play the game | l.h [on hold]

21. paris

PARIS

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Walking alongside Luke, Blake happily trekked down the sidewalk in the direction of the shopping mall where the duo was meeting Calum, Michael, and Ashton. The strap of her camera bag was methodically slung over her shoulder, though she still gripped the small, black handle in fear of the shoulder strap breaking as it did several weeks ago. Her hazel eyes explored her unfamiliar surroundings, finding that her gaze would ultimately shift to Luke almost every time.

Elation bubbled inside of her, and though she hated to admit it, she was glad that Luke persisted in his attempt to have her join them on their excursions. Touring Paris was always something she'd dreamt of doing, and she almost let her silly, unrequited crush on the curly headed blond get in the way of that.

The boy must have noticed her excitement, because she looked at him and noticed his attention on her. Though, she couldn't see where exactly his eyes were due to his dark sunglasses — his poor attempt at a disguise from the inevitable paparazzi.

"What?" She questioned him in confusion. "Why are you looking at me like that? Is my shirt dirty?" Stretching her shirt out by pulling on the hem, she examined the article of clothing and mumbled, "I thought I cleaned it last week when we were in Cardiff but I might've forgotten."

Luke let out a laugh as he shook his head. "No, your shirt is fine, Blake. I can just tell that you're super excited."

"Am I that obvious?" She asked in embarrassment, a blush washing over her cheeks due to her lack of subtlety.

The boy nodded. "Yeah, you are. It's cute."

It's cute.

Did he just call me cute? "I've never been to Paris, so I'm just — yeah, I'm excited," she admitted with a nervous smile, choosing to disregard his latter comment. There's no way he meant it like that. "We should, uh — are we gonna see the Eiffel Tower?"

"That's the plan, I think," he answered with a soft laugh. "We don't ever really have an itinerary when we do this, we kinda just walk around and hope for the best."

With a content nod, she faced forward and continued their short walk. They soon approached the strip mall, and Luke pulled out his phone to message one of the guys and ask which store they were in. Fortunately, Michael's response was instantaneous and they ventured toward said store in search of three, abnormally loud (and tall) Australians.

"Blake Sawyer!" Calum greeted her enthusiastically as soon as he emerged from the dressing room. His use of her full name only confirmed Blake's suspicions about Luke talking with them about her, as they'd never been officially informed of her first name — not they she knew of, at least. "What do you think of this shirt?"

Blake glanced down to look at the plain black shirt that he was wearing, a small white tag sticking out from the neckline. Cocking her head, she looked to Luke with amusement in her eyes, his expression mirroring hers. "It looks great, Calum."

"No, don't tell him that," Ashton exasperated, emitting a laugh from Michael as he stood beside the drummer. "It's a plain black shirt, that is very pricey. Cal, you have, like, twenty shirts just like that. You don't need another."

Calum flipped Ashton off. "But this one feels nice. Here; feel it," he said, holding his arm out for the back haired boy to feel the fabric of the short sleeve.

"I've already felt it," Ashton sighed, gently nudging the boy's arm away.

"Blake," Calum turned to her, a wide grin stretched across his tan face. "You haven't felt it. Do you wanna feel it?"