status (luke hemmings)

five

Luke heard everything.

He wasn't trying to be a creepy, obsessive stalker. He wasn't trying to meddle in someone else's business. He wasn't trying to be overly protective of someone he just properly met.

He just happened to be there, in the wrong place, wrong time.

Or was it the right place, right time?

Luke had known how twisted the entertainment world was before he became part of it. He knew that every management company played dirty to get their clients to the top.

But never had he seen someone trying to fight back.

The mere idea was a foreign concept, one Luke had not understood before now. After all, why would you bite the hand that feeds?

In Luke's life, all management did was make sure he had food to eat, a place to stay, and a steady source of income.

But Modest! never meddled in their personal lives. Not much, anyways. Subtle things, like personality changes, styling changes, and occasionally cue cards. But that was it.

Okay, maybe that was a lot. But it wasn't, not compared to what he knew was possible.

Luke chose to believe that messing with their personal lives just wasn't something Modest! would do, but the truth was printed in black-and-white in front of him.

The truth was, 5 Seconds of Summer was a relatively well-behaved band who rarely did anything scandalous. They had tons of parties, yes. But contrary to popular belief, none of them had dated anyone seriously since at least a year ago or had sex with every girl they saw. They didn't do drugs or get out-of-control drunk that often.

The truth was, no matter how hard 5 Seconds of Summer tried to be rebels, ultimately they were as well behaved as dogs on a leash.

Now, however, Luke understood. The reason that Modest! had never directly interfered was because they'd never had reason to.

It was only a matter of time before Modest! really controlled their lives. 5 Seconds of Summer had signed with Modest! a year and a half ago:  a very small portion of Luke's life.

Anna, on the other hand, had been controlled her entire life.

Luke had known this before. He just didn't know the extent.

Instead of feeling disgusted, however, he was more relieved that Anna and Drew weren't back together than anything else.

Anna was a good actress--he'd admit that--but she wasn't that good. Her body language contradicted her speech, making it clear to Luke that she actually hated Drew--possibly even more than Luke did.

And yet it didn't seem like she was going to beat Drew up.

But maybe Luke would. Maybe.

Luke was never one to get involved in drama, especially in other people's. But this time he couldn't help himself.

He had to know more.

"Yo, dude. Guess who's phone number I just got." Luke felt someone's bony finger jab into his backside, but he was so distracted he didn't even care.

"Who's?" Luke replied to Michael distractedly. He was too busy studying Drew:  his overconfident smirk, large muscles, tall stature.

Yep, Luke could definitely beat him up. (Not really. Luke read somewhere that Drew could bench-press 300 pounds. He didn't know if it was true or not, but he wasn't exactly dying to find out.)