"Alright everybody, welcome back. We're joined here in the studio today by 5 Seconds of Summer, who are here promoting their new album 'CALM'. Welcome Luke, Ashton, Michael, and Calum. Now, how are you all doing this morning? Be honest, are you totally exhausted?"
The boys all mumbled their replies at the same time until Ashton spoke up, "Well we finished our WWJ tour a few days ago, had a night off to rest and then flew straight here after that, so yeah I'd say we're all a bit tired."
"A bit tired?! I don't even know how you're all awake right now what with your crazy schedule and the inevitable jet lag. When was the last time you truly slept?", the host inquired.
"We actually were able to power nap this morning when we arrived at the studio," Luke started before Michael cut him off, "Yeah, and then we got an awesome wake up call consisting of a surprise concert which woke us all right up." The guys all laughed at this, Calum blushing and rubbing the back of his neck as he laughed with them.
"Wake up call? I didn't realize that was a service we provided", the host remarked, looking around for clarification. Back in the editing booth Jess was blushing furiously while Alice looked at her incredulously. "They're not talking about you are they?!", she asked in a loud whisper, "the whole twerking thing was well after they woke up."
"Weeellll, remember when you called to warn me this morning? I was already in the old greenroom. I had started getting set up and was singing, and possibly dancing, before I realized they were in there." Alice just laughed, shaking her head. "Only you", she mused with a smirk on her face.
Jess excused herself to move up into the auxiliary sound booth-which shared a glass wall with the studio-wanting to watch the remainder of the interview up close rather than from the noisy editing suite on the small monitors. As she entered the booth and sat down she caught the tail end of Michael commenting that he "highly recommended it".
'Well that's good, they must be talking about the album now' Jess thought to herself.
"So whoever it was has good taste in music is what you're saying?" the show host said.
'Well damn.'
"Excellent taste", Michael agreed.
"Honestly it was a great way to start the day", Luke chimed in while Calum and Michael whisper-argued in the background, both laughing out loud at what the other was saying. "What's that boys?", Ashton asked, "Don't be shy, say it for the listeners too."
"Oh Calum was just saying how he fancied her," Michael laughed.
"I wAs NoT," Calum retorted, blushing scarlet. "I was just saying how she had a nice voice is all," he mumbled, play punching Michael in the arm.
"No I'm just messing with him, seriously though, he was just saying how he wanted some cake", Michael said, sending the other boys into fits of laughter. "Oh my God, I hate you," Calum laughed, covering his face with both hands.
"I guess I'm still a little lost," the host laughed, "Not sure what's so funny, but I'm loving the energy this morning."
"So you're hungry?", the co-host asked, unable to keep her composure with the guys cracking up like they were.
"Always," said Michael suggestively at the same time Calum quietly replied, "starving".
Jess, who was already nervously sweating about how long this conversation was going on for, worried that her coworkers might find out it was her, blushed at Calum's quiet reply. He said it so softly he might not have meant for it to be heard, but she did hear it, and if she was interpreting it correctly he might have actually enjoyed her performance more than she realized this morning. She smiled to herself, a bit pleased despite still being embarrassed.
The host segued into the band's new album and they talked about that for the remainder of the interview, inserting some funny anecdotes along the way.
Partway through Calum looked up and saw Jess through the glass wall writing on her clipboard. He continued to watch her as she wrote furiously for a minute and then flipped the page to continue writing. I wonder what she's writing that has her writing so intensely, he thought.
"Did you have anything to add Calum?", the host asked. "Ca-luuummm", Michael repeated, elbowing him in the side.
Jess looked up at the sound of his name being called again, biting her lip and smiling as her eyes met Calum's through the glass.
"Calum, what is-", Michael started, following Cal's gaze, "Ohh hey its-", Calum put a hand over Mikey's mouth and pushed the hand Michael was starting to wave with back down into his lap.
"I'm sorry, what was the question?", Calum asked, chancing another glance at Jess who was hugging her clipboard to her chest and giggling into it. She raised a couple fingers in a nearly unnoticeable wave to Calum. He responded with a smile and a peace sign from where his hand rested on the tabletop in front of him. The whole exchange only took a couple of seconds, but Michael watched the whole thing with a devious smile while Luke and Ashton brought the attention back to their album.
Twenty minutes later the interview was wrapping up and Jess got the call in her headset to go pick up a food delivery from downstairs for the station. She stood up hoping to be unnoticed but low-key wanting to catch Calum's eye to wave goodbye before she left. At the moment though he was quite animatedly telling the host a story and didn't notice her leaving. Ashton, however, did notice and gave her a little nod when she tapped her headset and pointed to the door, hoping he'd know what she meant and could let the others (aka Calum) know she wasn't trying to be rude by missing the end of their interview.
Once downstairs she collected the food and began sorting it into little bins on a delivery cart according to which studio it was being delivered to so she would have an easier time making her round to drop it all off.
The guys said their final goodbyes and the host plugged their new album one last time before signing off for the next radio show to take over. Calum looked up into the other booth and noticed that it was now empty. Rather, there were a few people filing out slowly, but none of them were Jess. As he stood up he felt the journal shift against his back and smiled. Someone came in to lead them back to the greenroom so they could collect their things and move on to their next stop of the day.
They still had just shy of an hour before management was coming to collect them so they each found a spot on the couches and chairs around the room after helping themselves to some of the food and drinks that had been laid out for them while they were doing their segment. Three of them whipped out their phones, while Calum discreetly pulled the journal from behind him and, crossing his leg over his knee, placed it in his lap.
He opened it back up to the first page, debating for a moment whether he wanted to dive deeper into the notebook or just text Jess, to make sure she didn't want it back before they left. After a moment he pulled out his phone and copied her phone number and email to his address book, snapping a pic of the photo on the first page for her contact icon.
Calum quickly created a new email address-one that wasn't monitored by management-and added Jess to his contact list. He figured an email was slightly less intrusive than a text and she wouldn't feel the need to respond right away if she were busy or in any way uncomfortable. It had definitely seemed like she was open to staying in contact earlier, but he didn't want her to feel pressured at all. This already seemed so weird to him, but he felt like they'd connected somehow, plus she did let him keep her journal on the condition that he promised to return it, so she was expecting him to contact her, right?
Ugh, he definitely had to be overthinking this, it's not that big a deal he told himself as he typed up a quick email and immediately hit send before he could chicken out or stress about it any more. He ate a couple more bites of food and put the whole thing out of his mind as he stuck some headphones in and started his playlist on shuffle.
