Why Don't We Just...

Corbyn

// May 8, 2017 \\

I woke up earlier than usual this morning. I took a shower, and as I turned on the water, my phone rang.

"Hey babe." Lauren said

I chuckled and responded back. "Hey, L. You sleep good?"

"Yes, but I called to say you did great the other day on the interview! You looked so cute."

"Haha thanks, but did you hear the song-."

"You just were so amazing! Did you write the lyrics yourself?"

"Well-."

"Oh, I have to go now. Getting my makeup done for tonight's photo shoot. Bye love!" She made a kissing sound and hung up. I sighed and sat my phone on the counter and took a long, thoughtful shower. Three months ago, I met Lauren. We were going to plan for our upcoming "Something Different" tour. Then a group of fans swarmed us, asking for photographs and pictures. It was overwhelming but we were happy to do it. The last girl who came up to me asked for a photo together. She wore glasses and had long red hair. Her eyes were amazingly blue, unlike anything I've seen. She smelled like coffee and morning dew. She snapped me back to reality and we took the picture. She started to walk away when I stopped her and asked for her number. She screamed and almost passed out. I had to calm her down and chuckled a little while doing it. We spent 3 weeks texting and calling and we had a connection. So the night after I asked her to meet me at a restaurant and I kissed her. I've never done that before, but she was just so pretty and- I don't know. I love her, I really do, but nowadays it seems like everything is about me. Weird thing to say, I know, but we never talk about anything except for the band, my hair, my covers, occasionally her family and friends, but it's mostly me. I was thinking about ending things with her but our manager argued. He said that if I broke this girl's heart, the media will hound us. Not to mention, people will think of me as a heartbreaker (not in a good way of course).

I went downstairs and Jack was lying on the couch, playing Call of Duty.

"Hey man, what's up." I said and slapped his arm.

"Uh, nothing." He glanced up and smiled a bit but when he looked back at the game his face returned to its expressionless glare.

"You know what-." I walked over to the tv and turned it off.

"Hey! What the-."

"Listen dude." I sat on the couch beside him. "You need to tell me what's up. After the interview you've been so plain and dull and just- not you. You didn't even go skating with me and Zach when I asked. So what's the deal?" He didn't answer, but someone did.

"Nicole. It's about Nicole." Jonah said, sitting at the bottom step of the stairs. "Go on, tell him Jack."

Jack sighed and looked at the game controller and then up at me. "Yeah. It's her. I just can't help but wonder if she's into someone else or if she even cares about me like in the way I care about her."

"Did you even ask?" I said.

"Well, no. But it's just been on my mind. And the other day, I used Daniel's phone to call her and she answered, but when I said hey she hung up.. I called several times after that, too. Why wouldn't she just-."

"Maybe it's because of the interview, Jack." Jonah spoke. "You are forgetting you called her and told her to watch.

".. fuck!" Jack stood and threw the controller across the room. "She's not much of an early riser so I didn't think she'd see it." He buried his face in his hands and looked up at the ceiling.

"Even if she wasn't she could just look up the interview or something. Honestly, there was no way out of it, dude." I said.

"I know, I know.." he took a moment to think and finally spoke up. "Maybe.. maybe I could visit her. Would that work?"

"Nah man, we have to go to Seattle in a couple weeks. Manager wanted us to rehearse here, remember?", said Jonah. "But, she could come here.. WAIT!" He ran upstairs and 3 minutes later, came back down. "I called our manager and asked if the girls can come here.. he said yes!

We all whooped and hollered when-

"Hey.. can y'all calm down. I was sleeping." Daniel came from his room, his hair disheveled and unruly.

"Dude, it's like 12 o'clock." We all looked at him and he shrugged and walked away. Jack, Jonah and I went back to celebrating. The rest of the day went on like any other. Then at 8:15, Jonah made a group Skype call with Nicole and Cheshire.

"Hey guys. So Jack and I were all talking and we came to the conclusion that we haven't seen you guys in a while."

"Ya think?" Cheshire said with an attitude. Nicole laughed and Jonah just shook it off and kept talking.

"We asked our manager and he said he would fly you guys out to Cali to hang with us until we have to leave for-."

"AND?!", an eager Nicole remarked.

"Haha. He said you guys could come until Friday-."

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Before he could finish his sentence, the girls started screaming. They dropped their phones so all we could see for a good minute or so was ceiling. Nicole picked up her phone and thanked us.

"Bye Nic! See ya soon!" Jack said. Nicole looked at him for a short moment and just hung up.

"She's still upset isn't she?"

"Sorry man." I said. Jonah talked to Cheshire for a while and I went into the kitchen, made a bowl of Frosted Flakes and took it up to my room. I checked my phone, 33 missed calls and 5 texts from Lauren.

"Damn..." I answered the texts and not a moment later she called me. I acted as if I was engaged in the conversation, but in my mind, I was drowning. She wasn't like this when we first got together. What changed? Throughout the call, I started to think about Oaks. What was she doing? Is she happy? Then I started thinking about the interview..

"Does she still care about me..?" I thought out loud.

"What was that Corb?" Lauren said, shaking me from my thoughts.

"What? Oh, uh- nothing. Go on."