The Drumsticks

Chapter 3

I almost scream, but he says,

"Sorry, I didn't want to scare you."

He had a thick Australian accent.

"Yeah, I totally wouldn't be scared if someone came and sat behind."

He chuckled.

"Hey, at least I apologized."

"Not sure that I forgive you, though. I don't even know you."

"I think you do."

He presses his chest into my back. his hands reach around me to hold my wrists. his head rests on my left shoulder; I can see him in my peripheral vision. he wears a black bandana with white detailing.

"Relax." he says. he smells of vanilla and cinnamon, "trust me."

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. he scoots closer to me. The front of his body is now against the back of mine. He starts moving my hands around the set. I soon figured out who he is.

My eyes shoot open.

"You're Ashton Irwin!"

"In the flesh. Took you longer than I thought you would."

"How long did you think it would take me?"

"Not sure, but it takes the usual fans a couple of seconds."

"Well probably because they can see your face, but you know, not all of them have you sneak up behind them." I shift to get up, and he immediately reacts. He let's go of my wrists and gets up abruptly. I stand up and gently set the drumsticks on the stool.

"That's a really nice polish on the sticks." I say, "I have the same polish on mine."

"Thanks." his back to me, "They were a Christmas present."

"From your mum and dad?"

"Santa Clause actually." his head half turns to me.

"Then forgive me because-"

"You said "mum" instead of "mom", why? To make fun of me?"

"What? No! I call my mother "mum" because she's from England. it's out of force of habit, not to make fun of you."

"England, huh? I guess that means that you like them British boys better than you like Aussie boys like me." But I never got to respond.

"Hey Ash, we're about to run sound check." A head pops up, Luke. he looks at me and smiles, "Who's this Ashy?"

I blush.

"No one."

My heart breaks. I turn on my heel and head to the front of the stage. I easily jump down, my feet barely make a sound, and head toward my seat.

"Ashton you idiot." I hear a slam behind me. I keep walking. I almost reach my seat, and the awestruck faces of Rose and Isabella, but before I get there, someone grabs my shoulder and spins me around.

"Hey, sorry. I don't think we've been introduced, I'm Luke Hemmings, lead singer of 5sos." He extends his hand.

"Katie; this is Isabella and Rose." His eyes linger on Rose; he licks his bottom lip and then bits it. he shakes their hands.

"Pleasure. I feel really bad about what just happened; the rest of us aren't like that." He looks at Rose, "I-we-would love it if you came backstage to watch."

You can imagine what our response was. His eyes lit up when Rose said yes, Isabella jumped up and down with happiness, but my eyes were focused just over Luke's right shoulder Ashton was spinning the drumsticks, eyes locked on me. We catch each other's eyes, he laughs and looks away.

"Katie...Katie? Katie!" Luke is waving his hand in my face, "Are you coming? Or are you going to just going to stand there?"

"Sorry! Yes, I'd love to!"

"Cool; follow me."

"Wait!" Rose says, "Won't we get in trouble?"

"For what?" Luke asks, "For having fun? for being a rebel? you were just asked by one of band member 5sos to come backstage; right now, you can do whatever the hell you want!"

We raise our eyebrows at him.

"Look," he says, "I feel bad about how much of a douche Ash was, I hope I didn't ruin anything, but I haven't seen him since..."

His voice fades.

"Since who?" Isabella asks.

"I'm not really one to tell you." He says, "And we're out of time, and I got to go do sound check; go to Jim, tell him I set you for the back stage passes."

He winks at Rose and runs up the steps, skipping two at a time.