「 it's you // lrh 」(complete)

06 \\ ᴛʜᴇɴ

  ♡ ・・・・・・ ♡ 

I raised my glass to the music.

After all my years in university, this was my first time in a pub. My real first time, that is—I had dragged Erin out of those places way too many times that I felt as if I knew three-quarters of the pubs in the city at the very least. To be honest, I wasn't fond of them: the music was too loud, booze was way unappealing to me, and drunken guys trying to hit on me were f*cking annoying. Yeah, you could argue that I had the soul, heart and mind of an eighty-years-old granny in a body of a twenty-two-years-old university girl that swore a little too much, but I couldn't care less. I wouldn't give up on my cosy blanket and a good Netflix show for anything.

Well, 'anything' was debatable. Luke's first gig, for example, was one of the exceptions (if not the only one, actually).

5 Seconds of Summer was a recently-formed band, made up of a bunch of Aussies (Luke included) that coincidentally happened to attend the same university and found out entirely by chance that they could all play instruments, notwithstanding what their majors were (for instance, there was this guy, Ashton, who was majoring in psychology but he was an ace playing the drums). Initially, the band was a trio. Luke, Michael and Calum practised at least thrice a week in a little rehearsal space ten blocks from university and occasionally uploaded covers to YouTube. A few months after they had set up the band, they met Ashton and BOOM—5 Seconds of Summer was complete.

As the main vocal, Luke was at the centre of the stage with the microphone in his hands, eyes set on me. He threw a smile my way every now and then, and my stomach turned a somersault every time our eyes met because I knew that those smiles were meant only for me.

"Oh, please. Can't the both of you hook up or something?" The voice of my friend, loud enough to be heard over 5SOS's music, stopped my train of thought as if someone had just pulled the breaks. When I turned to her, Erin –whose fingers were intertwined with those of her boyfriend– was staring at me intently. "It's annoying, really, with all the sexual tension and everything."

I almost spat out the Coca-Cola. "Wh-what?"

Her boyfriend cackled—at me, of course. "Stop it or you'll freak her out."

Erin groaned in discontent and he placed a chaste kiss on her mouth. How long was it since I had been kissed? Ah, damn it, who cares... Wait, had seven months passed already?!

"Were we like these two before, babe?" She asked, placing her head atop his shoulder.

"Hmm, I don't think so. After that bloody party at Evans'—"

"Hey!" Erin complained and elbowed him. He didn't even flinch. "Don't you dare to insult that party! You met me there."

"And I'm glad about that, babe. But the hangover lasted for at least five days."

I suppressed a laugh.

"Well, you're right, though."

"About the hangover?"

"No, you idiot." She was certainly endearing. "About us. I mean, it escalated quite quickly after we met, right?"

I had heard the story about a million times and while yes, it did escalate quite quickly, they were nothing like Luke and me because, even if I didn't like it, we weren't lovers-in-process—we were just friends.

Erin's boyfriend nodded in response and, in less than a second, they were making out as if tomorrow would never come. My attention drifted back to Luke's spot. His mouth was so close to the microphone that he practically seemed to be about to eat it—and I could have laughed, hadn't he been singing the verse with such a passion that I thought I was going to be knocked down from my chair.