Football Buddies

Chapter 23 •Opening Act•

"Oh shit." I say as I look at 5 familiar faces.
"What? Do you already know them?" Adam asks. I just nod my head, as the pair of blue eyes won't make eye contact with me. As for Rachel, she's too scared to even say hi. Because the last time we talked is when I confronted her about the whole Luke situation. So the air is very thick between us. And all of us can tell too.
"Well then I'll let you guys catch up." Adam says before walking out the door. Leaving me alone in the room filled with the 5 people I didn't want to see right now.
"So uh, when did you get here?" Ashton asks rubbing the back of his head.
"About an hour ago." I say and he nods his head.
"Well we all missed you. And it looks like you're on tour with us anyway." Ashton says smiling.
"Yeah, I miss you guys too." I say smiling. Which I mean isn't a lie. I did miss them.
"Hey Rena." Rachel says, finally getting the courage to say something to me.
"Hi." I say shooting her a quick smile. Everything goes silent again, before Luke's phone starts ringing out of nowhere.
"Ugh." He groans as he picks up the phone. "What do you want now Ashley?" He says irritated. Ashely. Her names Ashley. Luke leaves the room and Calum clears his throat to clear the tension building between all of us.
"Listen Rena, we're sorry we didn't tell you about Luke and, Ashley. We only hid it from you to protect you, but it only hurt worse, and for that we are so sorry." Michael says and I give them all a weak smile.
"It's fine guys. I'm just trying to cope with all of this. And I didn't think your band would be the band I'm opening for. But I'm not mad at you guys. I'm just trying to deal with all of this." I say giving them a smile. They all nod and sigh.
"We gave him so much shit for dating her. She's nothing like you, and she's exactly like Rebecca." Calum says and I shiver.
"I guess I'm not his type." I say shrugging and letting out a dry laugh.
A/n okay so this is a random authors note but I just wanted to say that considering that Rena isn't actually a real singer (duh) I have no songs for her. So I'm going to use Halsey's songs because she's bae AF (again duh) so Halsey's songs are Rena's songs in the book. Okay baiiii

About 10 minutes after Luke left the room to talk to Ashley, he comes back in. Once he does his eyes fall directly on me right away.
"So uh Rena, what songs are you singing tomorrow night?" Ashton asks to make as little tension as possible.
"I've written a lot of songs over the years, so I'll run them by Adam, and see if they'll work." I say and everyone's eyes widen.
"You write?" Michael asks, raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah. I do a lot." I say laughing a little.
"Shit I didn't even know that!" Rachel says and all of us laugh. Luke just sits back down in the same place he was in before I came in.
"What's one of them called?" Calum asks.
"One of my personal favorites is Gasoline. I hope you guys will be able to hear it." I say and everyone nods their heads.
"Can't wait." Calum says flashing me his million dollar smile.
"I'm super nervous for tomorrow though. This will be the first time- in a long time that I've preformed in front of a large number of people. What if I mess up?" I ask.
"Don't worry Rena. Ever since we were little you've wanted to do this, and now you'll be able to." Rachel says smiling.
"Thanks Rachel. It's just so crazy how all of this happened so fast. If Adam hadn't of emailed me, I'd be going to college in the United States, learning how to be a lawyer." I say laughing a little.
"Whoa little miss wanna be lawyer over here." Calum jokes.
"Right?" I say laughing too "hey this is just like high school! All of us friends again, well except me and Luke. We can go back to hating each other if you'd like." I say with sass as I wink at Luke. He just awkwardly shifts in his seat and I just smirk. "Hating each other it is." I say right as there's a knock on the door. Moments after the knock Erin opens the door. "Oh hey Erin." I say getting up. "What's up?" I ask.
"It's time to go, Adam needs the band for sound check. At 8:30 tomorrow morning you'll have sound check too." Erin says and I nod.
"Okay. Well, see you guys tomorrow." I say as I turn back to them. Rachel and Calum have huge smirks on their face, and their eyes flicker between me and Erin. I just laugh and shake my head, telling them there's nothing going on. I wave bye one last time before following Erin out the door, and back to the car.
"So how was meeting the band for the first time?" Erin asks as we get in the car.
"It's not the first time we've met." I say and I can see him furrow his eyebrows in the rearview mirror.
"How?" He asks as he pulls out.
"Well for 1, I went to high school with them and the girl has been my best friend for as long as I remember. And 2, me and Luke dated." I say and Erin chokes on air a little. "What's so shocking about that?" I ask laughing a little.
"I just didn't think Hemmings had it in him to score you. I mean you're beautiful." He says and I faintly blush.
"You're supposed to protect me, not flirt with lover boy." I say with a smirk.
"I know," he says laughing. "We're here. This is the hotel you, and the band will be staying in. Well as long as you're in London." He says and I sigh. I can never get away from Luke can I? And to think that I didn't want to be away from him just a month ago.