I grab the card key and head out. It's a pretty nice day, no need for a jacket; not that I brought one anyway. Our hotel's in the centre of the city so it shouldn't be hard to find a pharmacy.
After walking for a couple of minutes I find a CVS and go in. With help from the pharmacist, I pay for a quick over-the-counter fever killer. It wasn't the cheapest thing but then again, medicine will rob you blind.
On my way back to the hotel, I walked past a bakery and decided to get the guys something sweet. I heard about the ben – beignet, things. I don't know, these French sweets and got them some.
Once I was back in the hotel I knocked on the guys' room first. Michael opens the door and greets me. "Hey Dani! What's up?"
"Nothing much, I was just out getting Ash some medicine and I passed by this bakery, so I thought I'd bring you guys something."
"Awww, thanks Dani." He replies
"No problem." I hand him the bag as he greedily looks into it.
"Wait, why does Ashton need medicine?" Calum asks from the inside of the room.
"Oh, he hasn't been sleeping well lately and I think his body has finally crashed. He's got a little fever but he should be fine by tonight." I explain.
"Oh, ok. Well I hope he feels better." Calum replies.
I was about to leave the room when Michael's voice stops me. "Speaking of, how are you and Ashton?" I blush a little but luckily had my back to them.
"Bro!" Luke whisper-shouts and hits him in the arm.
"Ow! What was that for?" Michael asks, also whispering.
"You don't need to ask her! They're on the rocks, remember?!"
"So I'm not allowed to ask?" They both whisper back and forth and Calum kind of watches them, clearly annoyed.
"Actually, we're better now." I say turning around, causing them to stop talking and look at me. Luke looks down a little but smiles back up at me.
"That's good." Calum says. "So no more sleeping all day?" He asks me, teasingly.
"No, I promise. I won't lie in bed all day." I say mockingly, rolling my eyes.
"Well she might be in bed all day but for a completely different reason, right?" Michael says winking at me.
"And the sex jokes return. I will admit, I did not miss this." I say blushing.
Luke hits him again. "Seriously?"
"What? Not my fault you can't take a joke." I laugh awkwardly and say goodbye to the boys.
Once I do, I go back to Ashton's and my room. "Hey." I say quietly as I walk in and close the door behind me; I didn't want to be too loud in case he was still sleeping. His eyes are closed and he has a hand on his forehead, someone hasn't gotten any better. "Hey babe. How are you feeling?" I ask as I sit down on the bed.
"Not good." He groans, opening his eyes and looking at me. "But I'm better now." He smiles cheekily.
I smile at the comment and put my hand on his cheek. "I'm glad to hear it." I say stroking his cheek with my thumb. He lifts his hands and puts them over the hand that's on his cheek, looking into my eyes.
"I love you." He says dreamily. I smile and take his hand and kiss the back of it. I hold both his hands in mine and interlock our fingers.
"I love you too." I say. He smiles and closes his eyes again. He was happy. We were back to normal, or for the most part, and I felt safe again.
We're both silent for a moment until I remember the medicine I had gotten for him. "Oh, I almost forgot! You need to take this." I say, getting the bottle out of the bag and standing up to get some water.
"Ewww no! Babe don't ruin such a perfect moment with medicine!" He whines.
"No," I say from the bathroom while rummaging through the cabinets. "You need to take this." I walk out of the bathroom with a glass of water in hand and place it on the bedside table.
"Ugh, you got the liquid kind? Do you want me to die?" He asks seriously. I roll my eyes playfully and try to take the seal off the bottle.
"Well that's what you get for not sleeping enough." I say, opening the bottle.
"Well how do you expect me to fall asleep without the love of my life lying next to me?" He asks in a dramatic tone. I laugh a little and pour the funky liquid into the spoon.
"Ok Prince Charming, open up." I say as I sit down on the bed next to him as he sits up. He closes his mouth and shakes his head 'no'. I sigh. "Come on, for me?" I beg. He slowly opens his mouth allowing me to move the spoon towards it.
"But only for you." He says before he takes the medicine in one gulp. His face contorts signaling me to hand him a glass of water. He chugs it down and gives me the glass.
"There we go, that wasn't too hard now was it?" I ask, cooing him.
"That was awful, remind me never to let you buy me medicine ever again."
I laugh. "Ok, whatever you say." I kiss his forehead and sit down next to him. He lies down again and rests his head on my shoulder.
It's silent for a while until he speaks up. "Thanks for taking care of me."
I smile and run my hand through his hair. "Always." I say in response, causing him to smile.
"By the way, that shirt looks great on you." He says, motioning to my chest. I forgot I was still wearing his shirt. I blush.
"Thanks. I stole it from my boyfriend." I say, making him chuckle.
Ashton fell asleep shortly after he took his medicine, I guess drowsiness was a side-effect. I set my alarm for 2:30 so that I could wake him up in time to go to the writing session with Calum; that is if he feels good. I turn on the TV and turn it down so that I can barely hear the people on the screen. I wasn't really interested in what was playing, I was really just perusing through the channels because I was bored.
I lean my head on the headboard of the bed and feel my eyelids become heavy. Right before I could fall asleep, I see Ashton's phone light up and buzz once. I get up so that I can turn it off and I barely see that Luke had sent him a text. I don't want to be that girl who goes through her boyfriend's phone and I'm not, but I did read the first half of the message that popped up on the lock screen… on accident.
The message read:
"You had the chance to tell her and you didn't-" and then it cut off. I set the phone down and take in a deep breath. Why was it that every time I thought I knew the whole story there was a whole other part of it waiting to be uncovered. I was starting to think that the guys liked to make things as complicated as they fucking could. I set his phone down and I crawl back into bed not getting under the covers and I lean over Ashton's body and I see that he is dripping sweat. Good that means he broke his fever. I get up and go into the bathroom and grab a towel. I get back on the bed and I carefully slide the covers off of Ash. Luckily he was sleeping on his back so I didn't have to wake him in order to turn him around. Carefully and lightly, trying not to wake him, I begin to pat the sweat off of his forehead and his torso. I've had broken sweat in my sleep once before and I know how awful it os to wake up dripping in it and I want Ashton to be comfortable. Just like he would want me to be comfortable. Once I was finished I get underneath the covers and I lay part of the blanket on his torso and I rest my head against it, feeling the rhythm of his heartbeat. I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
*TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER*
I awaken by Ashton rubbing my arms and kissing me on the forehead. I notice that his torso has been replaced with a pillow and that his torso has been covered with a shirt. I look up at him and ask "what time is it?".
"Two forty, Calum just texted me I have to meet him in the lobby." Ashton says buckling his belt.
"Are you feeling better?" I ask, I didn't want him to push himself anymore than he already has.
"I'm fine babe. I'll see you at the show tonight." he says.
"Wait you're not coming back to the hotel before sound check?" I ask a bit disappointed that I was going to have to wait four hours to see him again.
"Yeah. it's just that writing is a process babe and-"
"It has never taken you four hours to write a song Ashton. And usually if a song takes that long you use two writing sessions." I say a bit harshly. He looks down to his hands and then back at me.
"Well I guess we've decided to do it differently today." he says and then a buzz. "That's Calum, I really have to go." he leans down and kisses me on the lips "I'll see tonight okay. I love you." Ashton says as he leaves the hotel room. I hadn't been to one of their shows in days and now I had to get a ride to the show all alone. Fabulous. What was I going to do for four hours all alone. I promised Cal I wasn't going to lay around sleeping all the time anymore and because Cal seems to be the only 'just a good friend' that I have I don't want to break any promises with him no matter how mediocre they are. So instead of sleeping in the hotel room I decide to read in the hotel room. I grab the book I have been reading from my backpack and I have to go back a few chapters because over the past couple days I hadn't been paying much attention to it when I read. I was merely using it as a distraction piece to avoid certain things. I grab my book and I start to read, this time I am going to focus.
***TWO MORE HOURS LATER***
"Writing is going great with Calum! I'm really proud if this song we're writing babe. I'll see you soon. Love you." is the text message I recieve from Ashton. I smile, I was happy that he was starting to be more himself again. I hear a slight knock at the door and I open it and I unexpectedly see Calum standing there. "Calum?" I ask confused. He jokingly looks down at his feet and pats his body around.
"I think I'm Calum...unless I'm just a clone. OH GOD!" He says jokingly.
"What are you doing here?" I ask.
"I was just going to pick you up so we could go maybe grab something to eat with Michael and we can take you to the venue." Calum says a bit confused by my question.
"I thought you had a writing session with Ash."
"I did have a writing session with Ashton. That ended a half an hour ago." Calum says giving me an odd look.
"But Ash told me the session was going to take longer than 2 hours and he just texted me saying he was still with you." I say flustered.
"No Ashton's with Luke."
"What? Why is he with Luke?" I ask, now I was completely befuddled.
"That's a good question. Luke picked him up from the session and I asked him the same thing you're asking me and he said that they were going to grab something to eat and talk about somethings." Calum says. I check my wallet for the room key and when I see that I have it I close the door behind me and I start walking down the hall, Calum following behind.
"Why couldn't Ashton just tell me he was going out with Luke?" I ask.
"I'm not sure maybe because you ask a lot of questions." Calum says laughing.
"I do not ask that many questions. I am just a very curious person." I say confidently.
"Mhm sure sometimes nosy looks like curious you know." Calum says laughing again but I don't.
"I'm serious Calum." I say stopping in my tracks.
"Does it matter, look I'm sure that maybe they're working things out between them and maybe he didn't tell you because he doesn't want you to worry about that dumb ass issue anymore." Calum says seriously.
"I guess." I say. "Unless this has something to do with the text." I say under my breath.
"What was that?" Calum asks.
"Nothing, where do you want to eat?" I ask and Michael comes out from the hotel room wrapping his arm around me.
"Hey girl what's up." he says making me smile.
"Not much just the usual." I say smiling up at him.
"Well I know you weren't up to your usual because Ashton isn't around." he says and I push him off.
"Whatever." I say giggling.
"Come on let's go! The more time we spend here the less time we have to eat." Calum says motioning his hands towards the elevator.
"Alright, alright so pushy." Michael says throwing his hands up. I roll my eyes at them and smirk. Then I think about what Ash and Luke could possibly be talking about alone together and Calum notices my sudden look of weariness. He puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it, I look up at him and he gives me a small nod and smiles.
"I have a feeling it is going to be a fun night." Calum says but I wasn't sure whether or not he was being sarcastic or trying to reassure me.
"More like a long night." I say smiling back up at him and he just shakes his head at me and laughs.
The three of us end up eating in a little café next to this cute street with a bunch of colorful houses. Calum and Michael were talking about something but I can't seem to focus. My mind keeps wondering to the text and why Ashton would have lied to me. Part of me was a little mad that he lied to me right after we both promised to be honest. Well, I didn't say it exactly but we told each other all our secrets, or at least I thought we did. But then again I didn't tell him everything about me. But that is different, I'm keeping things from him that I will keep forever and he is most likely keeping the dumbest secret ever. I am pretty damn confused.
"Hello? Earth to Dani. Is everything ok up there?" Calum asks, waving his hand in front of my face. I break of my train of thought and look at the two of them.
"Hmm?" I ask looking back at them, hoping they couldn't tell what I was thinking about.
"Are you ok? You've been dazed this entire time." Michael asks, for once asking a serious question.
"Yup, uh huh, I am super fine. I am better than fine. I'm great. I'm perfect. Yeah. Awesome. Fine, I'm... I am fine." I say trying to get them off your back.
"Wow. Ok, one more time and I'll believe you." Calum says sarcastically.
"I'm fine." O say. The guys are quiet for a moment until I open my mouth. "Why is he with Luke? What the hell is he hiding from me?" I ask them, as if they would know. "I mean, if he were planning something he would tell you, right? But no, he's just with Luke." The guys give me this 'you're crazy' look and dare at me with wide eyes.
"Ok Dani. I think it's time for you to talk to him. Yeah? Yeah. Sounds good. Good plan." Calum says and gets up from the table.
"We need to head out anyway." Michael says, also standing up. I reluctantly leave the café after the guys pay, even though I told them that they didn't have to pay for me. We drive to the venue and I anxiously sit in the back, going over different scenarios in my head. Once we get to the arena I'm lead out of the car and to backstage. Should I tell him that I know he wasn't song writing or should I just hint it or pretend like nothing's wrong or should I be really mad at him or should I be mad at Luke? Oh for fucks sake. I get to the dressing room and see that Ash and Luke aren't back yet. I get my phone and decide to text him.
"Hey, where are you? We're at the venue. I'm worried about you, call me. Love you." I sent the text and waited for 20 minutes, still no reply. Now I was getting really worried. It never took him that long to answer my texts, especially if I was in the same time zone. If he couldn't answer his phone or something he would have texted me before hand. I was about to call him when Luke comes into the room, not looking very happy. "Luke!" I stand up and walk to him, "where's Ashton?" I ask. He furrows his eyebrows and looks up at me.
"He should be on his way, he went to go pick something up." He smiles at me and walks away. That was the most fake smile I have ever seen on him. Something was still bothering him, and it wasn't his feelings towards me. I had a feeling it was something to do with the text and the call Ashton mentioned yesterday. They were hiding something from me and I didn't like it, not one bit. I waited on the couch for 5 more minutes until Ashton finally walked through the door.
"Hey babe! Sorry I'm so late," he hugs me and kisses me quickly. "I went to pick something up for you." He pulls something out of his pockets and hands me a little envelope. I look up at him a little confused and open the envelope. Inside I find two tickets to the Preservation Hall.
"WHAT!? How did you get these?! This is amazing!" I grab his neck and pull him in for a kiss. I had completely forgotten why I am mad at him before.
"And as you can see, there are two tickets in there so you can go with one other person of your choice." He winks at me and nudges my elbow, hinting towards him.
"Hmmm... Maybe Michael would like to go, I know he's into all kinds of music." I tease him and he hits me lightly and wraps his arms around me. He kisses me and leans his head against my forehead. "Ok, maybe you can come with me." We both laugh a little. How could I ever be mad at this boy?