Chapter 6: Issue In The Making

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Calum awoke to the sound of soft snores as he flutters his eyes open, expecting rays of sunshine to greet him but instead he was greeted by grey clouds looming over the city, and a patch of brunette half blocking his view. He looked down, seeing that Elena and he were locked in an embrace. Not wanting to wake her up, he admires at her features. 

Strands of her golden brown hair sprawled on her olive skin, her dark eyelashes loomed shadowed over her cheeks and her almost pale red lips slightly open, releasing soft snores. He slowly unwraps from their embrace and grabs his jacket and shoes from the floor. He quietly exits the room.

His phone buzzed from his jacket pocket as he pulls it out it was a series of texts and missed calls from his bandmates. They were supposed to get to the studio for a final soundcheck in an hour for the first show in Osaka, Japan in two days.

"Fuck." Calum sighed as he sat down on the settee to type up a quick reply that he was on his way. He put on his shoes and his jacket and headed for the door. But as soon as he got a hold of the knob, he remembered Elena. He didn't want to leave right after Elena let him stay. He trudged back to the room where Elena was asleep and lightly shook her awake.

"Elena." Calum whispers. Elena flutters her eyes open after a few moments to be greeted by a sight of Calum hovering over her. "Calum?"

"Yeah. Um, I got to go. I didn't want to leave without saying thanks." Calum says as Elena sat up, rubbing her eyes. "For what?"

"For letting me stay last night." Calum replies. "You're welcome." Elena says to him. They stare at each other awkwardly for a little while before Elena looked away, "Um, you should go. People are probably looking for you." Elena's lips form a thin line.

"Yeah. I'll um, I'll see you around." Calum says as he walks out of the room.

Was this it? Was this the last time Elena going to see him? She highly doubts that she will see him again in the near future. She needed to see him, again. Without a second thought, she jumps off bed and hurries behind Calum, who was almost out the door. "Calum, wait!"

Calum turns almost swiftly. Elena locks eyes with him for a moment, before grabbing his phone. Calum looks at her, stunned. She saves her number in it and hands it back to Calum. "I, um, I really, um, I would like to," Elena stutters. Calum wanted to protest against what she was going to say, but he kept quiet.

"I like you, Calum." Elena blurted out. "And, I know this is weird, or might not even happen. But I don't want to leave it to chance to see you again or talk to you again." There was a lump in her throat, from all this nervousness. "Just, say something, please." Elena's hazel eyes searched Calum's. Searching for some kind of emotion.

"Um, I, don't know what to say. I just got out of a relationship. And meeting you, and ending up here, I didn't expect, honestly. I just, I don't want to lead you on." Calum says to her. "But I'll see you around." Calum continues before heading out, closing the door.

--

Calum arrives at his place and heads off to shower. He took off his clothes, the intoxication from alcohol smelled of  it. He takes a much needed shower and changes his clothes. He takes a look at his phone again and disregards the messages from his manager and bandmates. He was annoyed that they kept bugging him when he said that he was already on his way. 

He locks his apartment and drives off to the studio. Upon arriving, he was greeted by his bandmates, his manager and a crowd. "Let's do this." Ashton says as he puts down his drink and sat down behind his drum kit. Calum walks towards where his bass was set up. "Dude, where were you?" Luke whispers to him.

"Doesn't matter. Let's just get this over with." Calum shrugs Luke off. As the three other boys exchanges a worried look. 

The day went on very quickly, their rehearsal finished. Calum sat on the couch, staring off into the distance. "Cal?" Michael lightly slaps Calum's shoulder. "Hm?" He suddenly faces Michael. "Matt's asking for you." Michael says as he turns to their manager who was by the door, signaling them to talk outside.

Calum stands up and walks out with their manager. "Look Matt, I'm sorry I was late earlier. I had a-"

"Yeah I know about your night out. What I don't know about is this," Matt cuts him off, handing him a printed article that had a headline; "Is Calum Hood moving on or  cheating on?" And underneath was a photo of him walking out Elena's apartment building, from earlier. How did the media knew where he was?

"What the hell, where-"

"Keep reading." His manager insists.

Five Seconds of Summer's career seems to be moving on due to the release of Youngblood, their third studio album, topping number one on the Billboard charts, past Beyoncé and Jay Z! Although that might not be the case for the band's bassist, Calum Hood. 

Earlier this week, it was revealed by an insider that Calum Hood and Bailey Powell has called it quits. However, the reason was not stated. Not until a rumor came flying around that there was cheating involved. But from whom?

Today, media has spotted the She Looks So Perfect singer exiting an apartment building Downtown L.A after a night out with himself. And also earlier this week, witnesses saw him enter a hospital with a mysterious girl. 

So the question remains, was the relationship caused by Hood's infidelity?

Calum's blood boils  as he reads every word in that paper. "This is bullshit. Do you believe this?" Calum says, enraged. "No, I didn't read it. I had our publicist print it out. I wanted to hear the truth out of you. What really happened, Calum? What happened last night? Where were you?" His manager babbles on questions. 

"I met this girl at the bar, where we celebrated the release of Youngblood. And this girl passed out on me, I took her to the hospital and back to my place because her place was in Downtown LA-"

"Where you were last night?" 

"Yes. But we'll get to that."

"We slept in the same bed. Bailey came over the next morning, thinking we did it. She wouldn't hear me and she broke up with me. I went to the girl's apartment in Downtown LA, to drop off medicine the doctor prescribed her and I got into a fight-"

"You got into a fight? With who?!" 

"Not important. And we talked, and that's it. Last night I was so drunk I didn't even know where I was going. I ended up at hers. But we didn't do it. I swear to God, Matt. That's the whole truth." Calum finishes his story. "You need to talk it out with  Bailey. Clear this up." 

"I tried. She doesn't want to. I'm already a cheating scum to her, and the whole world!" Calum sighs, helplessly. "And this girl, what's her name?"

"Elena. Elena Vonbraunsberg." 

"This is going to be a larger issue. Media is going to be adding two plus two and come up with five. We need a distraction." 

"Isn't the tour enough? How about releasing Youngblood?" 

"This has been the first issue about your romantic life ever since Nia Lovelis. They're gonna want to dip in to this juicy drama." Matt says to him. "What do you suggest we do?" Calum asks. 

"I'm going to have to talk to our publicist about that. For the meanwhile, get ready. Get ready for tour, Calum." Matt says, patting his shoulder and walks off.

How could he focus on tour when all of this was happening to him? 

His phone buzzes as he pulls it out, 

Who is Elena Vonbraunsberg? Meet the mysterious girl behind Calum Hood's infidelity. 

"Fucking hell." 


//


ayeeee it's 2019 in a few hours and I go back to uni in 16 hours AJDKSLSJKHK I don't want to leave home yet )):


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