Rochester Avenue // Luke Hemmings

Chapter 6 - 'You Can Call Me Bambi Or Something'

The first week of my internship went by pretty quickly. Most days, I was back at the dorm by seven, and I was actually enjoying it. The boys were turning out to all be really cool and I really liked watching them all develop their random riffs and words into songs. By the end of the first week, they had the first song completely recorded and it sounded really good. Nathan and I had talked and he apologized for being irrational over my internship – well, not in those exact words, but close enough.

The weekend came and Kate told me I didn't need to come in and that I could have the weekend off. Saturday morning I had my music group where I didn't actually tell them about my... friendship, I suppose, with the famous band 5 Seconds of Summer. Instead we all just sang some feel good songs together, and I pretended the reason I couldn't come to practices on Monday anymore was because of some boring internship at a publishing place, like the one Nathan wants to do in summer.

In the evening I wore a red dress for my date with Nathan and carefully put on some makeup. Then I pulled on my black heels and waited on my own, since Jess was with Tristan.

After a while of waiting, I checked my phone to see if I had any messages from him, but I didn't. What I did see was that he was now ten minutes late, but I didn't let myself worry.

When he finally showed up, twenty-five minutes late, I pretended like I wasn't pissed at him.

"I'm so, so sorry I'm late, babe," he said, quickly kissing me, taking my hand and pulling me out of my dorm. "Allen wanted to see me about that project. Turns out I kicked ass, even though I wrote a load of bullshit. Looks like I'm all set for that internship this summer."

I smiled a close-mouthed smile at him, not saying anything.

He took me to a restaurant off campus and I had to admit, it was pretty nice. We sat down and began looking through the menu.

"How was your day? Didn't you have your music group this morning?" Nathan asked me, flashing me a grin. I searched for any mocking tones in his voice when he talked about my music group, but surprisingly couldn't find any.

"Yeah, it was good. We actually sang one of your favorite songs, 'Don't Stop Believing'," I told him.

"Really? Maybe I should come and watch one day," he said casually, but I shook my head.

"No, no, you don't have to do that."

"Why not? I've never actually heard you sing properly, and I want to," Nathan pointed out.

"I'm really not that good," I insisted.

"I bet you are. Seriously, I want to hear you sing someday."

I couldn't help but smile. "Maybe, maybe not." One of the waitresses appeared at our table and we quickly ordered our food. "What about you? Still doing that soccer club?"

"Yeah, just for fun though. It's kind of a stress relief thing," he admits.

"Fair enough."

The dinner turned out to be fun and enjoyable. Nathan seemed so much more relaxed than usual and it made me remember why I liked him so much. We talked about random things and we shared jokes, and when we returned back to campus and he walked me back to my door, when I said goodnight with no intentions of inviting him in – I was tired but also Jess was there anyway – he merely kissed me and told me he'd see me tomorrow.

"You look happy," she observed when I shut the door behind me and went to take off my makeup. "Good date, then?"

"Yeah. He's back in the good books." Once I'd removed all my makeup I changed into an oversized t-shirt and crawled into bed, mumbling a 'goodnight' to Jess before falling asleep.