hitchhiker // c.h (au)

18. I lo- like you a lot

"Calum, jesus fucking christ!" The only words able to come out of the blond guy standing in the doorway before Calum practically jumped in his arms. They both laugh so loudly and excitedly, their arms wrapped so tightly around each other, that Iris is surprised neighbours don't come and complain about the noise.

The nameless blond opens his eyes after minutes of this hugging happening, and Iris waves awkwardly from behind their joined figures. He clears his throat and pushes Calum gently off of him, "Hi, sorry, I'm Luke." He says, his hand stretching out so she can shake it.

"Oh my god, finally a name," Iris sighs before she can help it, and Luke frowns slightly and cocks his head to the side like a confused puppy, "sorry, Cal's just been calling you 'The Breadstick' this entire time we've been driving."

Luke sighs loudly and fixes a glare onto Calum, and Calum smiles sheepishly before shrugging, "sorry, but Iris I told you his name when we were with Michael."

"Yeah I know but I forgot okay, I'm only human. Anyway, I'm Iris." She said grabbing and shaking Luke's hand.

"Nice to meet you Iris," Luke smiles a huge smile at her and then shifts his gaze to Calum and his face softens, "god I've missed you man." (a/n: cake af) And then they were hugging again, the biggest grins painted on both of their faces.

Once the hugging business was over Luke ushered them in and they all sat onto the lounge, and then after gentle probing from Luke (and beverages), Iris and Calum launched into the story of their travels. Luke watched on in excitement, his face lighting up at the mention of Ashton and Michael, as he slouched in his chair and allowed his long body to be stretched out almost gracefully but also awkwardly like a bumbling giraffe (or a breadstick.)

As Calum was telling the story and Iris took a break from gazing almost disgustingly at him, soaking in his beauty and happiness, she looked at Luke and understood the nickname they gave him. With his almost vibrantly blond hair and ridiculously long limbs that at times he didn't have entire control over, he did resemble a breadstick.

"I'm absolutely thrilled to see you, and to meet you Iris, but dude, what's the story with moving here for music?"

"Man I have no fucking idea what I'm doing with my life or what I'm doing here, but I'm moving here because there's a music exec that lives here that said he was interested in my music," Calum said and then grinned at Luke, "but only if I'm in a band, I guess there's no great demand for a solo bass player."

"Oh you don't say." Iris leant forward to smirk at Calum and he smiled back sarcastically.

"Thanks for that Retina."

"Stop being disgusting you two." Luke jested, sticking his tongue out at the both of them, "But Cal, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Yes."

"Seriously?"

"Lucifer, yes."

"Column, you want to get the band back together?"

Iris watched them interact again, their personalities falling back into old patterns of friendly banter and quick witted words flying through the air. She wasn't sure why their band had broken up to begin with, but as she watched them talk and laugh together she wasn't surprised they were drawn back together.

"What do Mikey and Ash say about this?"

"Well..." a look of utter guilt crossed Calum's face in a split second before he grinned sheepishly, "I haven't exactly told them yet."

"Cal!"

"Luke! They're gonna love it, especially Mike..." Calum trails off and wiggles his eyebrows at Luke.