Stay (Punk Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 2

Barefoot, shoes in one hand, bagel in the other, I run through the glass double doors, panicking.

"Hey, Andy." Florence, the receptionist in the lobby, doesn't even blink at my disheveled state, used to my late start mornings by now.

Today, however, wasn't any regular day. Today was supposed to be the "biggest day of my career" according to Chris, my chipper, stereotypical Australian boss. And I was late, my alarm having failed me this morning. I'd slept through the pounding noise, and I blamed Luke Hemmings.

Being reminded so strongly of him last night had honestly worn me out. I had slept to escape and had ultimately missed the signal to wake up and deal with my problems. Fuck you, Luke Hemmings.

I skid into the meeting room, over half an hour late, shoes still dangling from my fingers, bagel in my mouth, trying to convey my apologies with my eyes, but stop aprubtly . Janelle, the head over the radio portion, Chris, my official boss and head over the magazine portion, and Freddie, the head over the online portion of the company sit there, looking at me with amused expressions, and I've never never felt so mortified.

The shoes drop from my fingers, black vans clattering to the floor. Slowly, with increasingly red cheeks, I remove the bagel from my mouth, tossing it into the garbage next to me. I sink into the chair facing the trio who feels like a jury.

"Sorry I'm late." I squeak out, wanting nothing more than to bury myself under the table and never have to see the sly look on Janelle's face ever again.

"Nah, it's alright, Andy. I'm sure you have a good explanation. And you're here now, so now we can talk." Chris smiles, retaining his ability to remain jovial in any circumstances. Freddie, however, is not so forgiving.

"Punctuality is key, Ms. Clementine! Next time don't keep me waiting." His loud bass voice is chastising, but he drops me a wink, kind of ruining the moment.

"Won't happen again." I promise.

"I would hope not, considering you're not even going to be here for a while." Freddie laughs.

I blanch, looking at them in horror. "Are you firing me?"

Janelle busts out laughing, her glasses slipping down her nose at her chuckles.

"No, calm down, Andy! We just have a bit of an... Extended assignment for you."

"Oh." I breathe out, calming down a little bit. I'd travelled a little bit for this job, gone to Perth for a concert or two, a weekend away. Extended assignment I could handle.

Chris grins happily, taking over. "We were very impressed with your recent covering of You Me At Six's Australian leg of their tour. We figure, after over 2 years here, it's time to see what you can do. This will be your biggest assignment yet. A huge opportunity has been offered to the station, and we have chosen you to be our representative."

I notice they've left one very important detail out. "That's amazing, but what's the actual assignment?"

Janelle's eyes tighten, and Chris looks a little tenser. That should have been my first clue.

"It's a tour with a band that's becoming rapidly popular. They're opening for the biggest band in the world, you'd be interviewing both. It's a few months long, across Europe, the UK, and America, ending here. More specifically, it's documenting the opening band, they're the ones that we're focused on. You'll be with them every step of the way. It will be combination of video, audio for the radio, and articles for the magazine."

Second clue.

I'm not dumb. I know what's coming.

Chris finishes for the others, watching me warily. "The band is 5 Seconds of Summer. You'll also be reporting with One Direction."