I watch the guys prepare their instruments seconds before the show starts. Ashton wraps a navy blue bandana around his head and he twirls his drumsticks in his hands. I see the lights go out in the stadium and I hear the crowd roar.
"You might want to use these babe." Ashton says handing me a pair of earbuds.
"THANK YOU!" I scream above the noise. He chuckles.
"Alright here we go." He kisses me and he follows the guys and they run on stage and the guitars begin to play.
"I love you!" I shout at him. He turns around and blows me a kiss right before he smacks the drums and begins to do his thing. The guys go through their usual routine of songs in the same order as I remember seeing it the first time. They sure are creatures of habit I think and chuckle to myself. After the third song they stop and introduce themselves. "Hello! I'm Ashton! And I'm so happy to be with all you beautiful people tonight!" He says to the crowd as he turns to me and winks and I hear the fans scream. I blush and can't help but think he was only talking about me.
"You guys are a lovely crowd!" Calum says.
"Yes you are! Thank you so much for supporting us and letting us band with you!" Luke says smiling. I smile because that's the first time I've seen him actually smile in a while, it's amazing what performing in front of the fans can do to these boys. After quite some time of introducing themselves they decide to slow things down with Amnesia. I sit there with my eyes closed listening to the harmonies and the melodies. I loved that song so much it was gorgeous. The way Micahel would swtich to the acoustic guitar, the way the symbols chimed, the harmonies. Everything.
"I love this song too." A woman says to me snapping me out of my trance. i open my eyes and she is obviously a woman who works backstage because she has a headset on and clipboards. "I'm sorry did I startle you. I'm Becca. I work here at the arena." She says sticking her hand out to me. I shake it and smile.
"Hi Becca. Nice to meet you. I'm Daniella." I say turning my attention back to the song. I look at Luke and I can see the hurt in his eyes as he sings it and without thinking he glances at me and gives me a sad smile and I feel my chest ache. Luke.
I try to avoid feeling anything about it and I focus back to Ashton and I smile at him and he looks to me and smiles back.
"You know you two make a cute couple." Becca says to me.
"Thank you." I say smiling. What a nice lady.
"I wish my husband would go dress shopping with me but no." She says chuckling. I give her a confused look.
"Excuse me what was that?" I say shaking my head at her and givingher a confused smile.
"I'm just saying it's nice that you and Luke can find things to do together as a couple."
"Luke...oh no Luke and I are not a couple."
"Oh are you two not public yet?" She asks.
"No Luke and I have never been a couple." I say frustrated. Why would she think that and how did she know I went dress shopping with him.
"Well sweetheart that's not what it says in this magazine."
"What magazine!?" I shout. She flips through the pages on her clipboard and underneath all of her, assuming work papers, I see a stack of some magazines, probably ones she reads on her free time, she hands me one and I see a picture of Luke and I on the front cover. Someone must of snapped a pic of us. I read the title to myself 'Luke hits the shops with his supposedly new girlfriend. GO LUKE!'. No this can't be happening. I feel my heart start to pound.
"Well this magazine is wrong! I'm in love with Ashton. We've been together for almost a year now." I say to the lady trying to catch my breath.
"Oh. Well I guess that relationship is over." She says
"Excuse me?"
"Well you've been caught cheating on him then. You aren't Luke's new girlfriend you're his affair." She tells me.
"No! I'm not cheating on anyone!"
"It's okay sweetheart I'm not judging you. I mean look at Luke how could you not-"
"NO! I am not cheating!" I say. my head starts to spin and questions pop up into my head. How many people have seen this. Oh who am I kidding thousands probably. What if Ashton finds out about this. This will devastate him whether its truth or not. Becca notices me starting to lose my breath and she wraps her arms around me. I push them off.
"No don't touch me! I don't love Luke and I never will!" I shout. I turn to see Luke stop and look over to me and I see tears forming in his eyes. Shit. Out of all the things he could've heard. "Why would I cheat on the only person who's ever given a damn about me?!" I shout at Becca.
"I'm not sure. Maybe it's because you found someone who gives more of a damn." Becca says. I feel tears rushing down my face I grab the magazine from her and I rip it up and I see Ashton notice my tears and his smile becomes a frown but I look away and I run to the dressing room. When I get there I lean against the door and fall to the floor. How could this be happening? I haven't done anything wrong! Those fucking paparazzi! I feel the tears stream down my face. How is Ashton going to react? He's caught Luke and I talking multiple times and maybe he'll make a wrong connection. "FUCK!" I scream and throw my shoe at the wall. I hide my face in my knees. 'Why did I even agree to go shopping with Luke?' I think. What's his reaction going to be to all this. Is he going to be happy? Confused? And Becca! When I told her I wasn't dating Luke she didn't believe me. No ones going to believe me! This was a mess. What if Ashton breaks up with me? No. I can't even think about that. He'll believe me right? He has to. I take my head out of my knees and lean my head back against the door. I sit there crying for what seems like ages but turns out to be only 20 minutes. After that I'm all out of tears. I feel empty.
After staring at the wall for an hour and a half I hear a loud knock on the door.
"Dani?!" Ashton shouts, sounding very worried "Dani! babe! Please, open the door! Baby please! What's wrong?! Talk to me! Please! Dan come on!" He always did that. That's how I know when Ashton was angry, scared or worried, he always calls me Dan. I sniff and get up. I unlock the door and he bursts into the room immediately hugging me. He puts his hands on both my cheeks and sees my tears. He wipes them away "Babe what's wrong?!" I look down not wanting to tell him. I just wanted to keep my perfect relationship. I look back up at him and kiss him, passionately. Messily. He's still a little sweaty from the concert but I just needed to be reassured right now. My hands are tangled in his hair and his hands are roaming me back. "Wait." He tries removing his lips but I just pull him back.
"Just. I need this right now." I say inbetween breaths. He doesn't complain and brings his hand back to my waist. He leads me to the couch without leaving my lips and lies me down on it. I move my hands under his shirt, desperate for his contact.
"Hmmm" he moans into my lips. I quickly kiss my way down his neck earning a couple of additional moans. "Ok, Dani, stop." He pins my arms down on the couch. "Stop. You need to tell me what's wrong!" I look at him.
"They're lying! I swear they're lying!" I cry and he pulls me up into a sitting position and hugs me close. I bury my face in his chest and sob "They're lying. Please believe me." I sniff. "They're lying." He kisses my forehead and rocks me back and forth.
"Shhhhh. It's gonna be ok." He coos into my ear. We stay on that couch until I finally stop crying, Ashton not stopping to whisper comforting words in my ear. I sit there with my head in his chest still burried and I try and dry my tears with his shirt. He strokes my hair and I finally look up at him. He tucks the hair away from my face and kisses my forehead.
"Please tell me." He whispers. "I want to know you're okay." He says. I look down at the ground. I can't look at him when I tell him. I don't want to look at the hurt in his eyes.
"Ash you just have to know that none of it is true. And Luke-"
"Luke? What the hell did he do this time." Ashton says as he lets me go and stands to his feet.
"Nothing. Ash. Please just listen to me. The other day when Luke and I went to the dress shop I guess paparazzi took photos of us together. And one of the photos ended up on the front page and-" I choke. I couldn't say it. How could I possibly tell him.
"And now people think you're Luke's." Ashton finishes my sentence sadly. He sits down on the couch across the room.
"Ashto-"
"Just give me a second." He says quietly as he puts his head in his hands and runs his fingers through his hair frustratingly. I slowly sit up from the couch and I go over and sit next to him. I rest my head on his arched back and I wrap my arms around his torso. I can feel his chest going in and out as he breathes.
"Ashton are you angry?" I whisper making small circles into his back with my finger.
"No. It's not your fault. It's no ones fault. It's just some stupid magazine" He says as he raises his head up and looks at me. I knew he was just saying that to reassure me. I can always tell when he's lying because his eyes and hands become shaky and I can feel him tense up. I knew that he was angry at Luke and that he was in for it. But I didn't know what he thought about me. And that scares me.
"Are you sure?" I ask.
"Of course. Babe. Everything is going to be okay." He says as he kisses me. I kiss him back running my hands down his back. I scootch in closer to him and he grabs the bottom of my back and pulls me in tighter against his torso. He pulls away and he looks into my eyes. He smiles at me and he gives me one last kiss on the forehead. The other guys walk in suddenly into the dressing room.
"Is everything okay?" Calum asks.
"Of course everything is just fine Cal." Ashton says patting him on the back.
"Well let's pack up and head to the bus." Michael says as he runs over to his backpack. Luke is quiet and doesn't say anything as he leans against the doorway. I see Ashton walk over to him and whisper something in his ear but I don't hear what he said. He pats Luke on the back but something tells me it wasn't a happy pat like he gave Calum because Luke's face is still empty and sad. Ashton walks over to me and grabs my hand.
"Ready to get back on it babe?" Ashton says.
"No time for that Ashton! We have to get back on the bus!" Michael says.
"STOP MAKING EVERYTHING I SAY SEXUAL!" Ashton shouts and him and the other guys, except for Luke, giggle. I blush and smile at Ash. He wraps his arms around me and we leave the room and Calum switches of the lights before Luke comes out. I turn my head and look back and I see Luke slowly come out from the dark room and I seem him slam the door shut. He was mad. I needed to know what Ashton said to him. It definetly wasn't good. I decided to drop it for now but I would talk to Luke the next time we were alone together.