simmer down // a.i. [ON HOLD]

[3] the summer of summers

Ciara was sitting across from me, her eyes wide, jaw slack.

‘...and then I gave him his key and practically ran away! I can’t stand him! He’s such a jerk!’

I finished explaining the morning’s events and fell silent, looking down at my lap, so when Ciara squealed, I jumped.

‘What? What’s wrong?’

‘Do you even get how lucky you are???’ She leapt up and grabbed both my hands, shaking them around.

‘This is 5 Seconds of Summer we’re talking about, Emma. They’re friggin’ famous all around the world and Ashton knows your name. You. Met. Him. Twice. In. One. Day.’

I scowled. ‘Yeah, well, I better not see him again. I’m really not sharing your excitement here.’

She let go and winked. ‘Oh, you will.’

‘I don’t even know them! I mean, their music is okay-‘

Ciara fixed me with a stare and I groaned. Fine, let’s be honest.

‘Whatever - their music is great, but it’s just 4 boys. They’re just normal, nothing special apart from their musical talents. Alsoooo, one of them is a major douche.’

‘Oh honey, you really need some education. But don’t worry, I’ll teach you all you need to know.’

The bell out the front rung loudly, and she got up to tend to the customer, but she paused in the doorway and looked back, grinning.

‘Come around to my room at half past 7 tonight. It’s room 521. Don’t be late or I’ll put you on detention!’

I giggled. ‘Okay, Ms Ciara.’

She nodded, and walked out the door smiling. ‘That’s the spirit.’

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For the rest of the day, Ciara and I worked the reception desk, helping out all the Hilton guests with bookings, enquiries and checking out and in. I made sure Ciara answered the phone every time, just in case it was Ashton ringing, or one of the other boys in his band, but I shouldn’t have worried - there was no sign of them for the rest of the day, except for the lingering crowd of girls outside.

At 6 o’clock, we shut up the desk and headed up to the staff quarters floor with Beck for dinner. After collecting our meals, we sat down in the dining hall.

Halfway into the meal, Beck nudged me in the ribs.

‘Hey, I heard your whole conversation with that curly-haired guy this morning. You were pretty sassy, I gotta say...’

I rolled my eyes and took a bit of pasta with a shrug.

‘He’s a dick, simple as that.’

He grinned and shoveled some fries into his mouth.

‘Oh, well, that dick asked me about you this morning, when I helped them with their bags. I guess you don’t care what he said then, huh?’

I gulped and snuck a look at Ciara. She made a face at me, and then turned on Beck, glaring. I bit my lip to stop from laughing. Oh, shit’s going to go down.

‘Beck Roberts. If you don’t tell us right now what happened, then I will never speak to you again.’

He grinned cheekily, his sandy blonde hair falling over his forehead.