Submissive • 5sos

Chapter 12

"Courtney? Courtney!" I hear a voice say, pulling me out of my unconscious state, I groan as I lift my head, I'm lying on someone's legs. I'm on the floor, the other person is kneeling.
I open my eyes and see, surprisingly, Ashton's eyes staring down at me, tight with worry.
"Jesus Christ! Are you okay?" He asked, I look around and realise I'm in the bathroom, the previous memories flood back and I groan,
"What just happened?" He demands,
"Anxiety attack. It's fine. I'm fine." I say, scrambling up from his lap, I stand with difficulty, and look at myself in the mirror. My eyeliner has smeared so I rub it off, meanwhile, Ashton stands behind me, running a hand through his hair awkwardly.
"Do those happen often?" He asks, I turn to look at him, he looks genuinely curious, so I decide to let down part of my wall, considering he just saw me pass out.
"Yeah, not as bad as that though." I honestly answer.
"What triggered it?" He continues, I feel like I can't answer this yet,
"I don't know." My voice sounds too low and I see his eyebrow quirk up, he knows I'm lying.
"Why aren't you telling me the truth?" I look down, I don't know why I'm not telling the truth, so I just shake my head,
"Why aren't you letting any of us in? You always seem happy during the day, then at night I hear you crying. You do everything we ask you to do without hesitation but I see the resistance in your eye. I know what your dad di-" Ashton gets interrupted by the door opening, a lady comes in, dressed in satin gold. She looks at us startled, and looks as if she's about to tell Ashton to get out, but I see the recognition click in her eyes, and she scurries into one of the cubicles.
I take this as my cue to leave, and I do.
"Why were you so long?" Luke whispers to me, when I return to the table.
"I felt sick, and was." I answer plainly, I see Ashton quickly look at me, with a confused expression on his face, but he looks away as soon as he sees me looking.
"Okay," he looks as if he's about to say more, but 3 waiters arrive carrying plates, they don't bother asking who ordered what, they seem to know.
The conversation flowed, I remained silent unless I was directly asked a question, which only really was asked by Shaun Jones. He asked peculiar questions, mostly about my father, what he did as a living, if he was ever home, just things like that. I grew uncomfortable answering questions about him and just muttered I didn't know at every question.
"Can we have the bill please." Ashton asks the female waiter, she nods and practically runs to the front desk, tripping over her own feet, when she brings it over I feel my eyes go wide as I read the price. £568! For 8 people!! Ashton throws his bank card to the waitress and with shaking fingers she inserts it and types the amount the meal cost, he types in the password, and doesn't even attempt to shield his pin. 1-7-4-6. No one notices me watching, as everyone is saying goodbye, when Shaun Jones gets to me, he shakes my hand and then whispers in my ear,
"I'll see you very soon, Courtney Manners." He laughs quietly, while I gasp in shock. Manners is my dads second name, I changed mine to Luke as soon as I moved away. I look at him with a horrified expression, while he feigns innocence,
"How do you..." I stutter,
"I know a lot more about you than you even know, we all do." He gestures to the boys waiting about 5 metres away from us. I want to ask more, but he walks away, leaving me standing alone, absorbing what he's just told me.
I sit in silence in the car ride home, and Luke seems to sense my unease,
"What did he say to you?" He suddenly asks, when we're walking back into their building,
"He said he'd see my again soon." I bite my tongue to stop myself saying anymore, Luke stares impassively at the elevator, he appears to be in deep thought,
"Will I see him again?" I whisper, at first I don't think he hears me, but then he sighs and answers softly;
"I really hope not, he gives me the creeps." I nod in agreement.
When we reach the penthouse, Ashton types the password in, and the door automatically opens, we all gasp in shock at the scene before us.
The whole living room has been messed up, papers are everywhere, the TV has been hit with a hammer, or something like that.
"Woah!" Calum exclaims, this is obviously not a regular occurrence, they look around the apartment, and see no sign of anyone, so the criminals must have escaped. They didn't take anything either, which I found strange, Ashton already had ideas who it could have been,
"One direction. The spy said they knew we had her." He points at me, and I look away in embarrassment like this is my fault,
"No, they don't do confrontation like this." Michael disagrees, Calum nods at this. I decide I don't want to listen to this and tell everyone I'm going to bed.
I slip out of the dress and put it in the back of my wardrobe, telling myself that I will never wear it again. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth but jump back in shock at seeing a piece of paper, along with a recording device, on top of the toilet. The piece of paper reads;
Listen to this when you're alone.
I decide the toilet is alone as I'll ever be, and I listen to the device. It starts with a crackle, then a coherent voice starts speaking;
"Hello Courtney Luke. Or is it Courtney Manners? Who knows. You don't know me, but you've met our front man, does the name Shaun Jones ring a bell." I gasp when I hear Shaun's voice in the background of the room of wherever the tape was taken.
"Told me you'd see me again, well you're hearing me now." Whoever was talking at first carries on talking,
"We've been talking to 5 seconds of summer for a long time about you. We've known about you a long time. I have at least, I was your dads best friend. We started this gang together. Bet you didn't know that, well your daddy betrayed us, so know he needs to pay the price. But he can't just kill him, that would be too convenient. No, we're going to kill you, then your mum."
I feel sick the pit of my stomach.
"I bet you're wondering why I'm telling you our whole plan? Well, 5 seconds of summer knows you're the daughter to the most dangerous man in the country, started one of the biggest gangs he did. Called us 'Heavens Devils', but when he betrayed us, he took something important from me. So I'm going to take something important from him; he's daughter."
I almost laugh, I'm not important to him.
"But, you can save yourself and your mother. 5 seconds of summer have a lot of money. Money I could use. You get that money, and give it to me. I'll forget all of this...trouble. And incase you get any ideas, like running away, I have your mum right here...."
I feel my stomach clench when I hear my mothers desperate and distant shouts,
"Courtney! I'm sorry! Please! Do whatever they ask!" Then the recording ends. I sit on the floor of the bathroom, taking in all of this information. I remember seeing a black leather jacket of my dads reading 'Heavens Angels' but I'd forgotten about it until this moment, what if he was lying? What if they were lying? I feel the need to start crying but I stop myself, I need to be strong, if not for myself, but for my mum.