Nothing says ‘I drank way too much last night’ better than feeling physically incapable of getting out of bed the next morning. I would know—that’s the sate I was currently in. However, I knew I had to get up eventually, and to be honest, it would probably be better to do so sooner rather than later. So, with a groan of pain due to the pounding in my head, I rolled over and sat up at the edge of the bed. I pressed a hand to my temple and sat still for a moment, trying to decide whether or not I would be seeing the alcohol and other things I ate yesterday a second time. When a few minutes passed without any nausea, I let a small smile tilt my lips upwards and slowly stood up. That removed the smile from my face really quickly. It was as if the mere upwards movement of my body had angered all the tiny little construction workers milling about in my head, causing them to lift their hammers and start banging on whatever they could find.
“Aspirin.” I muttered, making my way out of the bedroom, down the hall, and into the bathroom that Megan, Taryn, and I were sharing. I jumped when the pile of clothes on the floor moved. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that it wasn’t a pile of clothes, but Taryn. She let out a pained groan.
“Turn the light off.” She grumbled. I apologized quietly, grabbing the small bottle of aspirin and exiting the room, flipping the switch as I did so.
It took me a minute to locate where the cups were in the kitchen (second cupboard from the left end, by the way), but once I did, I downed the aspirin as quickly as I could. It didn’t take long, however, for me to feel tired again, and I found myself shuffling over to the couch and flopping down onto it. I was asleep within minutes.
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“I can’t believe he tweeted that. I just—oh, God.” I groaned for around the fifth time since we arrived back at Megan’s house. Megan merely giggled at me, clearly not at all sympathizing with my predicament. The tweet in question, one might ask?
@Luke5SOS: Got an interesting call from @DaeLight5SOS…. And here’s the pic that came with it pic.twitter.com/Ha134……
I glared at the picture for a moment longer before a smile started forming on my lips. The picture was a grainy, black-and-white one of me shoveling ice cream into my mouth.
“See? I told you it was funny!” Megan exclaimed as soon as she saw the grin on my face. I rolled my eyes at her and let out a short laugh.
“I just can’t believe I ate all that ice cream. And called Luke on top of that! I don’t even remember talking to him!” I said, throwing my arms up for extra measure. Taryn entered the room, brushing out the tangles from her wet hair.
“At least you didn’t wake up on the bathroom floor cuddling the bath towels.” She remarked. Both Megan and I laughed at that. After a momentary pause in which all three of us were busy looking at our phones (I was making the photo my twitter icon because I felt like it), I looked up at the girls.
“I should probably get home. You know—school tomorrow and everything.” I said, making a face. Taryn sighed.
“Yeah. Me too. I’ll drive you, Dae.” She said. I nodded before standing up and giving Megan a quick hug.
“See you tomorrow!”
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The entire school week sucked. Not only were the boys not there, but their absence had gained the attention of seemingly everyone else as well. The three of us were suddenly surrounded by people who we’d never spoken to before, being asked questions about the band we didn’t exactly have answers to.
It was especially bad when girls came up to us, asking if we could give the boys their numbers. I hadn’t even realized that these last few weeks had upped 5 Seconds of Summer’s fan base so drastically. It was only really confirmed when he called me on Wednesday to tell me that he’d reached 100 thousand followers on twitter. It was all a bit surreal, if I’m being completely honest. Megan, Taryn, and I had spent an entire lunch period on YouTube, watching the various videos people had posted. I couldn’t help but watch Luke and only Luke in every single video. He looked so happy to be doing what he was doing.
However, with the good also came the bad.
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Sunday night. The official halfway point in Luke’s absence. I smiled as I crossed my room to get my phone from the desk. My eyes widened when I realized I’d received over thirteen calls in the past two hours. It was only ten at night here, and I’d only just gotten back from hanging out with the girls, so I assumed it wasn’t Megan or Taryn. And Luke and I had set up a time for a call—which was to take place in a little over a half hour from now, so it couldn’t have been him. I unlocked my phone and pulled up the list of missed calls. Seven from Ashton, four from Calum, and two from Michael. But none from Luke. I felt my stomach drop slightly at the thought. Why would the boys call me so many times with different phones, but not Luke’s? I found myself pressing the call button next to Ashton’s name before the thought even finished going through my mind. He answered almost immediately.
“Thank God! Please tell me you’ve talked to Luke already.” Ashton’s worried tone immediately made me worried as well.
“Ash, what’s going on? No, I haven’t talked to him. But you’re with him, so why haven’t you?” The pitch of my voice went higher with every sentence I spoke.
“That’s the problem. He just up and left a few hours ago and nobody knows where he went!” I had to sit down before I wore a hole in the floor due to my pacing.
“What do you mean he just left? Why’d you let him go off on his own like that?” I demanded.
“He always goes off on his own when he’s going to call you! That’s what we assumed he was doing!” Ashton’s tone matched mine, the frustration and anger from having been searching for his best friend and bandmate for the past few hours coming through. I took a deep breath to calm my now racing heart before I spoke again.
“Do you know why he left?” I asked. I heard the phone shuffle around a moment before a new voice spoke.
“Hi, Daeyna?” It was Calum. “Yeah. He left his phone here, but I know the passcode to it. Some news site posted a picture of the article about him and Kylee. It’s all over twitter, Dae. And the things people are saying—“
“Everyone on this damn site is an idiot! Fuck!” Michael’s voice sounded in the background, but I wasn’t really paying attention to the phone anymore. I had set it down moments ago in order to open my laptop and pull up twitter. The boys were right. The article was everywhere. And insults were being thrown in every direction.
“Daeyna?” I picked up the phone, noticing how shaky my hands had become in the last minute.
“You need to call Taryn and Megan. I shouldn’t be on the phone. What if he calls me—“
“Cal and Mike just talked to them. They should be at your house soon.” Ashton said. No more than sixty seconds later, a knock sounded on my window. I stood up immediately and rushed over to it, pulling back the blinds and whipping it open.
“They’re here!” I said to Ashton. “Call one of their phones. I’ve gotta keep mine open in case he calls.” I didn’t let Ash reply before I hung up. I stepped back to allow the two girls into my room. As soon as both had finished hopping down from my desk, the three of us wrapped our arms around each other in a tight group hug. Taryn’s phone was the one that began to ring. She answered it immediately.
“Yeah, hey. No, he hasn’t called either of us.” She said into the receiver on her phone. “I don’t know! Well, yeah. Hold on.” Taryn pulled the phone from her ear and turned to me. “When did you last talk to Luke?” She asked.
“On Wednesday. He had reached 100 thousand followers on Twitter and was so excited about it.” I said, my voice shaking slightly. Megan wrapped her arm around my shoulders and pulled me in for another hug.
“They’ll find him, Dae.” She said gently. I nodded, but I still couldn’t help but be worried.
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My arm hurts. That was the thought that woke me up. I realized, upon opening my eyes, that the reason for this was that both of Taryn’s legs were laying across my arm, probably cutting off circulation or something. I was in the process of gently maneuvering myself from beneath her when I heard my phone begin to ring. Without pausing to consider trying not to wake the other girls up, I flung Taryn’s legs to the side and scrambled over to my phone.
The screen flashed the time at me in the moments before I answered the call from an unknown number. 3:16 in the morning. Meaning I’d only been asleep for around 30 minutes. Taryn let out a groan, sitting up as I answered the call.
“Hello?” My voice sounded breathless and a bit hoarse from the crying I’d done earlier when we’d gone on four hours with no word from Luke.
“Daeyna?” I could have cried when I heard Luke’s familiar voice speak my name. Actually, I did cry a little.
“Oh, God. Luke!” I breathed out. Taryn’s eyes widened in shock. She sent a whack to Megan’s shoulder before whipping out her phone. “Luke, where are you? Are you okay? Why didn’t you call earlier? God, I was so—“
“Daeyna, I’m sorry I worried you. I just—the article was everywhere and people were saying such awful things. I’m sorry.” He said, his voice breaking a little.
“Worried?” I asked incredulously. “Luke, I wasn’t just worried. I was terrified! You’re in another country—one you don’t know that well, and you just fell off the face of the planet! You don’t get to be just sorry. I—where are you? Everyone is freaking out.” I was practically yelling by the time I finished speaking.
“I’m walking into the hotel—“
“Lucas Robert Hemmings!” Liz’s voice rang out loud and clear in the background moments before the line went dead. I turned to Taryn and Megan, both of whom were looking at me with expectant expressions on their faces.
“He’s back at the hotel.” I informed them just as my phone lit up with another call. It was Ashton. I answered the call, putting him on speaker phone so the girls could hear it as well.
“He’s back, Dae!” Ashton’s relieved voice spoke before I even had the chance to say hello. “Liz took him up to her room, and I can hear a bit of yelling going on from both sides. Calum is listening in as best as he can, so I’ll let you know what happened as soon as I know.” I sighed, letting out a yawn.
“Okay, Ash. Thank you. But honestly, I really don’t want to know what Liz says. If he wants to tell me, then fine, but let him do it.” Ash was silent for a moment.
“He’s really lucky to have you in his life, Daeyna.” He said finally. I smiled softly, even though he couldn’t see it.
“Damn right he is.”
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Oh god, don't hate me. This chapter is extremely overdue, and for that I am eternally sorry! Life got busy because school started up, and I have 18 credits, PLUS three extracurricular groups I'm in! So updates may not be super on-time, but they won't be as late as this one is. I love you all and I hope you didn't give up on Bully!
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Bully // l.h. // Book 1 of Bully Series
Fanfiction(I'm editing this. Slowly, but it's being edited)
