Groupie ; c.h

thirteen - date

Sitting on the tour bus was, to say the least, awkward.

The tension between Calum and Maely had always been evident, but now there was much more tension between Calum and Luke - who were previously best friends - than anything else.

'The Bro Code' was a highly valued code of conduct that the four boys had always agreed to follow, but now that seemed to all go down the drain.

Calum had 'claimed' Maely (unrightfully so, as Maely didn't want to be claimed), and now he feared that Luke was stealing her away - which Calum saw as a very clear breach of the rules. The fact that Maely didn't seem to mind that she was being taken made him even more infuriated.

And everybody knew that when Calum wasn't happy, no one was.

"We have three hours until we have to be at soundcheck," Luke said, jumping onto the couch beside Maely, "What do you want to do?"

"I dunno," Maely shrugged, earning a frustrated groan from the boy beside her.

"You have to choose something!" Luke said as Michael walked into the room, "Mikey, have you got any ideas?"

"Yep," Michael said, dumping his body onto the couch in front of the television. Luke's face lit up in delight as he awaited the answer, "Binge-watch Game of Thrones."

Luke groaned again, "No one wants to watch that, Michael! No one!"

"Hey, I do!" Michael said, acting offended, "Besides, I could fit like three episodes in before soundcheck. No one's gonna take this TV away from me."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Ashton came storming into the room with an excited grin on his face. He quickly plucked the remote control from Michael's grasp, changing the channel from Game of Thrones to the news.

"Hey!" Michael whined, "I was watching that!"

Ashton ignored the boy, pointing at the electronic screen before him "Look guys, we're on TV!"

Sure enough, the four boys appeared on the television screen with smiley faces. It was the interview they had gone to a couple of days ago.

"We don't need to watch this, Ashton," Michael argued, "We were there."

"Shhh!" Ashton hushed the boy, "This is my part!"

Rolling his eyes, Michael sunk back into the couch in defeat - he knew that fighting against Ashton was no use. He would just lose.

A happy-looking Ashton listened intently to the interviewers questions before opening his mouth to speak.

Just as he did so, the television was cut off by a once again angry Calum storming into the room.

"Maely," He spoke lowly, his voice rough, "Adam needs us."

Maely stood up from where she was seated next to Luke, who glared daggers at Calum, and made her way over to the boy.

After a trip to see the on-site doctor the previous day, the group had discovered that messing with Maely was a very bad idea. She had broken Calum's nose, which was bruised an array of purples and blues, with even a few yellow spots adding to the artwork Maely's fist had created.

Calum was, to say the very least, pissed off.

Maely followed Calum off the bus and onto the identical vehicle parked next to it, in which Adam was seated at the dining table with three binders before him and a lot of paper.

At the sound of the two entering, Adam's head snapped up and a smile broke out on his face.

"Maely!" He smiled, "Take a seat, Calum will follow you."