Clarity ~ m.c.

•Chapter 11•

After school I headed over to Ashton's house to watch the guys rehears. As I walked up Ashton's driveway I could see them tuning their instruments and I could hear them laughing about something. Michael was bent down plugging cords into an amp. He was wearing a white Blink 182 tank top, black skinny jeans and had a black snapback on so you could only see the ends of his red-dyed hair. I loved the color of his hair, it was vibrant and out there which is why I like it and the same reason why I dye my hair. It was the first time I've seen him in a few days, I wonder if he was still annoyed with me about our pathetic argument.

"Hey Lauren!" Calum called for me waving for me to come closer. At the sound of my name Michael shot up turning around to face me. He didn't seem annoyed; in fact a big smile grew across if face as I walked closer, it felt like weights were lifted off my shoulders at the sight of this. Maybe there was hope to fixing our friendship. When I finally reached the open garage door Calum gave me a big bear hug practically crushing me.

"Long time no see!" Ashton smiled and gave me a big hug as well.

"Yeah I've been busy trying to get into a routine of balancing gymnastics practice with school." I said trying not to make it seem like I wasn't really talking or hanging out with them because I was ignoring Michael. I looked over at Michael and he kept his eyes on mine the whole time.

"But Luke said that you guys were going to be rehearsing and that I should come over." I quickly added breaking eye contact with Michael, and probably blushing slightly that we kept it for so long.

"Yeah, you can come over any time!" Ashton said.

"We were actually about to get started." Luke added.

"Here you can sit here." Ash said brushing off an extra speaker box that was against the way. "Sorry there aren't any chairs we're in the midst of moving things around and-"

"Ash its fine" I laughed taking a seat on the speaker box he pulled out and they continued to get ready to rehears.

"Why don't we start with Too Late?" Calum suggested and they nodded in agreement; Michael and Luke quickly changed to acoustic guitars, while Calum grabbed his bass and Ash sat on another speaker box, that sounded hollow when he tapped it and was decorated with black duck tap spelling out "Ash" across the box.

"Why are you using those instruments?" I asked referring to why they were practicing like an acoustic set.

"Noise complaints." Luke sighed while rolling his eyes.

"Some of the other neighbors don't like the idea of an up and coming band practicing at any time of day." Ashton said.

"But what about when you have a gig or something?" I questioned.

"We still practice with them just not as often as these." Calum explained and I nodded in understanding.

"We have a gig tomorrow night so tomorrow before we leave for the show we'll practice with all our main instruments." Calum added.

"Where's your show tomorrow?" I asked.

"I don't know the name of the place Michael booked it." Luke said. "What's the name of the place Mike?"

"Annandale Hotel" Michael replied.

"Right. Yeah we've played there before. Our first gig was there actually." Calum said.

"Yeah and only twelve people showed up." Ashton laughed. "Meanwhile Mike tricked me into thinking that there was going to be a couple hundred people."

"Only twelve people showed up." I said shocked.

"Yep, that was the beginning of 5 Seconds of Summer." Luke said.