COLLIDE ✰ BLAKE RICHARDSON

XI.

XI.

After the show, The Vamps boys invited everyone to hang out in their dressing room until it was time to board the tour buses. Leah had spent the duration of the gig feeling extremely confused by what happened between her and Blake earlier. If George hadn't interrupted them, what would have happened?

All she could think about was the contract, though. She wasn't allowed to enter any public relationships with any of her tourmates. Although she didn't know what would actually happen if she did, it was a risk that Leah didn't really want to take. She'd worked so hard to be part of this tour and was gaining so much success from it since the boys' fans were all so wonderful.

The stupid contract wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for Blake...

"What's wrong, Leah?" Brad asked from next to her, noticing how she was acting distant.

The brunette looked over at him and faked a smile, "Nothing, why?"

"It looks like there's something on your mind," he replied, tilting his head as if he was analyzing her features.

Leah just brushed him off, "Nope, I'm all good. Just tired."

"Okay, if you say so."

"I'm hungry," Connor said from across the room, causing Leah to look up at him and laugh. He was always hungry.

"Yeah, I could go for some food right now," Reece agreed, sitting up from his position on the couch. "Why don't we order something?"

"DOMINOS!" Connor shouted almost immediately. The rest of the singers erupted into laughter at his eagerness. He really loved his Dominos.

"Okay, fine. I'll order it," James huffed and reached for his phone. "But I'm getting something else for me and George."

The thing was — no one realized that they weren't at a house, they were at a literal arena, until George mentioned it right before James said the order into the phone. Luckily, Joe had already gone out to get some stuff so he said he could pick the food up for them.

The rest of them carried on chit-chatting until there was a knock at the door. "Open the bloody door before I drop these stupid boxes!" Joe's voice called out from the hallway. Connor sprang up and ran over to the door, nearly tripping over the rug in the process. He grabbed the boxes from an aggravated Joe with a cheeky smile and ran back to where everyone was sitting.

The singers hadn't realized how hungry they actually were until the pizza was in front of them — they finished all of it within not even ten minutes. Except for Blake, who hadn't taken a bite out of his piece. Leah noticed but didn't know what to say. It wasn't like she could just carry on a normal conversation with him after what just happened right before the show.

Luckily for the both of them, a certain Bradley Will Simpson sure did know what to say. He wasn't oblivious, he could tell that something had happened between the two of them. He just figured they needed a little push to actually talk to each other; so, he gave them that push.

Standing up abruptly, Brad cleared his throat, "I need help with one of my acoustics, the strings got messed up. Blake and Leah, you guys will know better than anyone. Can you come to my dressing room for a minute?"

The two teenagers avoided eye contact with each other at all costs, but listened to Brad and followed him out the door. The tension between them had gotten even worse as the night went on.

Once the three of them had reached The Vamps' dressing room, Brad led them over to the corner of the room. "Wait, stay here. I have to go get it," he said before quickly leaving the room. With a smirk, he locked the door from the outside, meaning that they couldn't leave until someone unlocked it other than themselves.

Confused, Leah turned around and was startled when she heard the door slam shut. "Hey! Brad!" She called, walking over to the exit. She jiggled the handle and scowled when she realized it was locked. "Asshole."

"I'm not unlocking this until you guys sort out whatever the fuck is going on between you two. And don't tell me there's nothing going on because there obviously is. I'm pretty sure even the crew can tell by now."

Leah opened her mouth to protest but the sound of Brad's boots walking away made her give up on talking back. Sighing, she turned back to face the boy she was now locked in a tiny room with and who she'd almost kissed just hours beforehand. Blake was sitting down on an armchair, his head in his hands. Neither of them wanted to speak. What were you even supposed to say after something like that happened? Or, rather, almost happened?

Leah sat down on the couch across from Blake, drumming her fingers on her thigh. She watched from the corner of her eye as he ran his fingers through his hair. He really was cute.

They remained in painfully awkward silence for a couple more minutes until finally Leah just couldn't take it anymore. "Okay, are we going to talk or what? We can't just keep ignoring each other like this."

Blake looked up at her. "I honestly don't know what to say," he replied.

"Yeah, me neither. God, I'm gonna kill Brad. I swear. He needs to stop trying to play matchmaker," Leah shook her head, standing up from her seat and walking over to the vanity. She fiddled with the random junk on the countertop boredly.

"Hey, we should do something to get back at him," Blake said, eyeing the various objects strewn across the wooden surface. "I have an idea."

Walking over to the MacBook sitting on the edge of the vanity, Blake grabbed the thin device and brought it over to the couch. He motioned for Leah to come to sit down next to him, and she was confused but also very intrigued. Honestly, she was just happy that the awkwardness between them had seemed to fade away. They were back to their normal bantering selves, and Leah was glad.

Blake grinned as he opened Brad's laptop and Leah could tell he had a good prank in mind, but his expression quickly turned into a frown when it asked him to enter a password. Furrowing his brows, he bent over the keyboard, trying to think of what it could be.

"Try Jesse," Leah suggested. He typed it in and the laptop almost immediately unlocked itself.

"Wow, that was just too easy," Blake laughed, scanning for the music program he knew Brad used often. Once he found it, he opened it and the two of them sat in silence as it booted up. Hopefully, Brad wouldn't be coming back for a while, since if he caught them they would actually be in for it.

The app finally opened and Blake looked through the saved files quickly. When he found the song he was looking for, he made a copy of it and then proceeded to delete the file. Leah's eyes widened once she realized what he was doing. Poor Brad was going to flip out if he realized that the song was gone, even though it wasn't technically deleted. She felt a little bit bad, but he was the one who'd basically kidnapped her and Blake and locked them in an enclosed space together so he did eventually have it coming.

"Okay, now he's going to think he didn't save it but it's actually still going to be saved, just under a stupid name. What should we call it?" The boy turned to the girl sitting next to him, who looked up at him with mischievous eyes.

"I think 'Stop trying to set us up, Bradley' has a nice ring to it, don't you agree?"

"That's perfect. Okay, it's done."

Just then, footsteps could be heard walking down the hallway. Blake quickly shut the laptop and put it back where it was before, trying to make it seem like they didn't do anything.

"I'm unlocking the door now, you can stop making out. That's not a request, by the way, I really don't need to see that after I just ate like four pieces of pizza."