Skybreak [not to be continued]

XIII

"Honey, I'm home!" Luke yelled to his mates, speaking in what I assumed was an appalling American accent.

His friends flocked towards us to receive their coffee, which lay (miraculously still warm) in the trustworthy hands of Luke. I followed their lead into what was like a sitting room and a music room, or a ‘man-cave’ as Michael kept trying to tell me and seated myself on a sofa facing the instruments. Cal and Mikey both slouched on beanbags, Luke next to me and Ash sat on his drum stool, his sticks on the snare drum in front of him.

We sat in a circle, in a slightly awkward silence, they were all drinking their hot drinks and I was sat silently. Next to me lay an acoustic guitar, battered and bruised but well loved: I carefully picked it up and lay it across my lap as the boys continued to stare into space while they drank their horrible caffeine drinks.

To break the silence, I strummed a single C chord accompanied by a single vocal line. 
"Just run away, from these lies."

Michael's concentration broke from the screen of his phone, to the guitar I was playing and Luke looked up and softly sung the next lines: "Back to yesterday, safe tonight."

I made eye contact with him and we laughed quietly. "Mike Posner, really?"

"Well, are you going to sing anything? I'm using your instruments - mine are in the kitchen. Play something!" I retaliated, thrusting the guitar into his hand.

Our short argument had caused activity among the other boys, who watched us like hawks as we fought. Luke looked up as Mikey and Cal picked up their guitars and Ash span his drumsticks in his palm. "I Miss You?" Calum asked. "Or Unpredictable? She's heard Gotta Get Out already."

There was no response but Ash hit the first drum before starting up a regular rhythm. The bass picked up a few bars later, soon followed by the guitar and then I recognised the song: Blink 182's I Miss You.

I mouthed the words as they sung, it being Blink’s most well-known song, even if it wasn’t my favourite.

“Don’t waste your time on me, you’re already a voice inside my head (I miss you, miss you)”

The song only lasted a few minutes before we were chatting again.

"Mike Posner, Ed Sheeran, Mayday Parade, The Beatles, The Fray and Blink. Is there no music you don't listen to?" Michael questioned my choice in songs.

I laughed before answering: "Justin Bieber, The Wanted and Schoenberg, he's some stupid composer I studied in music a couple of years ago."

They stared at me. "She listens to Green Day..." Calum muttered to himself, reaching out to shove a familiar CD (black with a heart-grenade on it) into the complex sound system that was wired to one of the amps on the ground. The riff of Jesus of Suburbia blasted through the speakers as we all yelled out in unison, "I'M THE SON OF RAGE AND LOVE, THE JESUS OF SUBURBIA."

Michael was the first to stand up, lying his guitar where he was sat. I joined him as we both played air guitar across the living room, head-banging and jumping around to the insanely amazing song. Cal and Luke watched us, in hysterics - while Ash just sat in the corner staring at us in disbelief, his phone upright in his hands.

Calum paused the song just after we'd got to I Don't Care, and it was then that Michael leaned over to be. “Calum’s weird.” He whispered in my idea. “He likes to think he’s not, but really he is.”

I sniggered, and Michael joined me until his phone bleeped and his glared at Ashton. I was confused until Luke beckoned me over to show me a recently posted Keek on the channel '5 Seconds of Summer'. I pressed play to be greeted by the footage on me and Michael dancing, singing and playing air guitar.

"Ashton!" I yelled, lunging for the blonde boy as he darted out of the way and into the awaiting arms on Michael, ready to attack him for posting the video. 
"It was good footage!" He protested, "Besides, we haven't posted anything for ages now."

"That's because you put on a video of me in my underwear!" Calum complained, and all four of the boys got in a full riot with each other over this stupid Keek account.

"Shut up you idiots and play me another song!" I screamed. Silence fell within seconds, and I watched as they slowly disentangled themselves from the limbs of each other and sat on the sofa looking at me, in a forlorn sort of way, their eyes large and open, watching me.

"Unpredictable." Michael muttered, as they sat in a circle, but this time with guitars plugged into amps on low volume.

The boys’ feet tapped to the strong beat which Ash hit hard on the bass drum. When they started to sing, I listened intensely to the lyrics. They were really good - I even found myself picking up on the tune of the chorus and humming along whenever it came up.

When they finished, I asked who had written it, and what had inspired the lyrics. The response was immediate: Luke looked down, Mike and Ash made eye contact and began to laugh and Calum spoke to me.

"I wrote it with Luke. He came up with most of the lyrics, I guess he'll want to explain it to you." I looked at them confused, and all of them started winking at me with the exception of Luke who was groaning where he sat.

"Luke?" I asked softly, my fingers caressing the back of his hand.

He sighed, and looked up at me. His eyes were round and bright, his cheeks flushed red like roses. "You," He muttered mainly to himself, before repeating it loud enough for me to hear. "I wrote it about you."