𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑⁰¹ʰᵉᵐᵐⁱⁿᵍˢ✓

⁴⁵guarded

clementine

"I'll tell you one, though, they really liked the song," Luke says, a grin clear through the tone of his voice. "I was sitting by the piano, like, right before we were about to play Lie To Me, and I had to wait for Mike to tune his guitar right. So I just played the start of Lover of Mine, you know, the piano intro, and I swear to you, the fans went crazy," He drags out the last word and laughs.

I look up from my laptop in front of me to my phone, a smile lifting my lips. "When this album will be out, they'll feel like absolute clowns," I muse at the thought of them realising he played it before they even knew it was anything they'd hear in the future, like a clue or a hint of a sort.

Luke laughs at the idea and brushes it off. "What are you doing now?" He asks, his sheets shuffling and muffling his voice a bit.

I sigh, sinking into the couch as I close my eyes. "Finding an apartment," I respond, hearing him move again to hear me clearly. "Something decently sized, at a good location, and not too expensive,"

"Why?"

I shrug and look back at my laptop, the white light starting to irritate my eyes. "The promotion I agreed to needs me to work there," I scroll through the lists of apartments, none of them satisfying me in any sense.

There's always something wrong with ones I think might be for me. One flat was decently priced and looked pretty good but was situated an hour away from my workplace; another was thirty minutes away from the studio but cost way too much for practically a miniature sized studio flat, and one flat just straight up had red stains on the floor, which made me think someone might've died there.

I haven't actually gone through the troubles and stresses of finding a flat of my own since I found the one I'm living in now all from connections. I knew Cameron, Cameron knew Mara, and it was as easy as that.

Now that I'm actually doing it, I feel like I'm growing up for the first time, like I'm seventeen again and learning what things I'd be doing or learning as an "adult".

"You know, you never actually explained the promotion situation," Luke chimed in, interrupting my thoughts with his statement. "You just said you accepted a promotion and that was it. You didn't say you had to move,"

I bit down on my lip and nodded, furrowed brows and tired eyes looking at my phone as if Luke's face is there. "Yeah... I contemplated not accepting it, but I ultimately decided this could be good for me. Plus the pay, there's not a lot of hard stuff to overcome besides moving away and... being by myself for once,"

The terrifying thought of being alone returns to me but I shake it off and continue scrolling through the apartments. "LA seems so intimidating, but I'm sure it isn't. It's just the same as how some people think of New York as an intimidating city," I pout, leaning my head on my cramping hand. "But I imagine if I just -"

"Wait, LA?" Luke interrupts, his voice suddenly louder and attentive. "You're moving to LA?"

I nod. "Mhm, your favourite cesspool of artists," I snort, snickering to myself. "No, but I saw some pieces of the artists from there, and I gotta say, they know what they're doing," I nod approvingly. "But, yes, LA,"

"I live in LA!" He answers

My eyes widen and I stare at my phone. "You do? Why haven't you told me?" I say excitedly, the idea of moving to LA suddenly seeming less frightening as I'd previously thought it would be. Luke would be there, and most probably Ashton, Michael, and Calum.

Sure, two New York co-workers of mine would be there as well working with me, but I never really got to know them that well. All I know is that their names are Jemmy and Mia, they've been in Ackerman a little longer than I have, and they're crazy good at their respective art styles.