- Calum's POV -
I woke up with the worst hangover I've had in months, to a knock on my hotel room door.
"No one's home!", I shout.
"Get up Calum, Ben's pissed." Luke shouts back.
"Ugh what now?!", I say getting up and opening the door for Luke and Ashton.
"Not feeling to hot this morning are you, mate." Ashton laughs, walking in with Luke as they both take a seat on the bed.
"Nah, I feel like shit. What happened last night?" I ask, rubbing my eyes.
"You really don't remember?", Luke questions.
"If I did, I wouldn't be asking, now would I?", I say sarcastically.
"Well, you insisted on going out, so we did. You got hammered, danced with that assistant girl we met a few days ago, and then tried walking into incoming traffic." Luke explains.
"Wait now, don't forget to tell him the best part." Ashton chuckles.
"Oh god.", I sigh.
"You caught a paparazzi taking pictures and proceeded to take his camera and slam into the ground, shattering it into pieces.", Luke explains, obviously annoyed at my behavior.
"There it is!", Ashton laughs.
"Fuck. I'm in it deep with Ben, aren't I boys.", I ask, knowing the answer was obvious.
"Ben..what about Margaret, mate, she'll have your head on a stick, I reckon.", says Ashton.
"Here's your only upside, the meeting with Margaret isn't until Monday, so she's got a few days to calm down. 'Till then, you NEED to lay low.", Luke emphasizes.
"Alright, I can do that. I don't even want to think about checking Twitter right now", I sigh.
"You got this, bud. I'm gonna get back to my facetime call with Sierra. Let me know if you need anything.", says Luke, patting me on the shoulder then heading out the door.
Ashton, still sitting on the bed, looks at me with an ashamed face.
"Alright, can I talk to you, seriously now? What's going on, mate? You've just been so aggressive lately, this isn't like you.", he questions worriedly.
"I don't know man. Sometimes I feel like I can't do this anymore. I love making music, especially with you guys. I love playing bass, I love the band, and I love playing shows; but sometimes its too much.", I explain.
"What do you mean?", he asks.
"Like, the constant pressure of being perfect all the time. We don't get any privacy, we're constantly under a microscope. Messing up when we were teens was sometimes acceptable but there's no excuse now, were adults. I feel like I should be able to have fun without constantly being judged, like a normal 22 year old, but that's just not the reality anymore.", I add.
"Mate, I get it, trust me. I've felt like that for years, but purposefully doing scandalous things wont fix any of our problems. If anything, it causes so many more. You need to find a better way to take out your frustrations other than drinking and having sex with randoms." he rebuttals.
"I know, it's just hard.", I sigh.
"Listen, get some rest, have some breakfast. I'll try to keep Ben off your arse for the day. Just lay low, please." he pleads.
"Thanks bud.", I say patting his shoulder.
I let Ashton out, called for room service, and stayed in my room for the rest of the weekend.
***
- Eva's POV -
Monday morning.
I got to the office at around 8:45am, Margaret's coffee in hand, greeted Diane, and walked to my desk.
"Good morning Margaret, here's your coffee.", I say smiling.
"It's going to be a bad day today Eva. You're gonna have to watch me be really mean today.", she explains.
"Oh, um, am I in trouble? Whatever it is, I promise I didn't mean it.", I say nervously.
"God, not you Eva. The clients from last time. Calum's a problem child that needs to be tamed. We're having another meeting today around 11am. I'll need you in there taking notes.", she says.
"Oh, what'd he do? He seemed fine when I saw him at the bar on Friday.", I blurt out, forgetting that I probably wasn't supposed to mention I met him that night.
"You saw him on Friday? You didn't talk to him or anything right? Company policy is strict on not fraternizing with clients outside of work.", she says sternly.
"Oh, um, no, I just saw him from across the bar. I left pretty early, wasn't really feeling it.", I lied.
"Good. You're becoming a good asset so far and I would hate for you to lose this opportunity over a boy, a bad one at that.", she scoffs.
"Don't worry Margaret, I wont let you down.", I reassure her.
I cannot believe I just lied to my boss. I cannot get fired this quickly. Especially over a lie that could be easily debunked. I had to find a way to get to Calum before the meeting so I could warn him not to say he met me at the bar.
The hours dragged on as I'm waiting for this meeting. I trusted Diane enough to tell her about my night at the bar. She said she would let me know as soon as they came in so I could create some type of diversion.
A little more time had passed, then I got the signal that they were on their way up. I was carrying a big stack of documents to the printing room as a cover. I saw them heading into the office, greeting Diane firstly. I made my way over to where they were and started my perfectly calculated plan.
I made sure to bump right into Calum, dropping all the papers I had in my hands. I dropped to the ground, trying to pick them up.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you over the stack. Are you ok?", I ask.
"No, I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going. Let me help you.", says Calum.
He helped me pick up all the papers, our eyes meeting when he handed them to me.
"Where do they need to go, I'll help you bring them over", he smiles.
"Just over there, to the printing room. I'm really sorry again, I'm super clumsy.", I lied.
"Dont sweat it, at least it wasn't coffee or something.", he laughed.
We made our way over to the printing room, leaving the stack of papers on the counter.
"Thanks for helping me, I-", he cuts me off.
"Hey, before you finish, I just wanted to say sorry for that night at the bar. I had a lot to drink and from what I was told, I was really rude to you.", he apologizes.
I was shocked that he even wanted to apologize for that. This new Calum didn't seem like the apologizing type.
"Oh, it's ok", I reassure him. He started to turn away to walk in the office but I grabbed his arm lightly.
"Hey, before we go back in there..would you mind not mentioning that we met at the bar? I just learned about this strict 'no fraternizing with the clients' policy for the company and I really cant get fired, especially this early, I need this internship.", I plead.
"Yeah, no worries, I got you..wait, what do I get in return?", he asks smirking.
"Ah, yup, there's Calum.", I roll my eyes sarcastically, letting out a smirk.
We walked back to the meeting room together. I gave Diane a thumbs up while walking by, went into the meeting room and sat down opening my laptop.
"Calum..take a seat please.", Margaret says sternly.
She shuts the doors to the meeting room, letting everyone know this was going to be a conversation she didn't want the whole office hearing.
YOU ARE READING
Safety Net • CTH
Fanfiction𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯.
