daddy's girl ❥ luke hemmings ✔️

31. "smile for the picture"

LUKE

Red carpet events aren't as fun as they seem when you're on the other side of the camera.

People ask questions, people you've never met before, and you can never quite prepare yourself an answer beforehand because you never know what they're going to say.

You'd think that, after all these years of experience, I'd know what to do by now. You'd think I'm as confident in myself as Sadie is when she's trying to coach me through what to say, who to say it to, why I should say it. The problem is that I find a lot of things hard to remember; red carpet etiquette being one of them.

I can look an interviewer in the eye, but I can't answer them with a clear mind. Everything jumbles up in my head and makes the task even harder for me to do. I'm a wreck even when the guys are there to boost my confidence. And now, now that I'm bringing Holly as my red carpet date instead of my little girl, I'm even more nervous.

Sophie's been stroppy about it ever since I started getting ready in the hotel room. She helped tie my tie, she got my keys and my phone ready, she even made me a cup of black coffee. But she wouldn't look me in the eye. That's how I knew she was mad at me.

"You'll be all tucked up in bed when I get back, won't you?" I asked her. I always asked her that before I left to go somewhere. It was the only way I could be reassured that she'd get as much sleep as she needed without having to constantly check on her every five minutes through the phone.

"Yes." that's the first thing that confused me, that made me frown as I turned around to see Sophie boredly flicking between channels on the TV. At the time, I was more confused as to why she didn't call me Daddy like she normally would. She wasn't even looking at me. Just at the people on the screen.

"Yes?" I raised an eyebrow. I walked over to the mirror mounted on the wall, turning my collar up before looping the ready-made tie around my neck. "We get nominated for a Grammy and the only thing you can say to me is a yes?"

It meant to come out as a joke, wholeheartedly, but Sophie didn't laugh.

She kept her face as straight as ever, unamused, bored, as if she'd rather be anywhere else but the hotel room as a cartoon played on the TV and her hand lowered the remote.

Naturally, my heart fell. I knew she was aware of the fact that I was taking Holly to the awards show- everyone was. Rachel even had to explain to her how Daddy couldn't have her as his date this time round because he had "an actual girlfriend to bring". It's ironically funny because my "actual girlfriend" is her fucking daughter.

Before we started our all-year touring, the band used to always attend red carpet events and award shows. Always. There was rarely ever a boring month spent because there was bound to be a nomination somewhere.

When I was fifteen and we were invited to one of our very first, I brought Sophie along with me. Being only eight with no actual sense of what was going on, she was estatic, not that I minded in the slightest- it was actually kind of cute.

She called me the bestest friend she ever had and told me how much she loved me and how she loved every single second of it. Obviously, this led to her being my 'date' for every other thing the boys and I attended. Again, I didn't mind; it made her happy and it made me happy seeing her so overjoyed.

Some people found it cute. Others, a little weird. The people who dug a little deeper found it absolutely disgusting when she reached the age of fourteen and someone heard her call me Daddy, just before the lights dimmed for the AMAs. Ever since then, I've been trying to keep her on the down low, to avoid any unwanted exposure to the public. It's been working pretty well, seeing as an all-year tour prevents us from staying in one place for too long.