Skybreak [not to be continued]

IX

It was Wednesday, and I was sat in a coffee shop, another one from the huge, faceless chains that kept appearing everywhere. I slowly sipped the addicting hot chocolate in the polystyrene cup that I was grasping with both my gloved hands.

It was a surprisingly cold and icy day, even for the standards of British weather. I'd tried playing and singing outside, but my fingers soon turned blue (as I was unable to play guitar whilst wearing gloves), and all I could hear was the ice-cold gales blowing in my ears: I'd moved indoors temporarily to warm up.

Another gaggle of people flocked indoors, levitating towards the warmth of the coffee, and with them letting in the breeze. I shivered slightly in my seat - as I was near to the door - and my grip tightened on my cup, leaching to the warmth. I was sat at a table designed for more than one, so it was inevitable that soon someone would join me, but I wasn't expecting to see a pair of deep brown eyes, Luke's friend from the train station, seated opposite me when I looked up.

"Oh, hi." He raised his hand to wave to me, as I stared uncomfortably at him. "Um, Luke - you know him, right? And the other dudes are buying drinks. Is it okay if we sit here?"

I carried on staring at him, until it clicked that he'd asked me a question. "Yeah, of course, I wasn't going to sit there anyway..." I rambled on.

"I never got your name, I don't think you told us because Luke just calls you beautiful," I blushed as he looked over at his friend who was chatting to the man serving him. "But I'm Calum, you can just call me Cal or whatever."

"Okay Whatever," I smirked at him, before friendly smiling. "My name is -"

Before I could finish my sentence, the three boys (including Luke) joined us. I looked at them and started again. "Hi, my name's Gray."

The straight haired boy, who looked slightly older than the others spoke. "Yeah, and I'm Blue."

I glared at him, "No, that is actually my name. Do you have a problem with that?"

He laughed, and pulled out a seat to sit in. "Well you're a little dragon, aren't you?"

The voice of the final boy, the one who I had briefly seen yesterday interrupted us. "Shut it Ash, and hey, I'm Mikey." He finished his sentence by combing his fringe away from his eyes where it kept falling.

"Hi guys." I let out a small wave at the four boys sat around the table with me.

The boy, who had originally been rude to me, spoke to me as the others made their own conversation. "So your name is actually Gray?"

I nodded. "My parents are a little abstract when it came to naming me and my brother, well they're a little abstract all the time."

"What's your brother called?" He asked, seeming genuinely interested.

"Coriander, I think it's after my mum's favourite herb."

He stared at me. "Well okay then." He carried on leaving the past conversation to the tumbleweeds. "I'm not very good at first impressions, but I'm Ashton, I don't think I ever told you. I'm the drummer in our band: 5 Seconds Of Summer."

"Ashton." I rolled the word over my tongue. "Bands are cool. Who plays what?"

He took a deep breathe before starting his rant on his fellow band member who's gentle chatting had now ceased as they listened in to our conversation.
"As I said, I play drums: keeping the beat and the rhythm, to keep us going. Luke and Michael both play guitar but Mikey usually takes the harmony line and the chords whereas Luke's just got the riffs and more complex bits. They're both pretty good - I can't play guitar at all. Then there's Cal, he's on bass. Holds us together too, pretty important. And finally, we all sing. Luke's the strongest, vocally but Mikey and Cal aren't far behind."

"What about you?" I asked, noting his lack of information on himself.

"Ash is good, like really good and drumming." Mikey's voice piped up as he was sandwiched between his two friends. "And his vocals are pretty damn good too." The two boys smiled as each other, and just watching these boys showed how closely knitted their relationships with each other were.

I chatted briefly to Luke, and daringly told him why I was here. I didn't go ini detail, I knew I probably couldn't without ending up crying but I did say that my friend had died and I needed to get away from it all. He was here with his band to get some songs written and experience the UK. It was pretty cool, and coincidental, that two individuals who liked music so much had met so often.

The conversation soon died down as each person took up a new topic with someone else. This time I found myself making small talk with Calum.
"Luke really likes you, you know." He spoke quietly, keen not for his friend to hear him. "He's only met you a couple of times, but you seem to be nearly everything he talks about."

I looked over at the blonde boy, captivated by the blue eyes that held my thoughts so often. "Really?" I questioned, and Calum nodded immediately.

"Yeah, he has a serious crush on you - wait, do you like him too? Oh this could be great, our own English love story!"

I blushed, and paused before answering. "He's a good guy, but he's too good for me - he's totally out of my limit. Anyway, I'm just here to play music, and maybe travel around a bit. If you're around, I'd really be interested with meeting up or something?" I drifted off, anxious that I was being to forward.

"No, that's cool. We always like the extra company. Plus Ash doesn't really have anyone his own age." He responded quickly, as I looked at the straight haired boy whose innocent laugh made me wonder how he could be the same age as me, yet so naïve.

I nodded, as Cal waved his hands to halt his friends' conversations to talk about what we had just discussed. As I stared into space, Ash's arm slid around my waist as he talked to me.

"I'm glad you're going to join us in this journey babe: it's going to be one hell of a ride!"