Staged and Confused | LRH

smurfette. 19

Alexia's Perspective

I was sitting on my knees between Ashton and Calum, on the pavement of the parking lot outside of the arena we were performing in tomorrow night. Luke, Crystal, and Michael sat across from us and we all had damp white cotton '5SOS CREW' t-shirts laid out in front of us along with dozens of tye dye bottles in front of us. There were 5sos crew members scattered around us in the same set up.

We thought it would be fun to do something as a complete crew on our off day, so we had these shirts made to tie dye. Everyone's shirt would be matching and unique all at once. Everyone around me was arguing and discussing how you are supposed to roll and tie the shirts correctly, but I couldn't really find it in me to care about their arguments. It's tie dying. You are going to get a cool shirt regardless of what you do.

I looked around the group to see everyone paying very careful attention to their shirts, and the designs they were tying them into. When I looked at Luke, he instantly looked up and gave me a very cheesy wink. I rolled my eyes at the boy.

It had been a week since we started regularly hooking up. At the beginning of it, Luke had to calm me down a few times and remind me that we were doing nothing wrong and he let me know that if I wanted to stop, I just had to say so. But I didn't want to stop. I don't want to stop. Which is why I will probably find myself entangled in his arms later on tonight.

I felt a lot less guilty lying to Ashton about it now. I no longer saw it as lying to him, but rather staying clear of the topic of Luke and I's sex life. It's not like he would ever expect me and Luke to be sleeping together, and it is surely not a permanent thing, so he can live his whole life without knowing about Luke and I.

Luke liked to be overly flirty with me now, though. He knew it pissed me off so anytime he noticed that our friends weren't paying attention, he'd send me winks or suggestive smirks. He liked driving me crazy and I had always known that it was a task he was very good at, but now more so than ever.

"What colours should I do, Lexia?" Calum asked from his place on the concrete beside me. I glanced at the colours, then back to Cal's shirt which was tied into a bullseye design. I grabbed the purple, blue, and green bottles of dye before placing them neatly in front of his shirt.

"These," I told him with a shrug, "there's no reason, I just like them." I would have waited for a reaction of Calum's, but Luke was grabbing my shirt from in front of me. I grabbed the shirt, tugging it back from him with force. "Hey, don't steal my shirt, Lucas!"

"I was only helping you, Alexia. You've been staring at your shirt for nearly 10 minutes, you obviously don't know how to tie it." I shrugged in reply. He was right, my plan was kinda going to be avoiding the tying part and going right to the dying. But I didn't want to give him that satisfaction so I instead told him,

"I know how to tie it."

"Let's see it then," he urged, as everyone in our little group looked at me expectantly waiting for me to tie the shirt. It's not like it is rocket science. I grabbed an elastic and a piece of my shirt, crumpling it up before gesturing to tying it. I looked at Ashton to see if I was doing it right and his lips flattened as he shook his head softly no. Luke laughed, grabbing the shirt from my hands with no protests this time. He effortlessly tied it into the spiral design. "Lyrical genius, but she can't figure out how to tie a fucking shirt," Luke laughed under his breath.

"For what it's worth, Alex, I think you woulda had the coolest shirt," Michael gave me a proud smile from across me.

"Thanks, Mikey," I grinned as Luke placed my shirt back down in front of me. "Thanks Luke," I reluctantly thanked him for my shirt because I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of actually helping me.