Wasted Opportunities

Chapter 23

Luke's POV

“Luuuukkeeee. Luke! LUKE!” I raise my eyes from my phone reluctantly. Calum has perched on the end of my bunk and is looking at me hopefully with his best puppy eyes.

“What...?” I ask slowly. “What do you want?”

“Advice,” he said, bringing his legs up onto the bed and hugging his knees. “You know Flavia? She's really – I feel – I mean, don't you think – ” He stuttered, unable to tell me what I knew everyone had already figured out.

“Come on Calum, spit it out. We all know you like her.”

“What?” His eyes widened, and he bit his lip, embarrassed. “Was I really that obvious?”

“Kinda,” I confessed. “I don't think she noticed, though. She's cool, you guys would be cute together.”

“Thanks, dude,” he said, relaxing a bit. “So, what do you think I should do?”

“I don't know, I mean we've only just met her, but we're going to see a lot more of her, so you've got plenty of time to make your move.” I winked at him, knowing how flirty he liked to be sometimes. “Use the Calum Hood charm on her.”

“Thanks, bro,” he said, reaching over to pull me into a hug. “Yeah, she'll fall in love with me in no time.”

“If she hasn't already, with your famous good looks,” I teased. He smiled knowingly, and jumped off the bunk. I shook my head, amused, and jumped up to follow him downstairs.

Flavia and the two other members of her group were on a different bus with the other support acts, none of whom we had really talked to yet, so it was just Emily, Maddy and Jojo in the lounge, laughing about something that had once happened to Emily and Maddy at school. Calum flung himself on the sofa next to them, and peered out of the window at the back of the room, which gave him a view of the road behind us.

“What are you doing?” asked Jojo suspiciously.

“Nothing,” he replied, blushing and sitting back down. “Is, uh – is Flavia in that bus behind us?”

“Yeah, I think so,” said Emily. “I was texting her earlier, she was wondering if she could come over and hang with us after we've stopped for lunch?” We had driven through the rest of the night, but we weren't allowed into the hotel until that afternoon, so we had slowed down the day by stopping for breakfast, and we were planning to stop for lunch soon.

“Yeah, that sounds great,” said Calum eagerly.

“Tell her she'd be very welcome,” I added. “Very welcome indeed,” I mumbled under my breath, wiggling my eyebrows at Calum. He leaned over and punched me in the shoulder.