best friend | 5sos

#29

"I am seeing my parents again I am so excited." Lexi clapped her hands together as she followed Luke and Ashton out of the gate. There were a few girls that spotted them, but Luke and Ashton were like two walls on each side of Lexi so she felt pretty safe. She wrapped her hands around Ashton's arm, holding on to feel even more secure.

She looked through the crowd to see her parents, together with all the other parents of the boys from 5 Seconds of Summer. "Mum!" Lexi yelled, dropping her hands from on Ashton's arm, rushing over to her and giving her a hug. "I missed you guys so much." She said, feeling her father's arms wrap around her as well. "We missed you too sweetie." Lexi's mother said.

After a few seconds longer, they broke apart the hug and saw all the boys hugging their mother. It didn't take Joy, Calum's mother, long to spot Lexi. "Hi Lexi." She smiled, holding out her arms for Lexi to rush in to. "Hi Joy." Lexi said, smiling wide. She loved Joy too much to not be friendly to her, even though Calum basically hated her.

Calum stood next to them for a second and then turned around, staring at Lexi's parents. He said a polite hello and then walked back to his bandmates, whispering something in Luke's ear. Luke looked over his shoulder to Lexi and nodded, whispering something back.

"Let's go to Luke's house, Liz has a nice lunch prepared." Luke's father then said, making the boys cheer, food was really the only thing they could think about most of the time. Ashton met up with Lexi and laid his arm across her shoulders. "Go easy on yourself, will you?" He smiled. Lexi stopped walking and nodded, staring in to his eyes. "I will, thank you so much for everything this past week." Lexi sighed.

The past week had been shows all over Australia. Everywhere except Sydney, her home. She felt better the second she stepped out of the airport. But the underlying hurt of Calum was something she took everywhere she went. Ashton had been the best ever, helping her through hard times.

They had shared a few more rooms and bonded even more.

Ashton broke Lexi our of her thoughts by wrapping his arms around her. "Stop saying thank you, I know you're thankful." Ashton chuckled. "I just am so thankful." Lexi laughed, wrapping her arms around his waist, she placed a quick kiss on his cheek before they looked up to see they were a little too far behind their parents and friends, so they quickly continued walking again. Lexi had also taken a short week-long break from Instagram. She needed it and was also pretty happy to not have the continuous urge of checking to see who liked her pictures.

"Where's dad?" Lexi asked her mother who was together with the boys and their mothers, except Ashton's mother, waiting. "They are just getting the cars." Joy replied. Lexi nodded, grabbing her bag and taking a cigarette out of it. Lexi's mother gave her a disapproving look so Lexi shrugged and walked over to Ashton who stood on the other side of their little crowd checking his phone, which he immediately put away when Lexi walked over.

Ashton smiled and wrapped his arm around Lexi's shoulder. "Mum doesn't like the smoke does she." He smirked, looking over to Lexi's mother that was already deep in conversation with Joy. Lexi chuckled and laid her head on Ashton's shoulder for a second. She picked it up again and continued smoking, looking for an ashtray. It stood a few feet away so she walked away shortly and came back to Luke, Michael and Calum getting in to their own cars with their parents.

Ashton's mother appeared pretty soon after so Ashton said he'd see her in a few. Last was Lexi's father. Lexi got in the car with her parents and they drove off to Luke's house, where his mother had a big lunch prepared.

Tonight, the Sydney show was planned, tomorrow, they had a free day, the day after tomorrow, they were going to fly to Canada. So Lexi needed to make the decision tomorrow, if she was going to stay in Sydney or go with the boys on the rest of the tour. She knew that it was a tough decision but it was one she needed to make.

She was sad that if she decided to continue with the tour, she would see her parents for only one short day. But if she decided to stay home, it meant saying goodbye to Ashton, Michael and Luke, who she had gotten so close to the past two weeks.

"You're quiet, Lexi." Her mother said from the front of the car, Lexi looked up, "yeah, sorry, just a lot on my mind." She replied, looking outside and seeing the familiar sights of Sydney that she had missed like crazy. "We can talk about it later today, sweetie." Her mother assured her.

The rest of the drive was pretty nice, Lexi told her parents all the things that were fun on tour and they seemed to really enjoy her stories. After another ten minutes, they showed up in front of Luke's house and parked next to the other few cars, they were the last ones to get to the house.

Once they entered the house, the smell of soup and the sounds of fun chatting filled Lexi's senses, she smiled, this was everything she needed right now. She walked in to the cozy living room and smiled, "Lexi!" Crystal jumped up, giving Southy back to Michael and rushing over to Lexi to give her the biggest hug she could give. Lexi smiled and held on to Crystal. "We're getting coffee tomorrow, just so you know." Lexi nodded, excited to get coffee with Crystal to catch up and tell her what's been going on.

"Mum, dad, this is Crystal, Michael's girlfriend and one of my best friends." Lexi told her parents. They all said hello to each other and then went over to the living room, where enough chairs and couches were for everybody to sit. Lexi sat in between her father and Ashton. 

"You can all get the food like a little buffet from the kitchen." Liz told them, walking in to the living room with her apron on. The boys immediately got up to get their food, making Crystal and Lexi chuckle. They followed shortly after.

"So, are you okay? You've been a little unreachable the past week." Crystal asked whilst pouring some soup in to a bowl. "Yeah, I'm fine, I guess. Just been a little more present and less behind a phone screen." Lexi said. "Look, Michael told me about what happened, I just need to know, you're not thinking about leaving tour, right?" She asked, stopping with grabbing food and turning to look at Lexi.

She bit her lip and looked down. "I'm sorry, I just don't know what to do." Lexi sighed. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, go enjoy being with your parents for now." Crystal said, realising that bringing it up right now was maybe not the best idea. Lexi nodded and walked in to the living room again, sitting down next to Ashton who showed her a smile before continuing his chat with his mother.

Lexi knew this was going to be a very hard decision, but it was a decision she had to make.