Beside You~a.i.

Ch. 3: "Him Again?"

~Bailey's POV~:
Ava and I finished taking pictures for the night and walked back to her car. We were passing by the Xcel Energy Center and once again Ashton, the mystery man, was leaning against that light post. "Him again?" Ava mumbled.

"Hey Ashton!" I called out his name and waved when he looked our way. He looked scared again until he recognized us.

"Oh hey you two. I never caught your names earlier, I left before I could ask..."

"Oh I'm Ava and this is Bailey..." Ava motioned towards me when she said my name.

"Well nice to meet both of you. Hey do you want to come meet the rest of the band? I know you aren't serious fans but maybe if you want..." He scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"Um..." Ava looked my way with an eyebrow raised as she spoke.

"Yeah sure." I finally answered him and he relaxed a little, letting out a sigh. Why is he so nervous?

We followed him through security. All of the girls are gone now since the concert is over but you never know if some girls hang around I guess. Then we followed him down long empty hallways until we reached a dressing room.

Ashton went in first to make sure the guys were fully clothed, which is weird, and then he came back out to let us in a few seconds later. Once we walked in all of the boys were shirtless except for Ashton. I held in the gasp that tried to escape my lips. They look good without shirts...just saying.

One of them saw my reaction and blushed, smiling a bit. He was cute. A blonde with blue eyes, and tall. I saw Ava looking at him too.

"Girls this is Michael." Ashton pointed towards a boy with colorful red hair. "This is Calum." Next was a boy who had dark brown hair with a blonde streak, he looked like he had a little Asian ethnicity in him. "And finally Luke." He motioned finally towards the cute blonde one. "And lads these two are Ava," pointing towards my friend, "And Bailey." Finishing by pointing at me.

"Hey." They all said in near unison. It wasn't perfectly on time but it was close.

"Are you guys interviewers or something?" Calum, the Asian looking one, asked quietly.

"No. We are just girls who know a few of your songs." I replied politely. "Ashton thought we were paparazzi." I laughed a little at the memory and Ashton blushed, making me blush.

"Well you do look like the paparazzi even though we're in Minnesota, a pretty unknown state." Michael spoke quickly and shrugged.

"Sorry about that." Ava whispered, barely making a sound. She was still staring at Luke and he was looking at her.

"We better go...we have to get home before 11 or our moms will kill us." I spoke nervously, why? I don't usually get nervous. I grabbed Ava's arm and tried to drag her but she refused.

"Oh come on Bailey we could stay for a little while..." Her eyes were still locked on Luke. He was blushing like crazy.

I rolled my eyes, "Fine. But you're going to explain this to my mom and your's." Then I sat on a small brown couch. Ashton joined me. The nerves surged through me as his hand accidentally brushed my thigh. God I need to calm down. I barely know this guy.

"You okay?" Ashton looked my way with a concerned face. I just nodded.

"So do you guys live around here?" Michael again spoke quickly.

"Um we live about 35-40 minutes away." Ava shrugged. "It's not to far." The guys just nodded.

Luke sat next to Ava on a different couch so Calum and Michael sat next to each other on the third couch in the room. We all sat in awkward silence for what seemed like ages. Then Ava broke that silence.

"So you guys are a band. Who plays what?" She looked around the room with quick glances, as if she was afraid to speak. We all were I guess.

Ashton cleared his throat, "Luke is our lead singer and back-up guitar player, Michael is our main guitar player and sings a little too, and Calum plays the bass and also does a little singing. You guys already know I'm the drummer, and I sing sometimes."

"That's cool. Bailey also sings and plays the guitar." Ava spoke up. Why did she say that? She knows that I hate when people know that because they expect me to play for them and I suck so I don't want to play for people! It's embarrassing...why Ava?!?!

"You do?" Ashton looked at me again with his wondering eyes. He has really pretty eyes...they're hazel...like mine.

"Yeah a little. I'm not any good though." I murmured. Ugh I hate talking about this stuff.

"No you don't Bailey. You're great! Stop being so negative." Ava rolled her eyes at me. And slouched into the couch.

"Would you mind playing for us? You can't be terrible." Now it was Luke who finally spoke but he was really awkward...is he always this way?

"Nah I'm good. Sorry I have a fear of performing in front of people..." I hid my face slightly as I felt 5 pairs of eyes on me...judging me.

"It's alright maybe another time?" Ashton asked softly and patted me on the shoulder. I felt a slight tingling after his hand moved away.

"Maybe...okay Ava we really need to go. My mom is going to kill me...it's almost 11:30. We were supposed to be home a half hour ago." I stood up and grabbed Ava's arm, she moved with me this time.

"Wait before you go here let me get your number so we can stay in touch." Ashton rushed up to me and handed me his phone. I added my number to his contacts and smiled as I handed it back to him. "Thanks now we can hear you sometime! Okay bye guys. If you want we are here for 3 more days until we hit the road again...maybe you can come see us?"

"We would love to!" Ava smiled. "We'll see you soon!" She cooed and made quick eye contact with Luke. She has a crush on him. Big time. I rolled my eyes at her and laughed a little.

"Okay bye mates!" Ashton smiled. The other boys just waved. Ava and I waved back then left the way we had come a while earlier. We need to get home, my mom is seriously going to kill me!
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"Well that was cool." Ava said as she drove us home on the empty highway. "Ashton likes you...I can tell. Well he's at least interested in you. And Luke, he's soooo cute!" I knew she had a crush on him.

"Really? You think Ashton likes me?"

"Yeah. He asked for your number and invited us back. He wouldn't do that if he didn't like you."

"Maybe he just did it because he saw you and Luke exchanging looks."

"Maybe but also because he likes you." She smiled and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel happily.

The rest of the ride was long. We just talked about photography as always. I just tried to focus on getting my mind off the fact that a celebrity might like me. It seems so unreal and it's probably just in Ava's head. Maybe...