" Ashton said and unlocked his door. I followed him in, and I could feel they were checking me out. Michael made his way to the fridge and said, " You guys hungry?I'm starving. " Ashton pointed to him and I put a thumbs down. Once the bread Michael toasted was ready, he brought out the Vegemite and started spreading it.

"Ew, you guys actually like that stuff?" I said breaking the silence. They looked at me like I threw a glass plate against the wall.

"You don't?" Michael said sounding a bit offended. I shaked my head in response.

"How come you don't have an Aussie accent?" Luke said curiously.

"Well my mom is from New Zealand and my dads from America. So I was born in America but we had to move here to Sydney, because my mom has a job here. " Did I say too much?

"That's so cool Sarah. " Ashton said with a grin.

"Did Ashton tell you that we're in a band?" Michael said with a bit of food in his mouth.

"No-"

"Go ahead Ashton tell her. "

Ashton giggled a bit but said," Well we are trying to. We still need a bass player but haven't gotten any luck lately." I all of a sudden remember Calum played the bass.

Flashback to when Calum and Sarah were in year 5

I looked up at Calum and he had this overly joyful look to his face. We were in his room where I spent most of my days in talking to him. We were both watching funny videos and laughing hysterically. We layed back on this bed still laughing and smiling like we were having the time of our lives.

"Oh Sarah!Do you know I'm starting to play bass!" he said and nudged my arm.

"That's awesome!I play guitar, we could start a band!"

"That would be so cool!I can't wait until we're in high school. I love you Sarah!" He said then hugging me tightly

"I love you too Calum, promise to always be there for me?" I said with a huge smile on my face.

"I promise, Sarah."

I came back to reality and heard Luke saying,"Sarah?You there babe?" he snapped his fingers.

"Uh yeah sorry, it's just I know someone who plays bass. "

"Who, love?" Ashton asked with a concerned face because of my face that was dozed off into the flashback.

"It's Calum..." I said with a quiver in my voice. I swallowed the huge lump in my throat that I got from remembering that day with Calum. Everything was so much better back then. I can tell he didn't live up to his word because he was never there for me after that year. I felt my eyes sort of watering but I still kept the same facial expression I had from when I dozed off into space.

"Babe, are you okay?"

"Yeah." I said forcing a smile. Yet Ashton was still concerned about what was bothering me. The boys kept their eyes fixed on me.

"Alright then, do you play anything Sarah?" Michael said breaking the awkward tension between us and while we walked to Ashton's tv room.

I sat down and said,"Yeah!I play guitar,piano,clarinet, and I sing a bit too. I'm actually applying to go to the Australian Institute of Music. "

"Wow you must be really talented. And me and the boys are applying to go there too!" Luke said happily.

"Well I can't wait to see you guys there. It's really nice meeting you guys. " I said as all of us smiled.