Arabella || Luke Hemmings

haze's birthday

Haze didn't know most of the people that had shown up to her birthday festivity. Jax had invited a team of people he partied with in New York for the last couple of years. That was his specialty, fucking things up when everyone needed time to relax. What was supposed to be a couple of their closest friends in the city, turned into random people that none of the band knew.

"Jax, what the hell?" Haze pulled Jax into the hallway that led to the bedrooms. She didn't want to confront him about this fuck up situation, but she had enough guts after two beers to snap at her band mate. "I don't even know a majority of these people!"

"It's all good!" He rested a hand on Haze's shoulder before taking a gulp of his beer.

"No, it's not! This is supposed to be my birthday party, not your chance to hang out with your self-destructive senseless friends if you've forgotten!" Haze shoved off Jax's hand and stormed off to the roof deck.

Celebrating her 20th with these nut jobs wasn't what she had in mind, but she just had to get used to things not going her way if she wanted to succeed further into the life of fame. All the bodies made her anxious, she wanted to lock herself in her room instead of dealing with people that didn't give a shit about her. They only cared about how high their album charted on its release day and how many albums they had sold in twenty-four hours and the other famous friends Kosmic probably had. That number was probably less than the random people likely thought. A lot of their famous friends were rather old and had already lived through their party lives. Kosmic didn't know very many musicians their ages.

"Butt me." Haze leaned against the deck railing, standing aside Arabella who was already handing her a Natural American Spirit cigarette, her signature preference was the organic type that Loch had gotten them all hooked on, and a lighter.

"You good?" Arabella questioned because she knew Haze only smoked when something was bugging her.

"What the hell is all this?" Haze slipped the cigarette between her teeth, cupping her hand over the end as she lit the stick. "This is-" She puffed out smoke, "A joke. An absolute joke." She turned around, leaning her elbows against the metal. Groups of people stood around laughing and drinking. The bass from the music vibrated the ear drums of drunken souls that needed an escape from daily dilemmas and wanted to furiously say they were friends with Kosmic so they'd have cool stories to tell their friends over brunch or tell their families back home that Kosmic weren't as nice as they seemed. These people were shady everyone saw it, but Jax.

"Maybe a few drinks in ya will get ya to loosen up and enjoy the party." A sinister smile danced on Arabella's lips. Haze hated to have more than a few drinks because she ended up turning into a crying mess and everyone would have to listen to her drunken tales about her ex-boyfriend, Parker. That was one reason she stayed away from wine. She was always a sip away from being a drunk wine mom who cried over everything.

"The Aussie's are here so if you guys need me, I'll be in my bedroom." Loch interrupted.

In all their years of being friends with Loch, Haze and Arabella never witnessed Loch going out of his way to avoid being in the company of a few people. Loch normally loved people and went out of his way to be friends with anyone, so something was off.

Someone had taken it upon themselves to change the music, setting off people to dance to the beat. Both girls rolled their eyes before they saluted him off and started searching through the sea of heads for the four guys. Easily, the guys had a good couple of inches to their height and their hair stood out from anyone else at the party. They were already examining the area for any sight of a Kosmic member, seeming just as appalled as the others that there was random people in the penthouse.

"Hey!" Haze yelled out and waved her hands in the air to capture their attention.

Their eyes brightened as they saw Haze and Arabella and quickly started shoving through the drunken bodies.

"Happy birthday!" Luke pulled Haze into a hug, remembering she was fond of hugs. He probably read that fact from a Kosmic fun fact booklet, but the other guys would tease him if they knew that about their best friend.

"Thanks." She shared hugs with the other guys. "Thanks for coming out!" As each embrace ended they moved on to greeting Arabella, but Arabella gave them each handshakes and a lifeless smile.

"Sorry, we're late." Calum shuffled his feet in place. "Traffic was a bitch."

"It's fine, you're here now." Arabella held her beer bottle by the neck and was striking it against her thigh. She hated these kinds of interactions because she felt trapped by people she barely knew. It was another moment she wanted out of.

"Make yourselves at home as the rest of these wild animals have, beer's in the kitchen." Haze pointed up ahead, back to the apartment. "If you need anything just let us know."

They all nodded awkwardly, looking around.

"Hey, I'm gonna go." Arabella muttered in Haze's ear.

Arabella had gone out to the deck to get away from the sweaty, smashed incoherence inside, but it looked like it'd followed her outside. Haze turned back around, taking in the sight of the Manhattan madness.

"What's the deal with Arabella?" A deep voice questioned. Luke.

The other guys had taken separate ways to find alcohol or someone familiar to talk to, but Luke stayed put.

"What do you mean?" Haze took a drag from her cigarette that was sadly coming to an end.

Guys were always like this with Arabella, curious. Maybe smitten. There was a lot behind the mysterious facade Arabella put on, she didn't want anyone to know that though. People that had been fans for years still had a hard time figuring the girl out. Fans that tried to create those little fact booklets had less dirt on Arabella than they did with anyone else in the band. Figures why Luke would go to the perfect source to ask for details.

"Why's she so quiet?" Luke took the only source of sanity out of Haze's fingers, throwing it on the ground and putting it out underneath his boot.

Thanks, she thought, watching him slick back his shoulder length locks. It almost made Haze cringe because his hair looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks, but she didn't want to comment on it because it would be rather hypocritical of her as she sometimes wore the previous days makeup, being too lazy to wash it and apply a fresh mask.

"She's actually not that quiet at all." Haze tapped the pads of her fingers against the barrier.

Arabella was one of the most incredibly talkative people when she wanted to be. She only appeared quiet to those she wasn't familiar with. In the 8 years Haze had known Arabella, she'd seen two sides of Arabella: reserved Arabella and wild Arabella. There wasn't really an in between for the younger girl.

"Her quietness is a 30-day trial, I suppose." Haze continued. "Eventually the trial ends and you're enveloped in her character that's so full of personality and wit and everything beautiful you'd want in a human being." Haze took a second before going on. "She just might tap into your mind and soul, but you won't be sure." Haze said knowingly. "That's the deal with Arabella."

"Huh." Luke said with a tiny amount of shock, not sure how to process the words he just received. He felt a headache brewing because he wasn't sure what Haze meant by all of that.

"Why do you ask?"

"Curious."

"As are all the boys like you." She chuckled, feeling her nose going numb from being outside in the cold too long. She wrapped her leather jacket tighter against her body. "Lucky guess is that you couldn't find what you wanted in magazines about her, so you're asking me."

"Rolling Stone magazine did say Haze Wilde could be a cocky, difficult shit sometimes." Luke shook his head in frustration as he referred back to an article Rolling Stone had put out six months ago. He was definitely doing his research. He was certainly interested in the band Kosmic and how they came about, what their influences were, and why they loved music so much, but something about seeing Arabella's face for the first time on the cover of that magazine made him so curious. He wanted to know her.

Haze snorted. "Not quite the way they worded it, but I'll forget you ever said that to me."