publicity + cth

thirty one

As we pulled up into Ashton's driveway, Calum turns off the engine then turns to look at me. "What?" I said, now preparing myself for another one of his antics. "Just uhm- if they say something to you just disregard it, erase it from your mind and shit." He replied.

"Ooh, is Calum Hood hiding something from me?" I tease, raising my eyebrows as I poke him in a playful manner, watching him groan and say, "shut up."

"I just know they're gonna want to bring up stupid shit, just don't mind them, they're all idiots." He adds, now resting his hand at the back of the headrest of my seat, his biceps flexing in the process. "Aren't you one, too?" I snickered as he rolls his eyes in response.

Calum and I got out of the car, walking towards the entrance while I watched Calum fixed himself, running his fingers through his hair and straightening his long sleeved button down  shirt, leaving a few buttons undone catching a glimpse of his chest tattoos.

As we walked in, we were greeted by loud music playing in the background mixed with laughter, catching a large group of people gathering in Ashton's living room, most of them were already drunk off their asses, Michael and Ashton included.

"Oi, Calum's finally here!" Luke yells from the other side of the room, to which he was accompanied by a girl with dark hair and looked quite smaller than him. (Luke is a walking giant after all.)

Their attention was now on Calum so I took a few steps back, letting them greet their best friend. "It's your turn to take a shot, Hood." Michael slurs, throwing his arm over Calum's shoulder, handing him a shot in the other hand. "Fuck it." Calum shrugs then downs the shot.

"You finally brought Lestia with you," Ashton says, shooting me a cheeky grin. "You should've brought Kate." He adds, giggling. "Aww, next time."

Although I kind of grew up with them too, it feels different now, with all of our careers progressing over the years, them finally becoming a successful band, it did feel odd being around, probably cause puberty really hit them hard too. "Come on, I want you to meet everyone." Ashton says before grabbing my hand and turning to Calum before saying, "I'm taking your girlfriend with me." as he drags me away.

In the background was Calum groaning, followed by a, "Come on now, Ash!"

"Okay, I'll be honest, half of these people are probably not in their right state of mind right now so I'll let you meet a few." Ashton casually says. He then drunkenly throws his arm over my shoulder, as we both walked towards a small group. "Sup, yall' I want you to meet Celestia. A friend of mine back in high school, AKA, Calum's ex girlfriend." He introduces me to them, as they did the same. "Calum's ex, huh?" A girl grins at me, she introduced herself as Leah and she looked more sober than any of her friends. I awkwardly nod.  People are probably gonna wonder why Calum invited his ex girlfriend to this party, not that it's their business though.

"Oh, Leah is one of Calum's friends, but she became ours too since we went to a club together after one of our tours." Ashton explains. I nod, shooting a smile at Leah. "Come on, let me offer you a drink." She says, standing up from the sofa she was just sitting on. "Yeah, good idea, go and bond with Celestia. I'll be right back." Ashton slurs, as he drunkenly makes his way towards another group of people, leaving just me and Leah.

I began following her to the bar, and while I did, I started to wonder where Calum had gone. I forgot to remind him that one of us had to be sober since one of us had to be the designated driver. Leah goes behind the bar to mix both of us drinks as I take a seat on the bar stool. "So, Celestia, what brings you here?" Leah starts, pouring the mixture of god knows whatever alcohol she mixed together, into two glasses and slides the glass to me.

"Calum brought me along, it was kind of a last minute invitation." I lightly laughed, bringing the glass up to my lips, immediately gagging at the smell, "Oh, shit, sorry if it's too strong, I'm still learning how to mix drinks." Leah says, it didn't bother me though, plus, might as well take the edge off right now. "It's fine."

"Anyways, Calum never told me about an ex-girlfriend, until you guys blew up the internet." I was slightly taken aback, it's literally none of her business. She seems off right now, or it's probably just her becoming slightly tipsy and me overthinking shit.

"I'm sorry you never told me how you guys met?" I asked, giving her a small smile, although curiousity was starting to eat me up. Who was this girl? Why was she asking me so much questions about Calum? What is she to Calum? but before she could answer my question, I felt a hand on my waist which startled me a bit, thinking it was some stranger being a creep, I quickly turned to the person who turned out to be Calum himself.

"I see you've met Leah." Calum says with a straight face but I knew there was something weirrd going on, by the way he was looking at Leah. "Hey, sorry, I got a little bit preoccupied." by that, he means he got tipsy and that I might just be the designated driver tonight. "Long time no see, Calum." Leah says, taking a sip of her drink while she eyes Calum.

"Yeah, been busy." Calum dryly replies. Before Leah could say anything else, Calum turns to me and says, "Come on, Crystal's looking for you." and drags me away from the bar which lead me to mouthing a "sorry" to Leah who looked oddly surprised.

"What was that?" I asked, once we came to a stop."

"An ex fling or whatever."

"Fling? are you still in high school?" I joked, "I don't know what people call it nowadays but I never made it official with her, in short, we were never serious." Calum shrugs. I know it's none of my business but I'm intrigued to know who he has dated throughout his career. I see Calum on the internet sometimes being pictured with other girls, walking in and out of clubs, attending parties and events, and it kind of did made me feel something back then, as I was still in the process of getting my shit together.

Then, one day, I decided to stop giving two shits and focused more on my carrer having it progress over the years, I just stopped caring, not knowing I'd be meeting Calum again.