Arabella || Luke Hemmings

Getting to Know Each Other

Both managers left the conference room and left the bands to talk between themselves. They would have to get to know each other after all if they were going to work together for so long. No one was quite sure what to say to anyone. There were many things to talk about, but no one knew the limits of topics that could be brought up. Luke left it to himself to break the ice, but his attention was focused towards Arabella.

"So, Guns N' Roses are doing pretty well on the charts." He pushed up the sleeves up his white dress shirt, feeling confident enough in his statement to even smirk as if he brought up something so genius everyone in the room was going to be shocked.

Arabella simply did not pay attention to the charts though. It was a way to keep her sane and not bring down her hopes for music that she created if her art charted lower than a song or album that sucked. She also believed if Kosmic started creating music that were for the charts, the band would lose its meaning.

"I haven't paid attention." Arabella shrugged her shoulders, tucking her hair behind her ears and looking down at the wooden table, hoping Luke would back off with the subject.

"Well, you should pay attention." Luke dipped his head, softly smiling at her. "I recommend them. From one artist to another."

"If I had the time I would." Her eyebrows furrowed together as she wondered why he was pestering with the Guns N' Roses topic.

Luke was a big fan of Guns N' Roses and had dreamt of meeting them or seeing them live, but his schedule always conflicted with their tour dates. He secretly wanted to be Axl Rose too.

"We know who Guns N' Roses are..." Loch snorted, shaking his head. There was a slight hint of attitude in his voice. "We're actually friends with them."

"Oh." Luke felt like his heart had sunk. This was his fan girl moment to ask to meet them or get Axl's number and ask him questions about his life. He was so excited about this small detail he learned about Kosmic that he even brushed off Loch's attitude.

"Don't feel bad. Arabella doesn't really warm up to new people very well." Ricky said sympathetically to Luke, catching onto the hints that Luke was interested in Arabella. It didn't take a fool to notice the gleam in Luke's eyes and how they'd dart away from Arabella when someone caught him looking her way. Or how his cheeks turned red when he noticed her looking in his direction. Or how he was acting like Arabella was the only one in the room with him as if his best friends sitting beside him didn't exist either.

"It's alright." Luke insisted. "I guess I'm not a very likable person, but then again, I read in a Kosmic facts book that she wasn't very nice."

"Luke." Michael slapped Luke on the back of the head. "You aren't supposed to say that outside of the four of us."

Luke was genuinely curious about Kosmic as a band and as people, so he listened to everything in their discography and purchased a lot of third party books about them that broke down each member. He even took it further to buying any magazine that said it had Kosmic in it to read their interviews and get the inside scoop on the band. He shared the information with his friends, but they thought it was weird how he had circled Frost, Texas on a map and talked about visiting.

Through Luke's findings he learned that Loch was nicest one to deal with in the band, but he didn't see that. Haze was bound to make him laugh at some point the way she did in the interviews he read, but so far she hadn't. Ricky was going to lend him some fatherly advice, maybe he had, but Luke didn't notice. Jax was likely to be drunk and he could smell the strong scent of tequila on him. And Arabella was too closed off to get to know and that was evident.

"The Grammy's look really good for Michael Jackson." Ashton finally detoured the awkward silence to something else. "Twelve nominations. You have to be a grand talent for that to happen."

Michael Jackson was the most nominated person this year in the Grammy's and it was definitely a record. Kosmic and 5 Seconds of Summer both missed deadlines to be nominated for a Grammy, so they were slightly brought down, but seeing a man like Michael Jackson getting noticed for his amazing talent made each band happy.

"It's crazy. Every music magazine is predicting he'll win all twelve." Ricky huffed air from his mouth in shock. "Can you imagine being that great?"