COLLIDE ✰ BLAKE RICHARDSON

III.

III.

Leah locked her phone and set it down on the couch next to her. Marie's text replayed over and over through her head. She hadn't even remembered reading anything about dating in the tour contract she'd signed, she was just so excited about getting invited that she honestly didn't even remember what the contract said at all.

She didn't even know why it was bothering her so much — she had just met Reece, Blake, and George, and she hadn't even met any of the Vamps yet. It wasn't like she had already been dating one of them when Marie dropped the bomb, but for some reason, the revelation made her rather upset.

Her eyes traveled over to Blake, who was sat on the couch across from her, messing around on his laptop. He had been so kind to her from the moment they met... and so charming.

Leah sucked her cheek in between her teeth. Snap out of it, She thought. You've only known him for, like, three hours. And... no public relationships, remember?

She forced herself to look away, making herself busy rummaging through her bag yet again. Pulling out a pair of earbuds, she pulled up Spotify on her phone and hit shuffle on James Bay's latest album.

Unintentionally, her eyes began to close and she drifted off into a restless sleep. Apparently, waking up early and being on the road for hours on end can make a girl tired. Every so often, she would be woken up by the laughter and boyish banter between the three new roommates she was now stuck with. Even though she was rather pissed that they kept waking her up and she couldn't sleep peacefully, listening to their odd conversation was kind of enjoyable since they talked about the strangest things.

✰ ✰ ✰

After a while more on the road, the bus finally pulled up to the back entrance of the arena they were playing at that night. Leah gathered her belongings and unplugged her earbuds. The four of them awkwardly shuffled out of the bus, dragging their bags along with them.

Once they were all off, the driver left to go park somewhere, and they stood around waiting for the other busses to arrive. Leah stood in between Reece and George, talking to them about her setlist and asking them about theirs. She explained that Marie had told her to do mainly covers at the beginning since it was her first time touring with the Vamps boys and all. It wasn't exactly what she wanted to do, but she was lucky to have been invited on the tour in the first place, so she couldn't really complain.

They were laughing about one of their earliest covers when Blake wedged himself in between Leah and George, slinging his arms around each of their shoulders. His entire body was basically pressed up against hers, making her stomach explode in butterflies.

That boy sure loved body contact. And flirting. A lot of it, too.

"Hiiiii," Blake nudged her, grinning. There was a look in his eyes that she couldn't quite place.

"Um, hi Blake," Leah laughed nervously, still quite confused.

"Hi, Leah," He mimicked her, squeezing her shoulder slightly and still maintaining eye contact. Leah was sure her face was bright red by now.

George piped up from the other side of Blake, "Oookay, I'm going to leave now. Blake, you're acting well strange."

"It's because he thinks she's pretty," Reece muttered from across from them as if he didn't intend for anyone to actually hear. "Why does he always get to be the flirt?"

Oh, but she heard. Leah heard, and if she thought she was blushing badly before, her cheeks were practically burning off by now.

Reece and George walked off, leaving just the two of them outside. Leah's stomach twisted into a knot as she tried to process what was currently happening. She struggled to find something to say since she was absolutely sure anything that came out of her mouth would have been a stuttering mess.

By some miracle, at that exact moment, the crew bus pulled up to the building. It had barely stopped moving before Marie came flying down the steps, Joe following after her.

"Leah, doll! How are you? How was the ride? How are the boys?" She spewed questions at her. Eyeing Blake's arm, which was still around her shoulders, her filled-in eyebrows raised. "You did read my text, right?"

"Um, yeah, of course I did," Leah replied, taking one last look at the boy next to her before shrugging out of his grip. "I'm okay. The trip was fine. The boys are nice."

"Woah, calm down with all the details," Marie taunted. Leah just rolled her eyes in response. "Oh, where are my manners? Leah, this is Joe, the boys' manager. Joe, this is my client, Leah."

They awkwardly shook hands. She felt bad for him, he clearly wasn't used to Marie's overzealous personality, and by the looks of it, the ride here had been a long one.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go in!" Marie exclaimed excitedly, motioning for the rest of them to follow after her. Joe pulled out his phone and began typing a message before slowly walking behind her, probably trying to avoid getting roped into one of Marie's endless conversations.

Leah began to follow after them before she felt Blake grab ahold of her arm. She spun around, and he let her go before wrapping his arm around her shoulders yet again. "Reece was right," he leaned down to whisper softly in her ear, "I do think you're quite pretty."

✰ ✰ ✰

Once they were all inside, the boys ran upstairs to find their dressing room so they could unload all of their stuff. Leah followed behind them, still feeling spacey after that interaction with Blake.

Reaching the top of the stairs, the four of them came face to face with two doors, already labeled with signs. The door on the left read THE VAMPS, NEW HOPE CLUB and the door to its right read LEAH BRADY.

"That's not fair!" Reece gasped, feigning offense. "Leah gets a room all to herself!"

"She's the only girl, dumbass," George jokingly shoved him on the shoulder.

"Still not fair," the blonde boy pouted.

Leah just shook her head. "You are such a baby," she suppressed her laughter. "Okay, if you guys are done, I'm going to go put all this crap down now."

"Have fun in your very own personal dressing room!"

"Oh, shove it, Bibby," Leah laughed, rolling her eyes at him as she kicked the door open. "See you guys later!"

✰ ✰ ✰

a/n: i was about to publish this before wattpad deleted the entire thing >:((( so this is a rewrite, it's not as good as the original and i'm pissed about it but i hope you guys still like it x

p.s. i made myself squeal writing that last bit