Groupie ; c.h

one - please?

It was ten-o'clock and the moon cast a white glow across Los Angeles from the sky, highlighting the many clubs and pubs whilst leaving alleyways and dirty streets to lay hidden away in the shadows. Four boys -- Calum, Luke, Ashton and Michael -- sat in their tour bus, parked in the car park of the stadium that they would be performing at the next night, unable to make a decision regarding what the events to come would entail.

"We should go swimming!" Michael suggested with a grin, his brightly-coloured hair pushed back from his face.

"At ten o'clock? At this temperature?" Luke raised an eyebrow at the pink-haired boy, voicing everyone else's opinion perfectly.

"I guess not..." Michael mumbled, sinking back down into his seat, defeated.

The crew and bus driver had gone out for dinner and told the boys that they wouldn't be back until early in the morning for some reason Calum has failed to listened to - nor did he really care. The crew had assumed that the group would have a relaxed night in - but they were teenagers. Why would they do that?

"We should play monopoly!" Ashton yelled excitedly, flailing his arms about.

"Shut up, Ash," Calum groaned, rubbing his temple with his eyes shut, massaging the headache that Ashton was bringing on.

"Well you don't have a better idea," the dirty blonde taunted, sinking back into his seat like Michael had.

"Anything's better than fucking monopoly you wanker, are you fucking five years old?" Calum spat harshly, his short temper getting the best of him - something that happened much more often then he liked.

Ashton sat up straighter, looking ready to fire back, when Michael interrupted. "Okay, that's enough. Why don't we just watch a movie, yeah?"

Ashton and Luke nodded, seeming to like the idea, but Calum groaned loudly in protest. "No! It's a Friday night, we're teenagers, there's no adult supervision-"

"Technically I'm an adult?" Ashton interrupted.

"-shut up, Ashton," Calum glared at the drummer, who simply shrugged. "Why don't we do something fun?"

"Like what?" Luke asked, resting his elbows on his knees and propping his head up with his hands.

"Like..." Calum took a moment to think, before an idea popped into his head. "A strip club!"

All three boy's eyes widened, and they quickly shook their heads in protest, seeming horrified with the idea.

"Why not?" Calum asked, frowning. He thought they'd like the idea of having a little fun. However, the other three boys had a different definition of fun than Calum did.

"Because, Calum, people could recognize us and take pictures and leak them and get our careers ruined!" Michael threw his arms up in annoyance, as if it was obvious - and it was. Calum, however, failed to see the logical side of anything and listened only to his desires.

"People won't recognize us!" Calum argued, trying desperately to convince the boys. "We're in LA, it's 10 o'clock at night and I doubt anyone at some strip club will recognize us, or even if they did I doubt they'd care."

"No," Ashton took Michael's side, shaking his head firmly. "I'm not going to a strip club."

"We're not all fucking mumma's boys like you, Ashton," Calum snapped, sending a dirty look his way. He didn't know what it was about Ashton, but Calum just felt so mad and on edge when he was around. Ever since they had begun touring, Calum had regularly let his temper take over. He didn't mean to be a complete douche, but he just couldn't help it sometimes.

"Calum," Luke warned. Calum sent him an 'I don't know what you're talking about' look and he sent back a 'you know exactly what I'm talking about' look.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Calum gave them all a cheesy grin. "Please! It'll make me so, so happy."

Suddenly, their looks of hesitance and annoyance transformed into ones of pity and hope. They all knew that Calum had been unhappy for the past couple of months, and that due to his temper it was hard to cheer him up. They had tried everything to make Calum happy, and so far hardly anything had worked.

"I..." Michael sighed loudly, glancing nervously at the other boys. "I guess we could go for a little while..."

"Yay!" Calum cheered, jumping up and doing a little happy dance. "Thankyou so much!"

"We've gotta be back before the adults, though," Ashton warned.

"Of course," Calum said, pulling at their hands eagerly. "Now lets go!"

×××

The four boys all hopped off the bus one after the other and began walking aimlessly down the dimly lit street as Calum Googled nearby strip clubs.

"The closest one is..." Calum clicked on the location, squinting as he read out the name uncertainly. "The Lusty Leopard."

"Hey, that's like in How I Met Your Mother," Luke smiled happily, his eyes filled with delight. "Let's go there!"

"Okay!" Calum agreed, happy that someone actually wanted to go. He glanced back down at his phone, double-checking the coordinates. "We just walk until the first street on the left and then it should be right there."

The boys nodded and they all made their way down the long road, turning at the first street on the left and, sure enough, a building with a pink neon sign reading 'Lusty Leopard' and a neon green arrow that read 'Girls Girls Girls' were strung up before a bricked building.

"Here we go, lads," Calum beamed back at ther nervous boys before pushing open the door.

×××

Update: I'm going through and editing all of these chapters (finally, ik) so sorry about the updated.