Invisible || Luke Hemmings

eight

-i still enjoy my days away from you. i am independent-

All six friends were cuddled on the small couch in Paisley's apartment; her legs were propped up onto Michael's as she held her notebook in her hands and wrote down a few notes and observations of everything that was going on.

It was her favorite thing to do. She felt as if writing down raw details made a writing so much more personal and just a few extra details made the idea so much better.

Paisley was always the person in the background, listening to everyone who spoke. Most people would say anything in front of her because they didn't think she'd reciprocate it. The only thing was is that she did. Small things that normally weren't huge for other people were details that she kept towards herself and used in the future in other writings.

She had crafted whole characters just from one phrase that she had heard in her school hallways and yet no one caught on.

"Paisley, pay attention to us," Michael whispered, pulling Paisley's notebook out of her hands and setting it down on her coffee table.

"I was paying attention to you guys," Paisley whined, reaching for her notebook again but her pale friend wrapped his arms around her and made sure that she couldn't reach it. Her fingers had barely grazed the leather binding of her notebook before Michael was pulling her away.

He held her tightly and waited until her fingers had stopped their outreach to the leather book.

"I doubt you were. We literally made fun of Valentina and you didn't even notice," Calum commented, pointing to Ashton who had recently stuffed a lot of socks into the back of his boxers. The result was a lump of fabric looking out of place and distorted.

Paisley choked back on a laugh as he saw the boy standing there and holding a salad in his hands as well. They had all shifted so that they were facing the middle of the living room where Ashton was sitting.

"Thanks to this new vegan diet and doing a bunch of squats, my ass has never looked better," the boy said, turning on his heel and showing the mess that he had created.

"Don't you mean pescovegan?" Kara chipped in, knowing that it'd make the others laugh.

There was no such thing as being a pescovegan. There was no way you could call yourself a vegan when you were okay with eating fish and using makeup products tested on animals and wearing animal skin jackets and boots. It just wasn't possible. If anything, the correct term would be pescetarian and Paisley had tried to explain that to the clueless girl but she was so damn concerned with being vegan to fit in with the Los Angeles scene.

"I can't believe Luke is dating her. She's so rude and mean to all of use, even him. And she always makes sure to do something to make him mad, thinking a small, meaningless apology would make up for it," Calum said slowly. He always felt bad about talking about others but with Valentina he felt no remorse.

He had seen his best friend cry over her for so many numerous nights and she had him convinced it was love. It didn't help that his other best friend loved him so much and she actually cared and would never hurt him.

"She's also kind of insane," Kara added, "She invited me over and to be nice I said yes and the whole time she just talked about how she wanted a lot of fans to die and how she hated most of them and found them irritating."

"Of course there's a few extra fans that are mean but most of them will be nice if you're nice to them. They love Paisley and I because we actually care as much as they do," Kara continued.

"I feel bad for Luke right now. He's probably getting dragged to the Nice Guy right now to pay for her and Logan's drinks," Calum said and the group snickered.

Paisley sat, listening to her friends and partially agreed with what they were saying. Luke in Los Angeles was Luke in the bar with Valentina. She had him wrapped so tightly around her finger that it was impossible for him to get time for himself.

The small brunette was just excited that for the next part of tour, Valentina wouldn't be tagging along and she wouldn't have to fake being nice to her. Being a writer was nice; Paisley could travel the world with her friends and write while doing so. She had finished two books on the tour and was able to spend time with her friends and learn about so many new cultures that helped influence her writing.

Of course, she'd never leech off of them and she left when she had to do work in town. It always worked because with her profits from her books she could afford to go on tour with them.

The boys knew she wrote but they didn't know how serious it was. Or that she also had two published stories and was working on her third.

"All she does is promote tea on Instagram. I can't believe that she thinks that she's doing something with her life. I'd honestly get so bored and hate myself if that was the only thing I had to show for myself," Ashton said, tugging on the roots of his hair as he thought about all the things he had seen his blond friend buy his girlfriend.

"Guys, maybe we shouldn't be talking about her so negatively just because her and Luke aren't around," Paisley said softly, although she was mentally praising all her friends.

They were always so on edge when she was around and they could never enjoy themselves. Days like these, where it was just the six of them, were the best. They didn't have to be cautious of what they said in front of Luke.

It was casual and it was sad because they missed their old best friend.

All of the five looked over at the small brunette, in shock of what she had said. First came Ashton's laughter and soon the others joined in. If anything, Paisley hated Valentina more than any of the others.

"What? I was being serious," Paisley said, a pour forming on her face as she drew out more laughs.

Her friends kept laughing at what she said and she couldn't help but join in. She could barely say what she has wanted to with a straight face.

The small girl had needed this. After dealing with so many emotions for so long, it was nice to finally truly relax with her best friends in a long time.

***

I'm like falling asleep updating this but I finally was able to and I probably won't be able to again until later in October. I'm so busy and will be until November so I'm basically on a hiatus so PLEASE stop asking for updates. It makes updating so much more stressful and it makes me feel as if what I write isn't good enough.

I hope you guys understand but that's just how I feel. I'm dealing with so much and writing is fun for me. When I'm constantly asked for updates, I feel like it's a job and no longer for fun. I'm sorry if this sounds rude but yeah

-El