The entrance of the club is crowded with people, swarming to get last-minute tickets.
Luke stares at me, pink lips forming an O. His ice-blue eyes stare at me in glee, which soon shifts to anxiety. Something dark flashes across his face. Was it Confusion? Greed? ...Distrust?
By the time I get a glimpse, it's gone, and Luke pretends like nothing happened.
"I guess Hailey's blog gets more reads than I thought," he tells me.
Luke takes a huge inhale of breath and climbs out of the car, me following after him. He takes us through the mess of people, around the ticket box, and to the side of the building. He opens the door.
It opens up to a room backstage. The walls are covered in band posters, the paint chipped and cluttered take-out boxes all over the floor as well as abandoned speakers and cords.
Two boys and a girl are sitting on stools in the middle.
One boy is tall, dark-haired, and tanned, a tattoo decorating his upper arm. He's tuning his bass, only looking up to flash us a smile. The other boy looks the opposite, with a lanky physique and pale skin, electric blue hair. He immediately starts introducing everyone when he sees us walk in.
"Hey, I'm Michael," he says, then points at the black-haired boy and says: "And this is Calum."
He also points at the brown-haired girl next to him, who had pretty, innocent features but wore a spiked leather jacket, ripped jeans. "Oh, and this is Calum's friend, Azalea." The girl gives us a half-hearted wave and goes back to watching Calum play.
"You must be Jade," Michael adds with a clear of his throat.
"Yeah. Hi, I've heard a lot about you." I offer a nervous smile.
Michael nods. "Nice to finally meet you," he replies rather formally. "But uh, if you don't we mind staying with Azalea for a few hours, we've got to start the show."
"Okay."
Michael picks up the two guitars leaning against the wall and gathers the boys out of the room. They exit through the red curtains drawn across the other side of the room, which I assume is the stage. I hear him hiss at Luke as they walk away: "You're late, what they hell were you doing?"
When they're gone, I sit down on one of the empty stools and turn to the brown-haired girl. Azalea. "How long is the gig?"
"Usually about two hours, but if Calum decides to 'go all out', usually another half an hour," she replies matter-of-factly.
"You wanna watch from backstage, or from the crowd?" Azalea asks. She walks up to the curtains, peers through them and at the stage. "Never mind. We'd get lost in there," she says.
I push past the mess of pizza boxes strewn on the floor and arrive next to where Azalea stands. She lets me have a peek.
Calum and Michael are still setting up the amps and instruments, but Luke is ready. He holds his guitar in place, shaking out his dirty blonde quiff. He adjusts the microphone one final time, fiddles with his clothes. The skinny jeans he wears looks good on him, and even I find myself admiring myself a good pair of legs.
Then I glance at the dance floor, curious for the turn-out. It's too dark to see much of anything, but I see rows and rows of heads and smile to myself. I've done my job.
Chatter fills the room as they wait for the band to begin and for the party to get started.
Luke clears his throat into the microphone, catching the audience's attention.
"Hello," he says, and it's like the nervous feelings he'd had in the car had all disappeared. The Luke standing in front of me is a different one. Again.
"My name's Luke. These are my band mates, Calum and Michael-and together, we are 5 Seconds of Summer."
The audience is silent.
Luke takes a deep breath and adds with oozing confidence, "Our first song is called Out of My Limit. Enjoy."
He steps back, looking behind his shoulder to give Calum and Michael the que. They nod.
A single guitar riff rings through the club, marking the beginning of the song.
And finally...Luke begins to sing.
"You're just a little bit out of my limit...
It's been two years now, haven't even seen the best of me...and in my mind now, we've been over this a thousand times..."
I've never seen Luke like this before. Gone was the awkward side of him, now it was a rocker boy who never looked more comfortable in his own skin. Just more proof of my theory that Luke is two-faced. Confident, then shy. I don't know which one he really is. But he definitely rocks that stage. He knows how to move. He moves To captivate an audience.
And the song isn't bad. It really isn't bad. His deep, clear voice and the sound of strumming guitars is the only thing that can be heard; my jaw literally drops open as he hits note after note after note in a perfect rhythm.
The audience seems to warm up to the song, a few of them mingling and returning to chatter. I can even hear the clatter of beer cans from here. It'd take some time for it to be 'grinding mosh pit' zone soon.
During a break between songs, Luke meets my eyes across the stage. He smiles, a crooked smile showing both his dimples.
Ashamed that he's caught me staring, I let the curtain fall back and look over my shoulder at Azalea. She's slouched on the stool, peering into her phone.
"You stirr quite the chaos these days, pulling that stunt with Luke," she says out of nowhere, without even glancing at me, she knows I'm staring.
"What do you mean?" I ask over the music and chatter and bottles slammed against bars.
"It's pretty obvious. All of a sudden, a Girl like you, with a boy like him? And all of a sudden, there are actually more than twenty people who come to see our shows? I don't know why you're doing it, but I've read the blog, too. Hailey Kent, is it? She's part of the stunt."
I shrug, my heart beating fast. Should I be intimidated by this girl? What's her deal? Does she know Ashton?
"Oh, quit it. I'm not going to tell anyone. Quite frankly, I don't give a shit what you and Luke do together. Just...don't bring Calum into this."
I nod slowly, letting my guard down. "How long have you and Calum been together?"
She laughs loudly with her head thrown back, a twinkling kind. "Calum is gay," she explains. "And he's my best friend."
"Oh."
The backstage fills with awkward silence.
"So," Azalea interrupts. "I'll warn you that Michael might be a little closed-off towards you."
"Why?"
"Since the beginning of the month, Luke's been disappearing at the randomest moments and wouldn't answer his phone; couldn't find him at home either. He's missed a lot of practices and that's a huge Pet Peeve of Michael's...he's guessing you two were too "busy" playing hanky to keep track of time."
Is she saying that Luke missing practices was my fault?
"I only started spending time with Luke last week."
Actually...what she said sounds true. I remember last Sunday when I couldn't reach Luke, and he'd disappeared without a sight. On Monday, when I asked him what had happened to him, he'd lied about it. I could tell he lied. Luke's eyes flickered uneasily with that secret look he always tried to hide.
"You should ask him what he's up to," Azalea says, eyeing me.
The conversation is cut off short when the music stops abruptly, and the crowd erupts in applause. Curious to see what's happening, I step forward to peer through the curtains.
But I don't notice that there's a catch in the floorboards, and then there's a horrifying, suspended moment where my feet lose balance.
Embarrassingly enough, because of one stupid floorboard, I trip forward, limbs sprawled and screaming at the top of my throat.
Falling out of the safety of the curtains,
...and onto the stage where a hundred people are watching.
---
Question of the chapter: Who do you ship in Undercover Heart?
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Project Publicity || l.h
Fanfiction[BOOK ONE] Jade and Luke have known each other since childhood. But as they grew older, Jade became glamorous and beautiful, while Luke stayed a loser. With time, the two of them drifted apart, never to speak again. This year, everything changes. A...
