Calum's POV
We walked out of the room and found a conference room down the hall. Once we were all inside I locked the door and looked at the two guilty faces in front of me.
"So, do either of you geniuses want to explain to me what the hell is going on?" I ask the two boys in front of me. This whole Daniella drama between the two of them was driving me insane, and I'm pretty sure it was doing the same to Dani. I was furious that they couldn't just stop and get along, for her sake. Ashton finally got his wish of having his girlfriend on tour with us and Luke gets to be close to her as well. They just need to grow a pair and man up.
Ashton looks at Luke a little angry but at the same time, he looks a little scared, whatever Luke's hiding can't be that bad.
"Come on guys, just tell us. We won't judge you for it. We're a band and more importantly we're brothers." Michael says next to me. The boys seem to think about it for a moment until Luke finally speaks up.
"I did something awful." Is all he says. Ashton clenches his teeth next to him and crosses his arms. He looks down so that I can't see his expression. My assumption is that Luke did something to Ashton, maybe even to affect his relationship with Dani.
"What did you do?" I ask, hoping he'll answer. Luke looks down and sits in one of the chairs by the long conference table.
"I hurt...Ashton. In a way I don't think I can ever fix." Luke says guiltily, rubbing his hands together.
"What do you mean?" Michael asks Luke and glances to Ashton.
Ashton uncrosses his arms and looks at Luke. "He didn't mean it. He was just confused and," he stops and takes in a deep breath, which makes it seem like it's taking a lot of will-power to say it, "He was in love with Dani."
Luke looks at Ashton kind of shocked, they must have not been at this point with their conversation earlier today. "Thanks but you shouldn't be forgiving me so easily." Luke says, taking his head out of his hands.
"Ok, what really happened? Why can't you tell Dani? Why will this make you lose her?" I ask, slowly getting frustrated but above all, confused.
"Luke called me and made some guy say bad things about me, which hurt. So he thinks that if Dani finds out, she'll hate him."
"The reason is that Ashton told her about it, but not who did it. Ashton told me how she reacted and according to what he's told me, she hates whoever did it. If she finds out that I was the one who did it, she'll never forgive me."
I think for a moment. "Wait, how can you be ok with hiding this from her?" I ask Ashton. "If you tell her that Luke was the person who did that then she would hate him, and you wouldn't have to worry about her running off with him. Plus, she's you're girlfriend, you shouldn't be keeping secrets from her."
"Dude!" Luke shouts at me, "I thought you were on my side!"
"I'm on no one's side aynmore. I'm just wondering. Logically, telling Daniella the truth would solve all of his problems." I say. I know I'm not being fair to Luke but I don't understand why Ashton is keeping this from her.
"Because, Dani cares about Luke, whether I like it or not. And I don't want her to hate him. He's done something for me that I could never do and that's give her up. I don't know how Luke does it. He watches me and Dani everyday. He sees her with me and I know that all I would do is regret the decision I made 7 months ago. He's been a true brother to me this entire time and all I've done is fight with him when in reality," he pauses for a moment, "I should be thanking him, for the rest of my life."
Luke smiles at him, they must have finally made up.
"Ok, that's great and all, but what do we tell Daniella?" Michael asks, breaking the peaceful silence. We're all quiet for a moment. None of us have an idea. We all know that telling her would just mean breaking the relationship between her and Luke. In the end, she might even make Ash choose sides.
"I'll tell her." Ashton says, out of the blue.
"What?" Luke says, jumping up from his seat. "I thought we just talked about this?! If she finds out she'll hate me! Look, I'm ok with her not loving me back but if she were to hate me," he pauses, "I don't think I could live with myself."
"Well you should have thought about that before you made the call." Michael says, trying to lighten the mood.
"Bro." I hit him in the arm, giving him an annoyed look. "Now's not the time." He shrugs and we all look back at Ashton.
"Look, if I'm the one to tell her then I can explain. I can tell her how I feel now and that it's ok. I won't let her be mad at you, Luke. You don't deserve it." Ashton says and Luke nods.
"Ok, well it looks like we cleared that up, lets go tell the lady then shall we?" I say.
Ashton looks at me. "My lady." He corrects me as we walk out the door back to our room.
Daniella's POV
I sit in the hotel room all alone trying to process everything. Right when things seemed to be going right they went wrong. We moved one step forward and then two steps back. I'm tired of it, but I'm not going to give up.
I rub my eyes with my hands forcing the tears to stay in. I lie down on my back and run my hands through my hair before letting out a loud scream of frustration. That causes my tears to break out. I was done keeping everything in, I just wanted to let it out. I found it odd how letting out my feelings of love for Ashton was so easy, so opening, but telling Ashton the things that made me hurt was so soul-crushing, neck choking even. All my life I wondered what love was, why it made people so happy and sad and lost at the same time. And now I don't have to wonder because I know. Being with the person you love was like living in an endless pool of happiness and serenity and then because you loved that person so much, whenever anything went wrong it was like that endless pool was drained. You would think it would take a lot to be able to drain something that was endless but when it came to love it was as if that endless pool was just a drop. And I will do anything to save that last drop. Because that drop contained my happiness, my reason, my everything, my Ashton.
I ball my hands into fists and I place them over my heart. I take a deep breath in as I'm finding it hard to breath. I close my eyes and I begin to zone out until I hear the door click open. I don't look up, I can't, until I feel strong arms wrap around me and pull me into his chest.
Ashton's POV
I held her close to me and could feel my t-shirt starting to get wet. I hated seeing her this way, she should never feel this way. I run my fingers through her hair and don't say anything for a long time. I know that if I tell her immediately she'll just be overwhelmed. I don't want to tell her at all, but I have too. Calum was right, she deserves to know. I think about the way she'll react, what will she think of Luke?
"Babe." I say softly. Her head lifts up from my chest to reveal her puffy, red eyes. I wipe away one last tear falling from her cheek and push a piece of hair behind her ear. "I'm going to tell you okay." I say.
"Okay." she replies, shaking.
"Today Luke and I talked about..." I pause. "Luke and I talked about the phone call from that night on the beach." I finally force myself to say.
"Why?" she asks confused.
"Because. It was Luke." I just say it because there was no point in sugar-coating it. She pulls herself away from my grasp and stares at me. She wipes both her cheeks and puts her hands down on her lap.
"What was Luke?" She asks with slight anger in her voice. She knew what I was trying to say, she was just trying to get me to say it.
"Dan-" she cuts me off by standing up.
"You're telling me that you think that Luke was the one behind the phone call?" she asks loudly.
"I don't think. I know." I say.
"No. You're wrong. Luke has stooped down to some low levels Ashton, but he wouldn't do that to you. He wouldn't do that to me." She says causing the tears we both wiped away to come back. I didn't know what to say to her. Whenever I see her upset it's like my mind just shuts off everything else and all I can think about is how to make her smile again.
Daniella's POV
"No. You're wrong. Luke has stooped down to some low levels Ashton but he wouldn't do that to you. He wouldn't do that to me." I say expecting Ashton to say something back immediately but he doesn't. Luke wouldn't do that. Would he? If Luke loved me then why would he hurt Ashton if he knew he made me happy. But then again Luke loves me and seeing me with Ashton is hurting him and I know by experience that people don't make good decisions when they're hurt. But still. what Luke did, how am I supposed to look at him the same way again? How am I supposed to forgive him? I won't. I can't.
"How could he do that to you Ash-"
"He was hurt. He obviously wasn't thinking straight." Ashton replies.
"I haven't been thinking straight for a whole fucking week and I haven't pulled any shit like that." I reply angrily.
"Daniella you can't be mad at him. Please." Ashton pleads.
"Give me one reason I shouldn't be mad. Give me one good reason why the hell you're not mad." I snap back and Ashton says nothing. Nothing he says is going to change my mind. But he can try at least. "Ashton!-"
"Because! I owe my happiness to Luke. He threw away his own for mine. Luke has unknowingly given me the only reason I have for being able to be happy, and smile." Ashton finally says standing up and grabbing my arms. I pull away from them and I stand back.
"I'm sick and tired of Luke using that excuse! Sure we are here because he let you ask me out, but when he saw how happy you were, he wanted to destroy it! I don't know about you Ashton, but crushing someones happiness definitely out-weighs giving it to them!" I yell.
"I forgave Luke and you should too." Ashton says loudly.
"How can you forgive him?! And don't say it's because of me!" I shout.
"Because he didn't just give me you! He gave me the band. He gave me a family! I know Luke doesn't think about it, but if he hadn't made that channel then 5 Seconds Of Summer wouldn't be here and neither would I. You know where I would be Dani-"
"Stop!" I say bursting back into tears. Ashton walks over to me, his eyes watery, and he pulls me into his chest. "I don't want to think about that. I don't want to think of the world without you." I say sobbing into Ashton's shirt. He rubs my back gently and leans his chin on the top of my head.
"All this time I thought that the band and music was my reason for living. And it was for a while but then something just didn't feel right. That is until I met you. You're my everything Dan. You're my reason for living." Ashton has told me I was his everything before. But never in our time together has he said I was his reason for living.
"Your reason for living?" I say looking up at him.
"If I knew you were going to die tomorrow, I would want to die tonight because I wouldn't want to live another day without you." Ashton whispers and I grab his cheeks and I pull him in for a kiss. I can taste the saltiness of our tears running down in between our lips.
"Ash-"
"It's true. I don't know how I made it through life without you Dani. I think the only reason I made it through my darkest times was because deep down inside, someway, somehow, I felt... I knew I would find you." Ashton says, sniffling.
"I love you so fucking much." I say and I give him another kiss.
"Please. Just please forgive Luke." he finally pleads. He was right. As much as I hate what Luke did, I have to forgive him. I understand now what Luke has done for me, for Ashton.
"I will. I promise." I say and this time it was me who pulled his head into my chest and I held him closely against me, feeling his fingers cling into my shirt.
After a couple of minutes I hear the door open. I pull away from Ashton and wipe away my tears and then his. The guys walk in and awkwardly step aside so that Luke is in clear sight. Not that he wasn't before, I could spot that giraffe from miles away but it was still a nice gesture.
He looks at me a little worried. His head is facing downwards but he's looking up at me, which I'd never thought would happen. He's fumbling with his hands and keeps glancing between the two of us, like a guilty puppy. I didn't know what to do, what to say. I wanted to forgive him, for Ashton.
Then out of no where, I just decide to walk up to him and hug him. He's shocked at first,based on the fact that he's gone completely stiff, and looks to Ashton behind me. Ashton nods and smiles a little, allowing Luke to wrap his arms around me, hugging me back tightly. His breathing calms and he rests his head on my shoulder, burying his face into my neck. I pull away and smile at him. He looks at me with so much appreciation and gratefulness, you'd think I had just saved his life. Maybe in some way, I did.
"Thank you." I say, "I never thanked you for doing what you did, so I will now, thank you Luke, for everything." He smiles and Ashton comes up from behind me and wraps his arm around my waist. He looks at Luke and the other guys and I know what he's thinking. For the first time since I met these boys, everything was ok. No more drama, no more crazy love proposals, nothing.
"You're my brother Luke. Nothing will ever change that." Ashton says and lets go of my waist so that he and Luke can have a giant man-hug.
"I'm never going to hurt you again." Luke whispers. I see Ashton's grip tighten around Luke and I begin to smile. Brothers once again.
"So, now that everyone has made up, I think it's time we all got some sleep. I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted." Calum says from behind Luke. I yawn and slowly remember how tired I am.
"Yeah, I'm pretty stumped as well." I say covering my mouth with my hand.
"We should probably get back to our room, goodnight guys." Michael says smiling at us.
"Goodnight" I say and look at each and everyone of their smiles. I spent so much time focusing on Ashton's smile and missing Luke's, I never noticed how amazing Calum and Michael's smiles were. Michael and Luke made it down the hallway and had gone inside their room, but Calum was still a bit behind. I run out to catch him. "Calum." I call after him and he turns around to look at me.
"Yeah?" He replies.
"Thanks for being there for me." I say.
"You've already thanked me Dani. It's what friends do." Calum says smiling.
"I know, but I mean it. No matter what happens in the future I hope we can always be friends. You're one of the best friends anyone could ever ask for. The boys are lucky to have you Cal. They really are." I say and I see Calum blush. I walk up to him and give him a quick hug.
"And now we all have you. That makes us even more lucky. Goodnight, Dani..." Calum says before he releases me and begins to walk down the hallway.
He stops before he walks into his room he turns back to face me. "Don't make it too late, we need him tomorrow." He says and we both chuckle.
"Dude it's like 3 in the morning! If they do it that late I'd be very impressed with them." I hear one of the boys shout from the room.
"Go to bed!" I hear Ashton shout back from behind me. He has the ears of a hawk. He takes me by the hand and we walk back to the room. I stand outside of the room, waiting for him to open the door, finally allowing my exhaustion to show its' self and close my eyes for a moment.
He chuckles. "Babe, you can't sleep out here." He looks at me from inside the room.
I stretch out my arms and yawn. "Carry me?"
He smiles tiredly and walks over to me, placing one arm under my knees and one under my arms. I wrap my arms around his neck and he picks me up. He carries me to the bed after closing the door with his foot and lays me carefully down on the sheets. He unlaces my shoes and lays them by the bed. He grabs my pj's and takes off my jeans and changes my shirt.
At this point I was too tired so it was nice to have someone take care of me. He lifts the sheets up from under me and tucks me in. After that he quickly takes off his shirt and pants and gets in next to me. He turns off the light and wraps his arms around me, flipping me slowly so that I'm facing him. I can see him smile through the darkness as he rests his hand on my waist. He slowly moves a piece of hair out of my face and tucks it behind my ear. My eyes are slowly drifting closed as sleep starts to take me. He kisses me on the forehead and puts his hand back around my back. He pulls me in so that I'm resting on his shoulder.
"I love you." He whispers.
Before I finally fall asleep I manage to mumble back,
"I love you too."